Women with provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) may feel more relationship and sexual satisfaction when their partners encourage and support them during sexual intercourse, according to Canadian researchers.
PVD refers to pain located in the vulvar vestibule – the outermost part of the vagina. This pain occurs whenever the area is touched, which can make intercourse less pleasurable and problematic. Experts estimate that between 8% and 12% of women under the age of 50 have PVD.
Past research has found that the way sexual partners react to the pain can affect sexual and relationship satisfaction. This study investigated how women and their male partners perceived the partner’s response.
The researchers worked with 69 couples. Each couple was asked to provide daily online reports about their sexual activity, partner responses, and sexual and relationship satisfaction for eight weeks.
Three types of partner responses were analyzed:
- Facilitative. These responses encouraged and supported women. For example, a man who tells his partner how happy he is that she is still having sex in spite of the pain would be giving a facilitative response.
- Solicitous. These responses involved attention and sympathy. A man might suggest that the couple stop having sex because of the pain.
- Negative. These responses expressed anger and frustration over the pain.
Women were asked how they perceived their partner’s responses. Men reported their perceptions of their own responses.
On average, the couples were in their late twenties or early thirties, and women who were postmenopausal were not included in the study. Most of the couples were living together and had been in a relationship for an average of 5.95 years. Overall, 894 episodes of sexual intercourse were analyzed.
On days that the couples had sexual intercourse, facilitative responses were associated with higher relationship and sexual satisfaction for women. The women tended to feel less satisfied when negative responses were given.
When both men and women saw the men’s responses as solicitous, the couples had less sexual satisfaction.
“Facilitative partner responses may help the couple to focus on the pleasurable aspects of the sexual interaction and engage in more adaptive, approach-oriented coping with the pain,” the authors wrote.
In contrast, negative responses could make the couple more aware of the pain and less focused on what they find pleasurable.
Men who give solicitous responses might not realize that their approach isn’t helpful. With so much focus on their partner’s pain, they might not be thinking of techniques that could bring pleasure.
Involving partners with treatment is essential, the authors said, noting that “pain does not exist in isolation.” Clinicians could help couples understand how their responses affect their relationship and offer strategies for building facilitative responses.
The study was first published online last month in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Resources
The Journal of Sexual Medicine
Rosen, Natalie O., PhD, et al.
“Daily Associations Between Partner Responses and Sexual and Relationship Satisfaction in Couples Coping with Provoked Vestibulodynia”
(Full-text. First published online: February 9, 2015)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsm.12840/abstract