The influence of sexual arousal on subjective pain intensity during a cold pressor test in women

As a subsidiary aim, the study also assesses whether the anticipated analgesic effect of sexual arousal would be stronger than that of distraction or generalized (non-sexual) arousal.

Methods

Female participants ( N = 151) were randomly distributed across four conditions: sexual arousal, generalized arousal, distraction, neutral. Mild pain was induced using a cold pressor while participants were concurrently exposed to film stimuli (pornographic, exciting, distracting, neutral) to induce the targeted emotional states. A visual analogue scale was utilized to measure the subjective level of pain perceived by the participants.

Results: Sexual arousal did not reduce subjective pain. Generalized arousal and distraction did not result in stronger analgesic effects than the neutral condition. Conclusion: The present findings do not support the hypothesis that sexual arousal alone modulates subjective pain in women.

This might be due to the possibility that genital stimulation and/or orgasm are key in pain reduction, or, that feelings of disgust may inadvertently have been induced by the pornographic stimulus and interfered with sexual arousal in influencing pain.