Nov

2012

4:01pm, EST

Disgust may be clue to rare sexual disorder

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience

Disgust may play a role in a sexual dysfunction that often renders penetration impossible, new research finds, perhaps revealing a psychological component to physical sexual complaints.

Specifically, women with a disorder called vaginismus are more likely than healthy women or women who have other sexual disorders to feel disgust in response to sexual byproducts such as semen. Vaginismus is a condition in which the pelvic muscles involuntarily contract when penetrated; it often prevents penis-in-vagina intercourse entirely. Though the exact number of women affected is unknown, vaginismus is an uncommon condition, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The new results suggest that involuntary disgust could cause this contraction as a defense mechanism, researchers say.

"In this sense, disgust acts as an emotional equivalent to a cold shower," said Mark van Overveld, a postdoctoral researcher at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Objectively, van Overveld told LiveScience, sex is a disgusting activity. The bodily fluids and contact with body parts involved are often considered gross or taboo. "From that perspective," van Overveld said, "it is actually quite surprising that people even manage to engage in the act of sexual intercourse at all."

Disgust itself is a strong emotion, and not one that is easily controlled, as anyone who has ever vomited at the sight of someone else vomiting can attest. But until now, there hasn't been a way to specifically measure sexual disgust, van Overveld said — disgust questionnaires focus on more general questions, like how grossed out you'd be by eating soup that had been stirred by a flyswatter.

The researchers developed a sex-specific questionnaire, focusing largely on questions such as how disgusting it would be to handle someone else's, or one's own, sexual fluids. They first tested the questionnaire on 762 students and university employees to make sure it accurately measured sexual disgust. They found that it did.

Next, the researchers recruited 39 women with lifelong vaginismus, 45 women with dyspareunia, or pain during sexual intercourse, and 28 men with erectile dysfunction and asked them to fill out the questionnaire. [ Top 10 Stigmatized Health Disorders ]

The answers revealed that women with vaginismus were more likely than healthy participants or men and women with other sexual disorders to report disgust for sexually contaminated items. This suggests a role for disgust in either the origin or the continuation of the disorder, van Overveld said.

What's tougher to say is exactly how the emotion plays into the dysfunction. The disgust could come first, triggering the pelvic muscle clampdown. Or perhaps initial sexual problems contribute to disgust with the process, van Overveld said. But disgust is an important defense mechanism, he said, and the pelvic-muscle tightening could be a reflex akin to vomiting.

Previous studies have found that disgust and arousal work in opposition to one another, with sexual arousal dampening disgust. The current study, published online Oct. 22 in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, also found that even in healthy women, more feelings of disgust were linked to fewer feelings of sexual arousal.

The findings shouldn't be taken as blaming women with vaginismus for their condition, van Overveld warned. For one thing, disgust is not easy to control. For another, women with vaginismus have been shown in previous research to have normal sex drives.

However, learning to deal with disgust could potentially help women with vaginismus lessen their condition, van Overveld said. Current experimental therapies have women gradually practice touching their own genitalia, diminishing negative emotions in a controlled way. It's a therapy similar to those used to cure phobias, such as fear of spiders.

"An important next step would be to look at the relationship between disgust and sexual arousal more closely," van Overveld said. "Can sexual intercourse indeed perhaps be interpreted as a delicate balance between disgust on the one hand and a state of sexual arousal on the other? If so, can we help women with lifelong vaginismus to shift this balance?"

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Windancersong-1494878

Prior to the closing decades of the past century, if a woman had any problems sex wise, it was usually blamed on her being frigid or simply mental. Not much thought went into studying both the brain and sexual organ more intensely. Making it difficult to discover and unlock the riddles. But we have discovered so much more than was ever realized about the complex female sexual connection between the mind and body.Resolving so many issues before and finding answers to problems so many women had, that have made a huge difference in countless women's and their partner's lives. It only took people actually listening to women.

For those who have suffered in silence with the disorders, finding answers is critical to making progress. So they may finally find joy, intimacy and bonding in an area most others take for granted. The human body is truly an incredible machine in so many ways. But when it isn't working right, especially in such a delicate, area, it has a huge impact on ones life. I would imagine only someone who has been unable to express their deepest selves, could probably understand this pain. At least, according to this article, there is hope.

