Cindy Meston is a Canadian-American clinical psychologist well-known for her research [1] on the psychophysiology of female sexual arousal. She is a Full Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin, Director of the Female Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory, [2] and author of Why Women Have Sex [3] (with co-author Dr. David M. Buss). In 2016, the BBC, London, England named Meston one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women in the world. [4]
Meston was born in Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. [5] Prior to becoming a noted sex researcher, Meston lived in Vancouver, B.C. where she worked in fashion design and then as the Western Canadian Sewing Specialist for White/Elna Sewing Machine Company.
Meston received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1995. She completed most of her postgraduate training at the University of Washington Medical Center in the departments of Sexual and Reproductive Medicine, Psychiatry, and Urology. [5] From 1996-1998 she received a Fellowship from the Ford Foundation in New York to study the effects of early childhood sexual abuse on adult sexual function. In 1998, she accepted a position as Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Austin and was promoted to Full Professor of Clinical Psychology in 2007. [6]
Meston has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and given over 300 conference presentations on women’s sexuality. [5] [7] Her book, Why Women Have Sex (co-authored with Dr. David Buss) has been translated into nine languages and has received extensive media coverage. [3] [8] [9] Articles on her research and book have appeared in over 300 newspapers (e.g., Science Times, New York Times ), magazines (e.g., NewYorker , Cosmopolitan , Harper’s Bazaar , Elle , Glamour ), and online publications. [6] She has made several television appearances (e.g., The Rachel Ray Show , The Dr. Phil Show , ABC (20/20), NBC National News) and conducted over 50 national radio interviews (e.g., NPR) and podcasts. [6] Meston is also a co-author (with Irwin Goldstein, Susan Davis, and Abulmaged Traish) of the book Women’s Sexual Function and Dysfunction, [10] which was published in 2006.
She is a past president of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health [11] and an elected member of the International Academy of Sex Research, [12] the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, [13] and the Association for Psychological Science. [14]
In 2005, Meston was selected as Chair of the orgasm committee for the World Health Organization. [15] The express goal of the committee was to develop an operational definition of female orgasm. The definition developed by Meston and colleagues is still in active use by the W.H.O. Meston has served as a consultant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and to numerous pharmaceutical companies who are developing drugs to enhance women’s sexual function.
Awards for Meston’s research include a fellowship from The Ford Foundation , an International Research Award from the Athena Institute for Women’s Wellness, a Distinguished Professor Award from the Canadian Research Foundation, the Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellowship, the Wulf H. Utian Endowed Lecturer Award from the North American Menopause Society, and the Career Service Award from the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health. She has won ten awards for best peer-reviewed manuscript by international academic societies. [5]
Female Sexual Arousal and the Sympathetic Nervous System: Historically, clinicians, researchers, and theorists believed the early stages of arousal in women were facilitated by the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) and inhibited by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). While this relationship had never been tested empirically in women, it was assumed to be true based on analogous research on the erectile response in men. Meston was the first researcher to directly examine the role of the SNS in the female sexual response, conducting a series of experiments on humans and animals and finding that, contrary to popular thought, SNS activation does not simply impair sexual arousal in women. [16] [17] [18] [19] Rather, Meston’s research suggests that optimal SNS activation seems to be necessary for the development of female physiological sexual arousal. Meston has conducted numerous follow-up studies examining how these results vary in women with autonomic impairments as a function of anxiety, [20] post-traumatic stress disorder, [19] and antidepressant usage. [21] Most recently, Meston has explored the overall balance between the SNS and PNS (i.e., heart rate variability) as an important marker and treatment target for female sexual function. [22]
Sexual Motivation: Few researchers have historically examined sexual motives in women, assuming such motives were likely self-explanatory: for pleasure, for procreation, for love. Together with evolutionary psychologist David Buss, Meston questioned the simplicity of these assumptions and conducted a large-scale study of sexual motives, finding that women actually report 237 distinct reasons for having sex that range from experience-seeking to mate-guarding. [23] Meston has also conducted a series of follow-up studies finding that such motives vary based on sexual satisfaction levels [24] and age. [25]
Childhood Sexual Abuse: Among the long-term symptoms found to exist decades following childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is a broad spectrum of sexual difficulties in adulthood. Meston has conducted a series of studies seeking to understand the mechanisms by which those sexual difficulties develop, including the degree to which the CSA is integrated into the individual’s sexual self-schema and the degree to which the individual identifies as being a victim of sexual abuse. [26] [27] Based on these cognitive mechanisms, Meston developed an expressive writing intervention for sexual trauma that has been found to be efficacious in reducing sexual difficulties following CSA. [28]
Psychometric Development: Meston has developed a number of questionnaires and psychometric tools to measure constructs in sexuality ranging from sexual function to sexual satisfaction. She co-authored the Female Sexual Function Index, [29] which is the most widely used psychometric measure of female sexual function. She also authored the Sexual Satisfaction Scale for Women, [30] the Why Have Sex Questionnaire, [23] and the Cues for Sexual Desire Scale. [31]
Erectile dysfunction (ED), also referred to as impotence, is a form of sexual dysfunction in males characterized by the persistent or recurring inability to achieve or maintain a penile erection with sufficient rigidity and duration for satisfactory sexual activity. It is the most common sexual problem in males and can cause psychological distress due to its impact on self-image and sexual relationships.
