Excerpts:

Not all women need to experience high levels of arousal throughout the sexual experience or to have desire at the outset in order to have positive sexual experiences and sexual outcomes.

Recognizing differing patterns or more varied sexual response cycles would not only reduce the percentage of women who are  pathologized, but also provide clearer associations of risk factors.

We should also be cautious about overemphasizing [orgasm], as fixation on orgasm may lead to performance anxiety and a lower quality experience.

This information can help alleviate needless comparison and criticism for not conforming to the traditional sexual response pattern.

 The Journal of Sex Research

56:7, 899-912, DOI: 10.1080/00224499.2019.1616278 (2019)
Chelom E. Leavitt, Nathan D. Leonhardt & Dean M. Busby

Research has suggested women’s sexual response cycle may vary more than previously thought. We asked 769 sexually active women between the ages of 18–70 to report on their sexual desire and arousal patterns during their last sexual experience. Using a latent class mixture model from retrospective sexual response data, we found six classes of desire and arousal patterns (Low, Middle Steady, High Fluctuation, Low Fluctuation, Upper Steady, High). We examined how these patterns were related to demographics, outcomes during the sexual experience, and outcomes for the global relationship. The Low sexual response class (8% of women) was significantly different from other classes in duration of the sexual experience, orgasms, and overall satisfaction with the sexual experience. Most sexual response patterns were associated with healthy relational and sexual outcomes. All classes except for the Low arousal and desire class showed associations with a neutral or positive sexual satisfaction evaluation. The non-problematic variation of women’s sexual experience is an important concept to consider as it impacts determinations of dysfunction and women’s self-evaluations. Not all women need to experience high levels of arousal throughout the sexual experience or to have desire at the outset in order to have positive sexual experiences and sexual outcomes.