Effects of vibratory stimulation on sexual response in women with spinal cord injury.
Women with spinal cord injuries (SCIs) have predictable alterations in sexual responses. They commonly have a decreased ability to achieve genital sexual arousal. This study determined whether the use of vibratory stimulation would result in increased genital arousal as measured by vaginal pulse amplitude in women with SCIs. Subjects included 46 women with SCIs and 11 nondisabled control subjects. Results revealed vibratory clitoral stimulation resulted in increased vaginal pulse amplitude as compared with manual clitoral stimulation in both SCI and nondisabled subjects; however, these differences were not statistically significant. Subjective levels of arousal were also compared between SCI and nondisabled control subjects. Both vibratory and manual clitoral stimulation resulted in significantly increased arousal levels in both groups of subjects; however, statistically significant differences between the two conditions were only noted in nondisabled subjects. Further studies of the effects of repetitive vibratory stimulation are underway.
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Spain Rehabilitation Center, AL 35233, USA. msipski@uab.edu
Marca L
ML
Sipski
Craig J
CJ
Alexander
Orlando
O
Gomez-Marin
Marissa
M
Grossbard
Raymond
R
Rosen
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008875:Middle Aged; D009948:Orgasm / Q000502:physiology; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D010812:Physical Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014621:Vagina / Q000502:physiology; D014732:Vibration / Q000627:therapeutic use*