In psychology, libido is psychic drive or energy, usually conceived as sexual in nature, but sometimes conceived as including other forms of desire. The term libido was originally used by the neurologist and pioneering psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud who began by employing it simply to denote sexual desire. Over time it came to signify the psychic energy of the sexual drive, and became a vital concept in psychoanalytic theory. Freud's later conception was broadened to include the fundamental energy of all expressions of love, pleasure, and self-preservation.
Sexual fetishism or erotic fetishism is a sexual fixation on a nonliving object or body part. The object of interest is called the fetish; the person who has a fetish for that object is a fetishist. A sexual fetish may be regarded as a non-pathological aid to sexual excitement, or as a mental disorder if it causes significant psychosocial distress for the person or has detrimental effects on important areas of their life. Sexual arousal from a particular body part can be further classified as partialism.
Sexual desire is an emotion and motivational state characterized by an interest in sexual objects or activities, or by a drive to seek out sexual objects or to engage in sexual activities. It is an aspect of sexuality, which varies significantly from one person to another and also fluctuates depending on circumstances.
Anorgasmia is a type of sexual dysfunction in which a person cannot achieve orgasm despite adequate sexual stimulation. Anorgasmia is far more common in females than in males and is especially rare in younger men. The problem is greater in women who are post-menopausal. In males, it is most closely associated with delayed ejaculation. Anorgasmia can often cause sexual frustration.
Sexual stimulation, in everyday usage, is anything that leads to, enhances and maintains sexual arousal, and may lead to orgasm. The thing that causes a sexual response is referred to in sexology and physiology as a stimulus, hence the term stimulation.
Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), originally called persistent sexual arousal syndrome (PSAS), is spontaneous, persistent, unwanted and uncontrollable genital arousal in the absence of sexual stimulation or sexual desire, and is typically not relieved by orgasm. Instead, multiple orgasms over hours or days may be required for relief.
Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), hyposexuality or inhibited sexual desire (ISD) is sometimes considered a sexual dysfunction, and is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity, as judged by a clinician. For this to be regarded as a disorder, it must cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulties and not be better accounted for by another mental disorder, a drug, or some other medical condition. A person with ISD will not start, or respond to their partner's desire for, sexual activity. HSDD affects approximately 10% of all pre-menopausal women in the United States, or about 6 million women.
Sexual dysfunction is difficulty experienced by an individual or partners during any stage of normal sexual activity, including physical pleasure, desire, preference, arousal, or orgasm. The World Health Organization defines sexual dysfunction as a "person's inability to participate in a sexual relationship as they would wish". This definition is broad and is subject to many interpretations. A diagnosis of sexual dysfunction under the DSM-5 requires a person to feel extreme distress and interpersonal strain for a minimum of six months. Sexual dysfunction can have a profound impact on an individual's perceived quality of sexual life. The term sexual disorder may not only refer to physical sexual dysfunction, but to paraphilias as well; this is sometimes termed disorder of sexual preference.