4 votes

#1 - Wed Nov 28, 2012 5:48 PM EST

Hank Lucky

Comment collapsed by the community

Nunyabusines

OK? Next time write a thesis professor. did you copy that out of a pysche book?

1 vote

#1.2 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 6:32 PM EST

gridlock-2307416

Smoke some good organic potent weed...

Dim red party lights and soothing lite jazz music....either tickle her or if does not work, a gentle and decisive spanking.

1 vote

#1.3 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:18 PM EST

liam-1161783

Vaginaimus nostrum, et ne nas in ducas intentazione !

#1.4 - Wed Dec 5, 2012 8:35 AM EST

ParkRangerinMichiganDeleted

martha washington

i'm not disgusting- he's disgusting! lol Sex was awesome when i was young, but now it's just gross! Still, we have our fantasies...

2 votes

#2 - Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:10 PM EST

Nunyabusines

WHAT ? So do you hate sex? Or u just hate sex with your partner? Or you fanasize about it with someone else?

1 vote

#2.1 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 6:35 PM EST

Ted, in Boyd TX

Is it his wooden teeth?

4 votes

#2.2 - Wed Dec 5, 2012 5:01 PM EST

Turnabout is Fair Play

Ow! You gave me a splinter she says.. and the disgust with oral sex ramps right up.. :-) j/k.

1 vote

#2.3 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:48 AM EST

DisabledVet68

The article says that sex in itself is disgusting and why do people do it so often? When you're really in love with someone, I can't see how making love can be anything closely associated to disgust. It's wonderful!

However after having my daughter at the age of 30, I am no longer interested in sex for some reason. It just doesn't have the meaning it used to when her father left us, so why bother I guess.

I feel sorry for these women who have healthy sex drives but can't have it because of this so called disgust factor. Quite a quandary!

1 vote

#3 - Thu Nov 29, 2012 11:43 AM EST

Patrick93

disabled, 300 types of bacteria and fungi inside the vagina, sweat, bodily waste secreted through the skin (you wonder why a sweaty person who hasn't showered smells like sh@t? It's because he's coated in a very thin film of sh@t. Not to mention the bacteria that can thrive in the moist, sweaty area directly around a man's genitals. And to finish, men's penises eject more than just semen. It's a cesspool when you think about what goes into sex.

2 votes

#3.1 - Fri Nov 30, 2012 12:48 AM EST

Nunyabusines

Sounds like u have some type Phobia. And if youre sweating out sh@t youve got some issues. Wash up stinky. And scrub your taint.

5 votes

#3.2 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 6:23 PM EST

Turnabout is Fair Play

ROFLMAO!! Oh, my stomach! :-)

#3.3 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:49 AM EST

Mister Fids

- NEWS FLASH - for every CELL that comprises the human body

there are 10 more that are nothing but Bacteria.....

in other words

You are not YOU,

you are more BACTERIA than you are HUMAN.... !!

a fact which might explain why you don't feel LIKE YOURSELF somedays !!

#3.4 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 12:36 PM EST

Mikesfriend

Well if I wasn't disgusted before, I am now.

1 vote

#3.5 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 4:03 PM EST

Rlquall

While there are about ten times as many non-human as there are human cells to us on average, most of the non-human ones are usually tiny microbes and thus the vast percentage of our body mass is our own humanity, thank goodness. (But you are coated with dust mites, sad to say.)

#3.6 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:37 PM EST

ParkRangerinMichiganDeleted

doctor jim59

This must be a genetic mutation because if it weren't these women would all have died out long ago.

1 vote

#4 - Thu Nov 29, 2012 1:32 PM EST

goofyaesop55

I wonder how this applies to the women who are victims of human trafficing and are raped in captivity, especially if they are children.

1 vote

#5 - Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:04 PM EST

Nunyabusines

They probably werent even in the study.

#5.1 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 6:29 PM EST

Rlquall

I doubt that any such women participated. I'm sure some such persons, unsurprisingly, would lose all or almost all future interest in sex once they are/if they are freed, though.

#5.2 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:39 PM EST

Craig Pettersenvia Facebook

1 vote

#6 - Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:51 AM EST

Rlquall

Thanks, Craig, that pretty much said it all!

