A vaginal temperature registration system.

A radiotelemetric method for measurements of vaginal temperature in the home milieu is presented. Registrations from two subjects show that vaginal temperatures vary up to and about 1 degree C nighttime. Initially, on going to bed, vaginal temperature drops. A further distinct drop occurs with any kind of experienced sexual arousal, reaching a minimum when and if orgasm is achieved. At rest, vaginal temperature varies rather regularly and in concurrence with rectal temperature throughout the night. The initial temperature drop may be caused by decrease in blood flow, whether determined by metabolic or by postural factors. Temperature variations of the resting vagina may be concomitant with other circadian temperature rhythmic variations, while the temperature decrease during sexual arousal may be caused by vaginal wall edema and/or possibly by change of position of the uterus. The main point of the investigation is methodological: it is felt that the method can provide clinicians and researchers with a tool by which important vaginal physiologic events can be measured under somewhat more optimalized circumstances than those offered by the laboratory milieu.