Sexual arousal disorder is characterized by a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity in a situation that would normally produce sexual arousal, or the inability to attain or maintain typical responses to sexual arousal. The disorder is found in the DSM-IV. The condition should not be confused with a sexual desire disorder.
Sexual medicine or psychosexual medicine as defined by Masters and Johnsons in their classic Textbook of Sexual Medicine, is "that branch of medicine that focuses on the evaluation and treatment of sexual disorders, which have a high prevalence rate." Examples of disorders treated with sexual medicine are erectile dysfunction, hypogonadism, and prostate cancer. Sexual medicine often uses a multidisciplinary approach involving physicians, mental health professionals, social workers, and sex therapists. Sexual medicine physicians often approach treatment with medicine and surgery, while sex therapists often focus on behavioral treatments.
Female sexual arousal disorder (FSAD) is a disorder characterized by a persistent or recurrent inability to attain sexual arousal or to maintain arousal until the completion of a sexual activity. The diagnosis can also refer to an inadequate lubrication-swelling response normally present during arousal and sexual activity. The condition should be distinguished from a general loss of interest in sexual activity and from other sexual dysfunctions, such as the orgasmic disorder (anorgasmia) and hypoactive sexual desire disorder, which is characterized as a lack or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity for some period of time.
Sex and drugs date back to ancient humans and have been interlocked throughout human history. Both legal and illegal, the consumption of drugs and their effects on the human body encompasses all aspects of sex, including desire, performance, pleasure, conception, gestation, and disease.
A vibrator, sometimes described as a massager, is a sex toy that is used on the body to produce pleasurable sexual stimulation. There are many different shapes and models of vibrators. Most modern vibrators contain an electric-powered device which pulsates or throbs. Vibrators can be used for both solo play and partnered play by one or more people. Devices exist to be used by couples to stimulate the genitals of both partners. They can be applied to erogenous zones, such as the vulva, vagina, penis, scrotum, or anus, for sexual stimulation, for the release of sexual frustration and to achieve orgasm. Vibrators may be recommended by sex therapists for women who have difficulty reaching orgasm through masturbation or intercourse.
Pornography has been defined as any material in varying forms, including texts, video, photos or audio that is consumed for sexual satisfaction and arousal of an individual or partnership. The effects of pornography on individuals or their intimate relationships have been a subject of research.
Clitoral erection is a physiological phenomenon where the clitoris becomes enlarged and firm.
Hypoprolactinemia is a medical condition characterized by a deficiency in the serum levels of the hypothalamic-pituitary hormone prolactin.
Buspirone/testosterone (tentative brand name Lybridos) is a combination of buspirone, a 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, α2-adrenergic receptor antagonist, and D2 autoreceptor antagonist, and testosterone, an androgen or androgen receptor agonist, which is under development by the pharmaceutical company Emotional Brain for the treatment of female sexual dysfunction. Both buspirone and testosterone have individually been found to be effective in the treatment of female sexual dysfunction in clinical studies, and so their combination could be anticipated to be even more effective. As of January 2016, the combination is in phase II clinical trials, with a phase III trial being planned in the United States and Europe.
Marijuana use is commonly thought to enhance sexual pleasure. However, there is limited scientific research on the relationship between marijuana and sex, which is not well understood. The lack of research on the topic is, in part, due to U.S. drug policies centered on prohibition. In addition, the effects are difficult to study because sexual arousal and functioning are in themselves extremely complex and differ among individuals. Moreover, marijuana affects people differently. As a result, it is challenging to study. Men and women report greater sexual pleasure after having consumed marijuana, but there is no direct scientific evidence of the effects on the physiological components of the sexual response cycle when using the drug.
Drugs and sexual desire is about sexual desire being manipulated through drugs from various approaches. Sexual desire is generated under the effects from sex hormones and microcircuits from brain regions. Neurotransmitters play essential roles in stimulating and inhibiting the processes that lead to libido production in both men and women. For instance, a positive stimulation is modulated by dopamine from the medial preoptic area in the hypothalamus and norepinephrine. At the same time, inhibition occurs when prolactin and serotonin are released for action.
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