General sexual desire, but not desire for uncommitted sexual relationships, tracks changes in women’s hormonal status
Introduction
Links between within-subject changes in steroid hormone levels and sexual desire in circum-menopausal and post-menopausal women have been extensively studied (reviewed in Cappelletti and Wallen, 2016 and Motta-Mena and Puts, 2017). While it is well established that sexual desire varies across the menstrual cycle in young adult women (reviewed in Motta-Mena and Puts, 2017 and Roney and Simmons, 2013), surprisingly little is known about the specific hormonal correlates of within-subject changes in young adult women’s sexual desire (Grebe et al., 2016; Motta-Mena and Puts, 2017; Roney and Simmons, 2013, Roney and Simmons, 2016; Wallen, 2013).
To directly address this issue, Roney and Simmons (2013) used a longitudinal design to investigate possible relationships between salivary estradiol, progesterone, and testosterone and self-ratings of general sexual desire in a sample of 43 women. Their analyses suggested a positive effect of estradiol, a negative effect of progesterone, and no effect of testosterone on general sexual desire.
Grebe et al. (2016) reported similar analyses for a sample of 33 women in romantic relationships. By contrast with Roney and Simmons (2013) results, Grebe et al. (2016) reported a negative effect of estradiol and no effects of progesterone or testosterone on general sexual desire. Note that the effects of estradiol in Grebe et al. (2016) and Roney and Simmons (2013) were in opposite directions.
Grebe et al. (2016) suggested that these strikingly different results could occur if hormones have different effects on women’s general sexual desire and their desire for uncommitted sexual relationships. Consistent with this explanation, they reported that estradiol had a positive effect and progesterone had a negative effect on the extent to which women in romantic relationships reported greater desire for extra-pair sex (i.e., sex with men other than their romantic partner) over in-pair sex (i.e., sex with their romantic partner). However, Roney and Simmons (2016) did not replicate Grebe et al’s (2016) results in a sample of 14 women in romantic relationships. Instead, they found that progesterone had negative effects on both extra-pair and in-pair sexual desire, suggesting that progesterone simply has a negative effect on general sexual desire.
In summary, despite several recent studies on the topic, the relationships between changes in women’s hormonal status and changes in their general sexual desire and desire for uncommitted sexual relationships remain unclear. One potentially important limitation of previous studies is that they tested only small samples of women (N = 33, each woman tested twice, Grebe et al., 2016; N = 43, each woman tested > 14 times, Roney and Simmons, 2013; N = 14, each woman tested > 14 times, Roney and Simmons, 2016). In light of this issue, here we report results from a much larger longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s general sexual desire and their desire for uncommitted sexual relationships (N = 375).
Section snippets
Participants
We tested 375 heterosexual women (mean age = 21.56 years, SD = 3.31 years) who reported that they were not using any form of hormonal contraceptive (i.e., reported having natural menstrual cycles). Participants completed up to three blocks of test sessions. Each of the three blocks of test sessions consisted of five weekly test sessions. Women participated as part of a large study of possible effects of steroid hormones on women’s behavior (Jones et al., 2017a). The data analyzed here are all
Results
Scores for each questionnaire or subscale were analyzed separately. For each dependent variable (i.e., questionnaire or subscale score) we ran three models. The first model (Model 1) included estradiol, progesterone, and their interaction as predictors. The second model (Model 2) included estradiol, progesterone, and estradiol-to-progesterone ratio as predictors. We tested for combined effects of estradiol and progesterone by including the estradiol by progesterone interaction (Model 1) and
Discussion
The current study was a large (N = 375) longitudinal study of hormonal correlates of women's general sexual desire and desire for uncommitted sexual relationships. Analyses of measures of women’s general sexual desire showed that progesterone had significant negative effects on total scores on the Sexual Desire Inventory (SDI-2), scores on the dyadic desire subscale of the SDI-2, and reported current sex drive. These results are consistent with Roney and Simmons, 2016, Roney and Simmons, 2013,
Conflict of interest
We have no conflict of interest to declare.
Contributions
BCJ, LMD, ACH, and CIF designed the study. ACH, CIF, HW, and MK collected data. BCJ, LMD, ACH, HW, and MK analyzed data. BCJ and LMD drafted mansuscript. All authors revised and approved the manuscript.
Acknowledgments
We thank Jim Roney, Ruben Arslan, Julia Junegner, and Aaron Lukaszewski for comments.
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