Vagina (52 page)

13
. Kevin Nelson, M.D.,
The Spiritual Doorway in the Brain: A Neurologist’s Search for the God Experience
(New York: Penguin, 2012), 242–43.

14
. R. W. B. Lewis and Nancy Lewis,
The Letters of Edith Wharton
(New York: Scribner, 1989), 12.

15
. Edith Wharton,
The House of Mirth
(New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003), 177.

16
. Georgiadis, “Regional Cerebral Blood Flow,” 3305–16.

17
. Ibid., 3305–16

18
. Sally Ryder Brady,
A Box of Darkness: The Story of a Marriage
(New York: St. Martin’s Press/Griffin), 114.

19
. Mary Roach
, Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex
(New York: W. W. Norton, 2008), 293.

20
. Wen Zhou and Denise Chen, “Encoding Human Sexual Chemosensory Cues in the Orbitofrontal and Fusiform Cortices,”
Journal of Neuroscience
28, no. 53 (December 31, 2004): 14416–21.

21
. Ibid., 14416–21.

22
. Virpi Lummaa and Alexandra Alvergne, “Does the Contraceptive Pill Alter Mate Choice in Humans?”
Trends in Ecology and Evolution
25, no. 3 (October 6, 2009): 171–79.

23
. George Preti and others, cited in “Pheromones in Male Perspiration Reduce Women’s Tension, Alter Hormone Response that Regulates Menstrual Cycle,”
Penn News,
March 14, 2003. www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/pheromones-male-perspiration-reduce-womens-tension-alter-hormone-response-regulates-menstrual-c.

24
. Ibid.

25
. Bob Beale, “What Women Need: Sweaty Male Armpits,”
ABC Science Online
, June 26, 2003. www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2003/06/26/888984.htm.

26
. Dr. Daniel G. Amen,
The Brain in Love: Twelve Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009), 50–72.

27
. Dr. Daniel Goleman,
Social Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Science of Human Relationships
(New York: Bantam Books, 2006), 63–64.

28
. See Naomi Wolf,
Misconceptions: Truth, Lies and the Unexpected on the Journey to Motherhood
(New York: Doubleday, 2000).

29
. Ibid.

30
. Brizendine,
Female Brain,
77.

31
. Louann Brizendine, M.D.,
The Male Brain
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010).

32
. Daniel Goleman
,
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ
(New York: Bantam, 1995), 129–47.

33
. John M. Gottman,
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
(New York: Three Rivers Press, 1988), 38, 39.

34
. Kathleen Light, cited in Roger Dobson and Maurice Chittenden, “Women Need that Healthy Touch,”
Sunday Times
(London), January 16, 2005, www.thetimes.co_uk/tto//files/08/18/24/f081824/public/sitesearch.do?querystring=women+need+that+healthy+touch8p-tto&pf-all&bl-on.

35
. Naomi Wolf, Facebook Community Page, informal online survey, September–October 2011.

36
. See Milan Zaviacic,
The Human Female Prostate: From Vestigial Skene’s Paraurethral Glands and Ducts to Woman’s Functional Prostate
(Bratislava: Slovak Academic Press, 1999).

37
. Heli Alzate, “Vaginal Eroticism: A Replication Study,”
Archives of Sexual Behavior
6 (December 14, 1985): 529–37.

38
. Stuart Brody and Petr Weiss, “Simultaneous Penile-Vaginal Orgasm Is Associated with Satisfaction (Sexual, Life, Partnership, and Mental Health),”
Journal of Sexual Medicine
8, no. 3 (2011): 734–41.

Previous multivariate research found that satisfaction was associated positively with frequency of specifically penile-vaginal intercourse (PVI; as opposed to other sexual activities) as well as with vaginal orgasm. The contribution to satisfaction of simultaneous orgasm produced by PVI merited direct examination in a large representative sample.

39
. G. L. Gravina and others, “Measurement of the Thickness of the Urethrovaginal Space in Women with or without Vaginal Orgasm,”
Journal of Sexual Medicine
5, no. 3 (March 2008): 610–18.

40
. See Deborah Coady and Nancy Fish,
Healing Painful Sex
:
A Woman’s Guide to Confronting, Diagnosing, and Treating Sexual Pain
(New York: Seal Press, 2011).

41
. Zwi Hoch, “Vaginal Erotic Sensitivity by Sexological Examination,”
Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica
65, no. 7 (1986): 767–73.

We studied vaginal erotic sensitivity by vaginal sexological examinations as part of the evaluation and treatment process of couples complaining of female coital anorgasmia but readily orgasmic at female self- or partner-performed external genital stimulation. The existence on the anterior vaginal wall of an anatomically clearly definable erotically triggering entity, termed “The G Spot”, was refuted by our findings.

42
. Cambridge Women’s Pornography Collective,
Porn for Women
(San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007).

43
. Lumaa and Alvergne,“Does Contraceptive Pill Alter Mate Choice?”

44
. Dr. Jim Pfaus, interview, Montreal, Quebec, January 29–30, 2012.

45
. The impact of antidepressants on sexual function is not an insignificant warning, as Anita Clayton, M.D., and Angel L. Montejo, M.D., reported in “Major Depressive Disorder, Antidepressants, and Sexual Dysfunction,”
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
67, Suppl. 6 (2006): S33–S37:

Sexual dysfunction is a common problem with a number of causes, including psychosocial factors, general medical illness, psychiatric disorders, and psychotropic and nonpsychiatric medications. It . . . has been strongly associated with antidepressant medications. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in particular have demonstrated a higher incidence of sexual dysfunction than other antidepressants that work through different mechanisms of action. Further supporting the relationship between sexual dysfunction and antidepressant mechanism of action, data from a number of studies indicate that bupropion, nefazodone, and mirtazapine alleviate symptoms of sexual dysfunction and are as effective as SSRIs at controlling depressive symptoms. Although a number of strategies besides drug substitution have been utilized to help manage antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction, many patients remain suboptimally treated; as many as 42% of patients were found to passively wait for spontaneous remission. . . .

