Sexual Functioning negatively correlated with Contraception

INTRODUCTION:

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is a very common disorder, with an estimated prevalence of having at least one sexual dysfunction of about 40%.

AIM:
To investigate the prevalence and types of FSD and the relationship between hormonal contraception (HC) and FSD in female German medical students.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES:
Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) with additional questions on contraception, sexual activity, and other factors that may influence sexual function.

METHODS:
An online questionnaire based on the FSFI was completed by students from six medical schools. Obtained data were screened for inconsistencies by programmed algorithms.

RESULTS:
A total of 1,219 completed questionnaires were received, and 1,086 were included in the analyses after screening. The mean total FSFI score was 28.6 +/- 4.5. 32.4% of women were at risk for FSD according to FSFI definitions. Based on domain scores, 8.7% for were at risk for FSD concerning orgasm, 5.8% for desire, 2.6% for satisfaction, 1.2% for lubrication, 1.1% for pain and 1.0% for arousal. The method of contraception and smoking were factors with significant effect on the total FSFI score whereby hormonal contraception was associated with lower total FSFI scores and lower desire and arousal scores than no contraception and non-hormonal contraception only. Other variables such as stress, pregnancy, smoking, relationship and wish for children had an important impact on sexual function as expected according to earlier studies.

CONCLUSIONS:
The prevalence of students at high risk for FSD was consistent with the literature although domain subscores differed from samples previously described. The contraception method has a significant effect on the sexual functioning score and women using contraception, especially hormonal contraception, had lower sexual functioning scores. Stress and relationship among other variables were found to be associated with sexual function and may thus provide insight into the etiology of sexual disorders.

Source: Wallwiener CW, Wallwiener LM, Seeger H, Mück AO, Bitzer J, Wallwiener M “Prevalence of sexual dysfunction and impact of contraception in female German medical students” J Sex Med. 2010 Jun;7(6):2139-48.

Praying for Mr. Right? Get Religion: Study Says

 

Professors from the University of Texas and Florida State surveyed 1,000 college women in order to identify the link between family background and marital expectations. Their findings parallel what religious people have always experimented, namely:

(A) Surveyed women from two-parent families are much more likely than others to emphasize marriage as an important personal goal, and they also expect to marry sooner. [Mr. Right goes to Church]

(B) Empirical confirmation of a robust association between being in a family structure that is an alternative to the two-parent family and apprehension regarding marriage [So, why to push for the so called ‘Gay Marriage”?]

(C) Religiosity emerges as a potent predictor of both (1) beliefs about the importance of marriage as a goal and (2) expectations about the timing of marriage. [Looking for Mr. Right? Get Religion]

These results suggest that the family values and norms instilled through religion may strengthen commitment to marriage as a personal goal especially among those who have direct experience growing up within a two-parent family—that is, those for whom personal experience and religious values are broadly consistent.

 

Source: Ellison, CG; Burdette, AM; Glenn, ND (2011) Praying for Mr. Right? Religion, Family Background, and Marital Expectations Among College Women Journal of Family Issues July  (32) 7 pp.906-931

The Perfection of Women: Happy Mother’s Day

At QDVF, we like to celebrate mother’s day by talking about motherhood and who better than Bl. John Paul II and his anthropology of women. Hence, we like to offer some excerpts of an excellent article based on Bl. John Paul philosophy by Kathleen Sweeney published by Logos:

In contemporary American society, a problematic phenomenon exists in which women, and even the culture as a whole, ex- press a fear and/or a devaluation of a basic reality of life—woman as mother.

A number of women today fear their “agency, power, prestige, and their very identities are at stake,” if they embrace their motherhood.

Understanding of the nature of motherliness, not only in the direct exercise of the repro- ductive function, but also as a principle radiating into all the fields of life, a principle innate in woman. If it is innate in women, are those women who reject their maternal side missing an essential part of themselves?

Maternal instinct and intuition have received empirical confirmation from research on the brain that reveals the physiological basis for female experience.

An experiment with toys and a plot to see how girls and boys use space. This experiment found that the girls, quite differently from the boys, emphasized inner space, focusing on the interior of a house, placing people and animals within the interior, in a static position that was peaceful, or if intruded upon by animals or dangerous men, accepting this with humor or excitement rather than defensively…this as an external expression of the “profound difference existing between the sexes in the experience of the ground plan of the human body.”

Many feminists today have rejected the idea that the ma- ternal is an essential part of being a woman. Fighting for recogni- tion of women’s place and status in the workplace, they have con- vinced many women that for the sake of careers they must delegate child care to others. (Notably, the “others” are predominantly other women.)

If the capacity for motherhood is part of the physiological reality of a woman that is organically connected to the psychological and spiritual aspects of her personal subjectivity, then the failure to integrate maternal instincts within the totality of a woman’s life would show signs of a certain disintegration of her personality.

Pope John Paul II recognized the challenge of the integration of the woman in motherhood, of both the physical and spiritual realities. He appealed to science to make its contribution to an understanding of the psychophysical structure of women as disposed to motherhood, but also rejected a purely materialistic or deterministic view.

Because of her innate qualities of motherliness, woman makes a particular contribution to the civilization of love of which the Pope frequently spoke. This is the “genius of women.”