#6.1 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:40 PM EST

Steve-1101648

Wow, talk about a culturally biased study...wow

#7 - Sat Dec 1, 2012 12:05 AM EST

Nunyabusines

I have never had a disgusting sexuall encounter. Nothin smelled so horrible that i would vomit. Maybe these people have just had disgusting sex partners or just disgusting and foul themselves.

2 votes

#8 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 6:28 PM EST

pbinCA

Teen boys should be taught to wash hands before petting. Hygiene is an important part of keeping your sexual partner healthy. Sex is enjoyable with that special someone you trust and are attracted to, and disgusting with most everyone else. It's good to hear there is help for women who clam up involuntarily...the last thing they need is to be blamed or labeled.

1 vote

#9 - Sun Dec 2, 2012 11:17 PM EST

chatterbug13

And the male version of Vaginismus is called Penisismus, It's when a male is so disgusted at the idea of penetration of some female vagina's, the penis goes into defensive mode & becomes completely flaccid, protecting the penis from penetration and affirmative copulation with a disgusting vagina. Women & unknowledgable men call it erectile dysfunction.

1 vote

#10 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 2:38 PM EST

RoscoePDog

...just too funny!!!.....and oh so true...

2 votes

#10.1 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 4:30 PM EST

pained1

I think it messes w their brains and it ends up in a guy

#10.2 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:02 PM EST

Turnabout is Fair Play

Of course erectile dysfunction can occur with a male if he's turned on as h3ll and when he gets in there, it's like tossing a vienna sausage inside an aircraft hangar.. you knowwhatimean? the flue isn't as tight on the fireplace chimney as it used to be..ya smell me? :-)

1 vote

#10.3 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:52 AM EST

chiluvr1228

How about the man who can get a wonderful erection but then climaxes in 10 seconds and THEN takes a shower immediately afterward? Where are the studies on these type of men and their "feelings of guilt"?

#10.4 - Tue Dec 11, 2012 10:47 AM EST

Murphmeister

So, was that looney Senate candidate from Missouri at least partially correct? If a woman who is raped can summon disgust and revulsion while being raped and for a period of time thereafter, can her disgust prevent conception by preventing penetration? Who'd have thunk it? Only a reseach grant recipient from the National Institute of Health. Your tax dollars at work fellow citizens. And you wonder why we are 16 trillion dollars in debt.

#11 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 8:00 PM EST

gridlock-2307416

Learn about Rape Kits. Tearing of the tissue of the vaginal area shows the stress.

When the doctor injects you with whatever, there is no internal bio-chemical to reject it. The stomach can vomit bad food, a vagina cannot "vomit" sperm from rape.

1 vote

#11.1 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 6:33 PM EST

Rlquall

I think that over 6,000 years of recorded history and the ongoing stories of how empires propagated their "superior" seed by using their troops to inseminate the local populace's daughters, voluntarily and otherwise, pretty much destroyed the Learned Congressman's thesis, at least for any one with any knowledge of history.

With geniuses like that for nominees, it could be a long time before elephants once more triumphantly roam the halls of the jungle that is the Senate nowadays.

#11.2 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 9:45 PM EST

chris-2146964

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQvnZOR_oIk

#12 - Mon Dec 3, 2012 9:26 PM EST

pained1

I recommend protein shakes for the troubled

3 votes

#13 - Tue Dec 4, 2012 5:02 PM EST

gdimatt

Now women will really get turned off. I say lets not disgust this anymore.

1 vote

#14 - Thu Dec 6, 2012 10:13 PM EST

chaz valentine

never met any girl with this affliction thank goodness

1 vote

#15 - Fri Dec 7, 2012 2:09 PM EST

Beer Mug

I've actually cured several, lol.

1 vote

#15.1 - Sun Dec 9, 2012 11:40 PM EST

angelosdaughter

Sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.
Lord Chesterfield

My sentiments exactly. If the brain were engaged and really thought about what the body was doing, it would be disgusted.

#16 - Fri Dec 7, 2012 5:10 PM EST

Feby09

I can't help thinking that a lot of this has to do with how a person was raised. I have a friend who was taught from a very early age that sex was dirty, nasty and wrong. She confides in me that to this day she gets grossed out when her boyfriend of 7 years wants to have sex.

#17 - Sun Dec 9, 2012 11:39 PM EST

rightwingscrewballDeleted