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Heart Rate Variability: A Risk Factor for Female Sexual Dysfunction

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Abstract

Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of autonomic nervous system activity, which reflects an individual’s ability to adapt to physiological and environmental changes. Low resting HRV has been linked to several mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, and alcohol dependence (Kemp et al. in Biological Psychiatry 67(11):1067–1074, 2010. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2009.12.012; Kemp et al. in PloS One, 7(2):e30777, 2012; Quintana et al. in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 132(1–2):395–398, 2013. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2013.02.025). HRV has also been used as a method for indexing the relative balance of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity to parasympathetic nervous system activity. This balance—in particular, moderately dominant SNS activity—has been shown to play a significant role in women’s genital sexual arousal in the laboratory; however, the role of SNS activity in clinically relevant sexual arousal function is unknown. The present study assessed the feasibility of using HRV as an index of women’s self-reported sexual arousal function outside the laboratory. Sexual arousal function, overall sexual function, and resting HRV were assessed in 72 women, aged 18–39. Women with below average HRV were significantly more likely to report sexual arousal dysfunction (p < .001) and overall sexual dysfunction (p < .001) than both women with average HRV and women with above average HRV. In conclusion, low HRV may be a risk factor for female sexual arousal dysfunction and overall sexual dysfunction.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD, RO1 HD051676) to Cindy M. Meston. Tierney A. Lorenz was supported by a grant from the NICHD (T32HD049336). The views presented here are solely those of the authors and do necessarily not represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, 108 E. Dean Keeton Stop A8000, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Amelia M. Stanton, Carey S. Pulverman & Cindy M. Meston

  2. The Kinsey Institute for Research on Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, The Center for Integrative Study for Animal Behavior, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Tierney A. Lorenz

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  1. Amelia M. Stanton
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  2. Tierney A. Lorenz
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Correspondence to Amelia M. Stanton.

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Stanton, A.M., Lorenz, T.A., Pulverman, C.S. et al. Heart Rate Variability: A Risk Factor for Female Sexual Dysfunction. Appl Psychophysiol Biofeedback 40, 229–237 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10484-015-9286-9

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