Performance demand and sexual arousal in women.

Up to now, no experimental studies have inquired into the possible role of performance demand in female sexuality. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of performance demand on sexual arousal in functional women, using explicit instructions. Forty-eight female subjects were asked to respond with maximum sexual arousal within 2 min, both during sexual fantasy and while watching an erotic film excerpt. Photoplethysmographic pulse amplitude was continuously recorded and self-report ratings of sexual arousal and affective reactions were collected after each erotic condition. Subjects were also instructed to continuously indicate their subjective sexual excitement during the conditions by means of a lever. Performance demand resulted in higher genital responses and was most effective in the fantasy condition. These results corroborate the findings for functional men. Although for both measures of subjective experience of sexual arousal performance demand yielded significantly higher ratings, this was conditioned by the order in which subjects were exposed to conditions. Women who masturbate with a mean frequency of 4 times a month reported higher subjective sexual arousal during performance demand conditions as compared with women who masturbate substantially more or who do not masturbate. Genital vasocogestion did not differ between masturbation-groups. Continuous subjective monitoring yielded lower correlations with vasocongestion than discrete ratings of sexual arousal and appears to be more sensitive to order effects.