What makes her want you?

• Position: Sexual Relations

The first validated measure for assessing cues associated with sexual desire in females has been developed by researchers at the University of Texas, Austin. This tool could be beneficial for use in therapy for women diagnosed with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, or loss of sexual desire, which is the leading sexual problem among females in the world today.

An initial group of women (ages 18-67) were asked to provide as many answers as possible to the question, "What makes you desire sexual activity?"--defined as kissing, petting, oral sex, intercourse, and masturbation. The responses generated a list of 125 items, including talking about the future with your partner; watching a strip tease; having a sexual fantasy; your partner does special or loving things for you; conversing with someone wealthy; seeing a well-toned body; watching a sunset; and laughing with a romantic partner.

The initial list of 125 prompts then was administered to a community sample of women of similar age. Responses from these participants were used to produce a final 40-item "Cues for Sexual Desire Scale" (CSDS). The findings support the idea that there are different clusters of cues for sexual desire existing for women. These clusters were identified as emotional bonding; erotic/explicit; visual/proximity; and implicit/romantic. The CSDS then was administered to a clinical age-matched sample of women. Here, data shows that, in women without sexual desire concerns, the most commonly selected cue about what makes them desire sexual activity for each of the clusters, respectively, was experiencing emotional closeness; asking for or anticipating sexual activity; seeing or...