Sexual dysfunction is a frequent problem that occurs in both healthy patients and patients with depression. According to the National Health and Social Life Survey, sexual dysfunction is more prevalent in women (43%) than men (31%); furthermore, sexual dysfunction is more prevalent in both sexes with poor emotional health than in healthy controls. Sexual dysfunction is a side effect that is particularly attributed to the use of antidepressant medication and represents a substantial problem, especially with regard to long-term treatment compliance. Approximately 36% of patients find antidepressant-induced sexual dysfunction to be an unacceptable side effect of treatment, constituting possible grounds for treatment discontinuation. Data suggest that the mechanism of action behind antidepressants is a key contributor to sexual dysfunction. A better understanding of these data and of the physiology and etiology of sexual dysfunction will lead to more effective management strategies, which may result in better therapeutic compliance.

Dr. Helen Fisher also believes that SSRIs are part of the picture of women experiencing blunted desire. In a 2004 presentation she gave at an American Psychiatric Association Forum with J. Anderson Thomson Jr., “Sex, Sexuality And Serotonin: Do Sexual Side Effects of Most Antidepressants Jeopardize Romantic Love and Marriage?,” she noted that in 2002, millions of prescriptions for antidepressants were written in the United States, most for SSRI-enhancing medication. As many as 73 percent of patients on these medications, she reported, can suffer from one or more of a range of sexual side effects:

It’s well established that these drugs can cause sexual dysfunction, diminished sexual desire, delayed sexual arousal and muted or absent orgasm. . . .

The bottom line is that serotonin-enhancing antidepressants that negatively affect [the] sex drive can quite logically also negatively affect the brain circuits for romantic love. . . .

From a Darwinian perspective, orgasm also is a primary mechanism by which women unconsciously assess a mating partner. For a long time, anthropologists have thought that this is a bad design; women just don’t have an orgasm every time. More recently, we came to realize that. We call it the ‘fickle female orgasm’ and we regard it now as a very serious adaptive mechanism that enables women to distinguish between those partners who are willing to spend time and energy on them—those we call Mr. Right— and those who are impatient or lack empathy and who might not be a good husband and father—Mr. Wrong. When women take serotonin-enhancing antidepressants that inhibit the orgasmic response, among some of these women you’re jeopardizing the ability to assess the commitment level of a partner. Women also use orgasm to assess existing partnerships; women tend to orgasm more regularly with a long-term partner. With the onset of anorgasmia, this can destabilize a match.

46
. Cindy M. Meston and David M. Buss,
Why Women Have Sex
(New York: Times Books, 2009), 252.

47
. Dr. Jim Pfaus, interview, Montreal, Quebec, January 29–30, 2012.

48
. Kurt Hahlweg and Notker Klann, “The Effectiveness of Marital Counseling in Germany: A Contribution to Health Services Research,”
Journal of Family Psychology
11, no. 4 (December 1997): 410–21.

49
. Beverly Whipple, Barry Komisaruk, and Julie Askew, “Neuro-Bio-Experiential Evidence of the Orgasm,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, Scottsdale, AZ, February 10–13, 2011,
Desert Heat: International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health, 2011 Annual Meeting Program Book,
153–84.

Selected Bibliography

Alzate, Heli. “Vaginal Eroticism: A Replication Study.”
Archives of Sexual Behavior
6 (December 14, 1985): 529–37.

Amen, Daniel G.
The Brain in Love: Twelve Lessons to Enhance Your Love Life.
New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009.

Batra, S., and J. Al-Hijji. “Characterization of Nitric Oxide Synthase Activity in Rabbit Uterus and Vagina: Downregulation by Estrogen.”
Life Sciences
62 (1998): 2093–100.

Baumgardner, Jennifer, and Amy Richards.
Manifesta: Feminism and
the Future.
New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2000.

Beauchamp, Marcia. “Somasophy: The Relevance of Somatics to the Cultivation of Female Subjectivity.” PhD diss., unpublished.

Bostwicvk, J. M., and J. A. Bucci. “Internet Sex Addiction Treated with Naltrexone.”
Mayo Clinic Proceedings
83, no. 2 (February 2008): 226–30.

Brizendine, Louann, M.D.
The Female Brain.
New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006.

———.
The Male Brain.
New York: Three Rivers Press, 2010.

Brody, Stuart, and Petr Weiss. “Simultaneous Penile-Vaginal Orgasm Is Associated with Satisfaction (Sexual, Life, Partnership, and Mental Health).”
Journal of Sexual Medicine
8, no. 3 (2011): 734–41.

Brontë, Charlotte.
Jane Eyre.
London: Penguin Classics, 2006.

Brontë, Emily.
Wuthering Heights.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1991.

Burnett, A. L., and others. “Immunohistochemical Description of Nitric Oxide Synthase Isoforms in Human Clitoris.”
Journal of Urology
158 (1997): 75–78.

Burton, Richard, trans.
The Perfumed Garden
of Cheikh Nefzoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology.
London: Kama Shastra Society of London and Benares, 1886.

Charters, Ann, ed.
The Portable Beat Reader.
New York: Penguin Books, 1992.

Chaucer, Geoffrey.
The Canterbury Tales.
Edited by Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.

Chopin, Kate.
The Awakening and Other Stories.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Clayton, Anita, M.D., and Angel L. Montejo, M.D. “Major Depressive Disorder, Antidepressants, and Sexual Dysfunction.”
Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
67, Suppl. 6 (2006): S33–S37.

Cleland, John.
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.