Sexual behavior in lesbian and heterosexual women: relations with menstrual cycle phase and partner availability

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Abstract

Using a prospective design over three complete menstrual cycles, 147 heterosexual and 89 lesbian women made daily recordings of their basal body temperature (BBT), cervical mucus status, menses, and completed a daily checklist of various sexual behaviors (including sexual self-stimulation and sexual activity with a partner). They also gave their age, height, weight, age at menarche, number of pregnancies, duration of sleep, tobacco, caffeine, and alcohol use, and whether they had a live-in sexual partner. Using BBT, cervical mucus status, and menses information, cycle days were grouped into five discrete phases: menses, follicular, ovulatory, early luteal, and premenstrual. Daily frequencies of sexual behavior with a partner and autosexual behavior were computed for each phase. Mixed ANOVAs on the resultant proportional data revealed similar patterns for autosexual behavior across the phases for both heterosexuals and lesbians who did not have a live-in partner, in which autosexual behavior was highest during the follicular and ovulatory phases. For those with live-in partners, autosexual behavior did not vary across the phases. Lesbians engaged in more autosexual behavior overall. Allosexual behavior peaked during the follicular phase for both heterosexuals and lesbians, and the phasic pattern was unrelated to live-in partner status. Additional analyses suggest that the observed patterns were unrelated to anticipated changes in sexual activity due to menses. Results are discussed in terms of social variables and hormonal fluctuations associated with the menstrual cycle.

Introduction

Unlike many female mammals, human females do not confine their sexual activity to the period around ovulation. Women have been described as “continuously sexually receptive” (Lovejoy, 1981) or as “lacking estrus” (Small, 1995), descriptions implying that sexual behavior is decoupled from the hormonal changes of the menstrual cycle. On the other hand, many researchers have reported significant phase-related peaks in sexual activity, desire, or arousability in human females. Unfortunately, the phase of peak sexuality varies across many of these studies. Further, some studies find no peaks. In short, results are conflicting and no conclusive patterns have emerged (see Hill, 1988, Regan, 1996, Pawlowski, 1999 for extensive reviews of this literature).

This lack of consensus may be due to methodological difficulties, such as small sample sizes, retrospective reporting, and differences in the determination of menstrual cycle phase. Another possibility is that conceptually imprecise or overlapping dependent variables may be obscuring patterns that actually exist. For example, some early studies make little or no distinction between proceptive and receptive female sexuality. If the goal is to determine whether and to what extent women's menstrual cycles affect their sexual feelings and behaviors, it is important to include measures of sexual interest that are not confounded by partner interactions. The most straightforward is the frequency of autosexual behavior. A number of the studies reviewed in Hill (1988) and Regan (1996), and Pawlowski (1999) measured autosexual behavior in heterosexual women, but as with other studies of phase-related sexuality, the results are conflicting.

Because sexuality is a complex social behavior, it is probable that differences in the amount or pattern of sexual behavior are influenced by a number of social factors. An example is the availability of a partner. A woman who lives with her sexual partner may be more apt to respond proceptively to hormone-based changes in her own level of desire because there are fewer barriers to initiating sexual expression with a partner. On the other hand, a live-in partner is likely to experience his or her own fluctuating level of sexual interest and willingness to initiate sex. A further complication is the possibility that a woman's hormonal cycles may influence not only her interest in sex, but also her attractiveness to her partner. Thus, the interaction between partners may conceivably obscure or enhance putative hormone-driven patterns in sexual behavior. Indeed, even autosexual behavior may be affected by the presence of a partner, although to our knowledge this has not been tested.

Relative to heterosexual women, far fewer studies of phase-related lesbian sexuality are available. As far as we have been able to determine, Matteo and Rissman (1984) provide the only existing data on lesbian sexual behavior in relation to phases of the menstrual cycle. Their study of 13 lesbian women demonstrated a peak in orgasm, self-initiated sexual encounters, and total sexual encounters at the midpoint of the menstrual cycle. They also found no evidence for the decline in number of sexual encounters during menses or for the possibly related premenstrual and postmenstrual peaks in sexual activity that have been reported in heterosexual couples (Ford and Beach, 1951, Gold and Adams, 1981).

In the current study, we explored the level and pattern of sexual behavior for both women who lived with their sexual partners and those who did not. We wished to add to the available literature on lesbian sexuality and to explore whether some of the same factors reported to influence heterosexual behavior also operate for lesbian women. Eighty-nine lesbian and 139 heterosexual women recorded their sexual activity, menses, basal body temperature (BBT), and cervical mucus, along with a number of other variables, on a daily basis for three complete menstrual cycles. We were particularly interested in autosexual behavior, believing that this type of sexual activity may more closely reflect a woman's sexual interest independent of that of her partner or of phase-related changes in attractiveness or receptiveness to partner advances. We also monitored sexual stimulation by a partner. These daily data were examined for evidence of patterns of sexual activity that may reflect underlying hormonal changes associated with menstrual cycling.

Section snippets

Participants

Prospective participants were informed of the project through announcements that appeared in women's publications, women's health centers, campus women's centers, gay and lesbian publications, and bookstores that specialized in women's issues. A brief description of the study and of the $50 payment was presented, and eligible women who were interested in taking part were invited to contact us. To be eligible for participation, a woman could not 1) be taking oral contraceptives or have an IUD;

Preliminary analyses

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square tests were used to evaluate potential differences between the heterosexual and lesbian women in demographic and lifestyle characteristics as measured on the Initial Questionnaire. The results are shown in Table 1. The participants did not differ in education, average income, age, height, age at menarche, years past menarche, proportion of smokers or caffeine users, estimated number of cigarettes smoked per day, or usual hours of sleep per night.

Discussion

In the current study, a large sample of women provided detailed daily information about their sexual behavior, menses, BBT, and cervical mucus throughout three menstrual cycles. To our knowledge, ours is the first study of this kind to monitor both lesbian and heterosexual women and to compare the amount and pattern of sexual behavior between women who live with their sexual partners and those who do not. Because we collected BBT and cervical mucus data, we were able to define menstrual cycle

Conclusions

The present study overcomes many of the methodological problems that may have led to conflicting findings in the research literature on the relationship between hormonal changes in the menstrual cycle and sexual behavior in human females. Employing a large sample, prospective design, with reliable and well-defined determination of the menstrual cycle phases, and distinguishing between proceptive and receptive female sexuality, we find clear fluctuations in sexual behavior associated with cycle

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by grants from the College of Arts and Sciences of New Mexico State University and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8919532).

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