Moderators, Mates, and Matchmakers: Effects of Oral Contraceptives on Sexual Desire May Also Depend on Partners’ Behavior and the Role of Female Choice

Puts, David A.; Pope, Lauramarie

doi:10.1007/s10508-013-0165-2

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Most of these sexuality measures were originally developed to help identify sexual dysfunction, usually in midlife women experiencing sexual or other health problems, and may not serve particularly useful in identifying contraceptive-related sexual outcomes in younger, healthy women. Most scales also fail to measure partner-or relationship-specific aspects of sexuality (Manuel, 2013;Puts & Pope, 2013). For example, though contraceptive acceptability studies tend to document how methods affect bleeding, cramping, mood, or breast tenderness, rarely are such effects considered for their specifically sexual repercussions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

Higgins

Smith

2016

The Journal of Sex Research

175

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How contraceptives affect women’s sexual well-being is critically understudied. Fortunately, a growing literature focuses on sexual aspects of contraception, especially hormonal contraception’s associations with libido. However, a more holistic approach to contraceptive sexual acceptability is needed to capture the full range of women’s sexual experiences. We conducted a narrative literature review of this topic, working with an original sample of 3,001 citations published from 2005 to 2015. In Part 1, we draw from a subset of this literature (264 citations) to build a new conceptual model of sexual acceptability. Aspects include macro factors (gender, social inequality, culture, and structure), relationship factors (dyadic influences and partner preferences), and individual factors (sexual functioning, sexual preferences, such as dis/inhibition, spontaneity, pleasure, the sexual aspects of side effects, such as bleeding, mood changes, sexual identity and sexual minority status, and pregnancy intentions). In Part 2, we review the empirical literature on the sexual acceptability of individual methods (103 citations), applying the model as much as possible. Results suggest contraceptives can affect women’s sexuality in a wide variety of positive and negative ways that extend beyond sexual functioning alone. More attention to sexual acceptability could promote both women’s sexual well-being and more widespread, user-friendly contraceptive practices.

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confidence: 99%

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

Higgins

Smith

2016

The Journal of Sex Research

175

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“…A cross-sectional longitudinal study confirmed that hormonal contraceptive users had a weaker preference for masculinity than non-users did (Little et al, 2013), which was consistent with the findings of other previous studies (Roberts et al, 2014). In addition, hormonal contraceptives tended to decrease women's overall physical attractiveness (Puts and Pope, 2013; Welling, 2013; Roberts et al, 2014), and as discussed above, women's attractiveness was their “market value” and an important factor in “intra-sexual competition.” Therefore, by diminishing women's attractiveness, hormonal contraceptives might make it more difficult for women to compete for romantic partners (Smith et al, 2009a; Puts and Pope, 2013). Similarly, effect size was more negatively correlated with observers' age in masculine preference (see Table 3).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Relationship Between Observers' Self-Attractiveness and Preference for Physical Dimorphism: A Meta-Analysis

et al. 2018

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Background: Many studies have reported an association between observers' self-attractiveness and their preference for sexual dimorphism across different physical domains, including the face, voice, and body. However, the results of these studies are inconsistent. Here, a meta-analysis was conducted to estimate the association between observers' own attractiveness and their dimorphic preference.Methods: Major electronic databases including PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, ProQuest, and Google Scholar were searched during April 2017 (the first time) and April 2018 (the second time). The effect size computation and moderating effect analyses were conducted separately for masculine and feminine preferences.Results: We identified 5,359 references, of which we included 25 studies (x = 55, x = number of the effect size) with 6,853 participants in the meta-analysis. Across these studies, the correlation between observers' own attractiveness and their sexual dimorphic preference was 0.095 (x = 55) and that for preference for masculinity (x = 39) and femininity (x = 16) were 0.102 and 0.076, respectively. The results of the funnel plot, Egger's regression method, and fail-safe number suggested that there was no obvious publication bias. The relationship depended on the relationship context (short or long-term), opposite or same sex (the gender of the observer and host), measures of observers' self-attractiveness (subject or objective), and preference task (e.g., attractiveness rating, forced-choice, and face sequence test). Furthermore, for female participants, using a hormonal contraceptive also influenced their masculinity preference. The effect size for the preference for a masculine body and voice was larger than that for facial masculinity.Conclusion: We found a small but significant correlation between self-attractiveness and physical dimorphic preference, the relationship was moderated by the relationship context, same/opposite-sex, and contraceptive using. These three moderating effects represented the observer's trade-off on good genes, good provider and good father (3Gs) consistent with the life history strategies. Besides, measurement of observers' attractiveness, type of preference task and stimuli may also involve the relationship.

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“…Using a prospective design, Cobey et al (2013b) found that men perceive their female partner to be more attractive mid-cycle (near to ovulation) compared to either when non-fertile and regularly cycling, or when using OC. This finding suggests that men's perception of their female partners, and therefore possibly also male satisfaction, could also be impacted by their partner's OC use (see also Puts and Pope, 2013;Roberts et al, 2014b; but see Roberts et al, 2014a). Future studies examining a broader range of behavioural changes in male partners of women who initiate or discontinue pill use are thus warranted.…”

Section: Beyond the Laboratorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Oral Contraception and Romantic Relationships—from the Lab to the Real World

Roberts,

Cobey,

Klapilová

et al. 2014

Human Ethology

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We review recent evidence that suggests that hormonal contraceptives may influence the dynamics of sexual relationships and the human pair-bond. Hormonal contraception likely has positive effects on cementing the pair-bond by decoupling sex from conception. However, changes in women’s evolved mate preferences associated with initiation or discontinuation of hormonal contraception may alter attraction to her partner, with potentially negative consequences for relationship satisfaction. We describe the evidence for such changes produced by laboratory studies, including prospective experimental designs, and how the consequences of such changes are being explored beyond the laboratory. In view of the growing prevalence of modern hormonal contraceptive methods across the globe, further study of such effects is urgently required.

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Moderators, Mates, and Matchmakers: Effects of Oral Contraceptives on Sexual Desire May Also Depend on Partners’ Behavior and the Role of Female Choice

Cited by 6 publications

References 14 publications

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

The Sexual Acceptability of Contraception: Reviewing the Literature and Building a New Concept

The Relationship Between Observers' Self-Attractiveness and Preference for Physical Dimorphism: A Meta-Analysis

Oral Contraception and Romantic Relationships—from the Lab to the Real World

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