Sex can be more trouble than it’s worth, but once you navigate the myriad embarrassing slip-ups either you or your partner might encounter during coitus, the result is a pleasurable experience for both parties. One would hope, anyway.
Cue new research from Queensland University of Technology that begs to differ. The research found that of the 200 young women questioned, 32.9 per cent had suffered from something known as post-coital dysphoria at some time, and 10 per cent reported to have experienced the phenomenon some or most or the time.
Post-coital dysphoria, or post-coital tristesse typically leaves the sufferer with feelings of melancholy, tearfulness, anxiety, irritability or restlessness directly following orgasm. In the study, one woman describes this feeling:
“I did not associate the feeling with an absence of love or affection for my sexual partner nor with an absence of love or affection from them towards me, because it seemed so unconnected with them,” she said.
A bleak picture, and one made worse by the fact that post-coital dysphoria had previously been seen as a phenomenon with its roots in past tragedy.
“It has generally been thought that women who have experienced sexual abuse associate later sexual encounters with the trauma of the abuse along with sensations of shame, guilt, punishment and loss,” said Professor Robert Schweitzer, whose research was published in the International Journal of Sexual Health. “This association is then purported to lead to sexual problems and the avoidance of sex.”
However, during the study he and his team found only a limited correlation between the phenomenon and sexual abuse.
“This suggests other factors such as biological predisposition may be more important in understanding the phenomenon and identifying women at risk of experiencing post-coital dysphoria,” he said. “Research on the prevalence and causes of it has been virtually silent but Internet searches reveal information on the subject is widely sought.”
Prof Schweitzer’s future plans are to look into the emotional state of women who suffer from the problem, but until more is understood about it, post-coital dysphoria will just have to remain another mine to tread carefully around in the battleground of love.
Bird, B., Schweitzer, R., & Strassberg, D. (2011). The Prevalence and Correlates of Postcoital Dysphoria in Women International Journal of Sexual Health, 23 (1), 14-25 DOI: 10.1080/19317611.2010.509689
Picture from MorgueFile.
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