Women's Cortisol Stress Responsivity, Sexual Arousability, and Sexual History

Inflammation predicts sexual arousability in healthy women

Background

Though many women report sexual arousal difficulties, the mechanisms driving these difficulties are unclear. Sexual response relies on a host of psychophysiological processes that have bidirectional relationships with inflammation. Additionally, chronic inflammation may impair genital blood flow, which in turn may impact sexual arousal. C-reactive protein (CRP) is an acute-phase marker of inflammation produced in response to cytokine signaling throughout the body, which makes it a useful marker of systemic inflammation.

Aim

The present study examined interactions between inflammation and women's sexual arousal.

Methods

CRP, self-reported frequency of partnered sexual activity, and subjective and vaginal arousal were assessed in 91 healthy, pre-menopausal women. Data were collected during a single laboratory session.

Main outcome measures

Subjective sexual arousal and vaginal pulse amplitude (a measure of vaginal arousal) were the main outcome measures.

Results

Change in subjective sexual arousal in response to a sexual film was unaffected by baseline CRP and sexual frequency. However, there were significant interactions between inflammation and sexual frequency in predicting vaginal arousal during the sexual film. Among women reporting more frequent sexual activity, higher CRP predicted lower magnitude arousal response and longer time to maximum vaginal arousal. Among women reporting less frequent sex, higher CRP predicted shorter time to maximum arousal and greater magnitude of arousal response. Controlling for cortisol strengthened the effects seen for time to maximum vaginal arousal but weakened those observed for percent change.

Conclusions

Among healthy young women, higher CRP may be associated with vaginal arousal, but not subjective sexual arousal. Specifically, our results suggest that higher baseline CRP is associated with lower genital sexual arousal for women who have sex frequently, which is consistent with clinical evidence that elevated inflammation can be detrimental to sexual function.

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Among healthy young women, higher CRP may be associated with vaginal sexual arousal, but not subjective sexual arousal.

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Frequency of sexual activity interacts with CRP levels to contribute to vaginal arousal in healthy women.

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Higher CRP predicted lower genital sexual arousal in women who engage in sexual activity more than once a week.

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However, higher CRP predicted greater genital sexual arousal in women who engage in sexual activity less than once a week.

Concentrations of Salivary Cortisol in Victims of Intimate Partner Violence According to the CIRCORT Database

This work analyzes the different levels of salivary cortisol in women from the southwest of Spain that were victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) with respect to a control group, assessing for the first time the different concentrations obtained in relation to a worldwide reference standard provided by the CIRCORT meta-global cortisol database. The clinical sample (N = 24) and the control group (N = 25) had an average of 39.12 years (SD = 12.31) and 39.52 years (SD = 11.74), respectively. Cortisol awakening response (CAR) was determined by defining the area under the curve (AUCi). There were no differences between the CAR data of the two populations F (1, 141) = 1.690, p = 0.196, but there was a highly significant difference in the three sampling days, where the clinical sample exceeded the cortisol levels of the CIRCORT database in the evening as compared to the control group (p = 0.004, p = 0.001 and p = 0.000). Salivary cortisol concentration samples taken in the evening were significantly higher than those standardized in the CIRCORT database, from the women victims of IPV as compared to the control group, showing its usefulness as an effective supportive tool for problems such as those triggered by IPV.

Behavioral and physiological stress responses: Within-person concordance during pregnancy

During pregnancy, a woman's emotions can have longstanding implications for both her own and her child's health. Within-person emotional concordance refers to the simultaneous measurement of emotional responses across multiple levels of analysis. This method may provide insight into how pregnant women experience emotions in response to stress. We enrolled 162 pregnant women and assessed concordance through autonomic physiology (electrodermal activity [EDA], respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]), and coded behavior (Prosocial, Flight, Displacement) during the Trier Social Stress Test-Speech. We used multilevel models to examine behavioral-physiological concordance and whether self-reported emotion dysregulation moderated these effects. Participants exhibited EDA-Prosocial concordance, suggesting that prosocial behavior may be a marker of stress. Emotion dysregulation did not moderate concordance. These findings provide novel information about behavioral coping to stress in pregnancy. Given the importance of observed behavior in the maintenance and treatment of psychopathology, these findings may provide a launchpad for future perinatal intervention research.