Patterns of Genital and Subjective Sexual Arousal in Cisgender Asexual Men.

Human asexuality has been defined as a lack of sexual attraction to others, although its nature is not well understood. Asexual men's genital and subjective sexual arousal patterns were compared to sexual men's to better understand asexual men's sexual response patterns. Using a penile plethysmograph to measure genital arousal, 20 asexual, 27 heterosexual, and 22 gay cisgender men (M age = 28.28, SD = 9.41) viewed erotic films depicting sexual activity or masturbation, and a subsample engaged in sexual fantasy of their choosing. Questionnaires assessing sexual function and behavior were also completed. Asexual men scored lower on sexual desire and orgasmic function, higher on sexual aversion, and did not differ on overall sexual satisfaction. Compared with gay and heterosexual men, asexual men demonstrated lower genital and subjective sexual arousal to the erotic films but displayed similar sexual arousal when engaging in sexual fantasy. Asexual men's lower levels of sexual excitation rather than their higher levels of sexual inhibition were associated with lower responses to the erotic films. These findings suggest asexual men have preferred sexual stimuli that differ from sexual men and have a similar capacity for sexual arousal as sexual men. Collectively these findings add to a growing literature aiming to understand the nature of asexuality.

Sexual Fantasy and Masturbation Among Asexual Individuals: An In-Depth Exploration.

Human asexuality is generally defined as a lack of sexual attraction. We used online questionnaires to investigate reasons for masturbation, and explored and compared the contents of sexual fantasies of asexual individuals (identified using the Asexual Identification Scale) with those of sexual individuals. A total of 351 asexual participants (292 women, 59 men) and 388 sexual participants (221 women, 167 men) participated. Asexual women were significantly less likely to masturbate than sexual women, sexual men, and asexual men. Asexual women were less likely to report masturbating for sexual pleasure or fun than their sexual counterparts, and asexual men were less likely to report masturbating for sexual pleasure than sexual men. Both asexual women and men were significantly more likely than sexual women and men to report that they had never had a sexual fantasy. Of those who have had a sexual fantasy, asexual women and men were significantly more likely to endorse the response "my fantasies do not involve other people" compared to sexual participants, and consistently scored each sexual fantasy on a questionnaire as being less sexually exciting than did sexual participants. When using an open-ended format, asexual participants were more likely to report having fantasies about sexual activities that did not involve themselves, and were less likely to fantasize about topics such as group sex, public sex, and having an affair. Interestingly, there was a large amount of overlap between sexual fantasies of asexual and sexual participants. Notably, both asexual and sexual participants (both men and women) were equally likely to fantasize about topics such as fetishes and BDSM.

A validated measure of no sexual attraction: the Asexuality Identification Scale.

Human asexuality has been described as a lack of sexual attraction toward anyone or anything. One percent of the adult population is thought to be asexual, and research suggests that asexuality is best conceptualized as a sexual orientation. A serious limitation in past research on asexuality has been the complete lack of a validated tool to measure asexuality. Due to limitations in recruiting sufficiently powered local samples, most studies have relied on recruiting via online web-based asexual communities. This is problematic because it limits the sample to individuals who have been recruited through established asexuality networks/communities. The present study aimed to develop and validate a self-report questionnaire to assess asexuality. The questionnaire was intended to provide a valid measure independent of whether the individual self-identified as asexual and was developed in several stages, including: development and administration of open-ended questions (209 participants: 139 asexual and 70 sexual); administration and analysis of resulting 111 items (917 participants: 165 asexual and 752 sexual); administration and analysis of 37 retained items (1,242 participants: 316 asexual and 926 sexual); and validity analysis of the final items. The resulting Asexuality Identification Scale (AIS), a 12-item questionnaire, is a brief, valid, and reliable self-report instrument for assessing asexuality. It is psychometrically sound, easy to administer, and has demonstrated ability to discriminate between sexual and asexual individuals. It should prove useful to allow researchers to recruit more representative samples of the asexual population, permitting for an increased understanding of asexuality.

Asexuality: an extreme variant of sexual desire disorder?

INTRODUCTION: Human asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to anyone or anything. Various theories have been proposed to explain how asexuality should best be classified, and some have maintained that asexuality is an extreme variant of hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD)-a sexual dysfunction characterized by a lack of interest in sex and significant distress. To date, this has never been empirically examined. AIM AND METHOD: Using measures of sexual desire and behavior, sex-related distress, personality, and psychopathology, the aim of the current study was to compare individuals scoring above the cutoff for asexuality identification (AIS >40) (n = 192) to sexual individuals (n = 231). The sexual group was further divided into a control group (n = 122), a HSDD group (n = 50), and a group with symptoms of low desire that were nondistressing (n = 59). RESULTS: Analyses were controlled for age. Individuals in the AIS >40 group had a greater likelihood of never previously engaging in sexual intercourse, fantasies, or kissing and petting than all other groups and a lower likelihood of experiencing sex-related distress than those with HSDD. For women, those in the HSDD and AIS >40 groups had significantly lower desire than the subclinical HSDD and control groups. Men in the AIS >40 group had significantly lower desire than the other three groups. Symptoms of depression were highest among those with subclinical HSDD and HSDD, whereas there were no group differences on alexithymia or desirable responding. A binary logistic regression indicated that relationship status (long-term dating/married), sexual desire, sex-related distress, and lower alexithymia scores were the best predictors of group membership (HSDD vs. AIS >40). CONCLUSION: Taken together, these results challenge the speculation that asexuality should be classified as a sexual dysfunction of low desire.

Biological markers of asexuality: Handedness, birth order, and finger length ratios in self-identified asexual men and women.

Human asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to anyone or anything and it has been suggested that it may be best conceptualized as a sexual orientation. Non-right-handedness, fraternal birth order, and finger length ratio (2D:4D) are early neurodevelopmental markers associated with sexual orientation. We conducted an Internet study investigating the relationship between self-identification as asexual, handedness, number of older siblings, and self-measured finger-lengths in comparison to individuals of other sexual orientation groups. A total of 325 asexuals (60 men and 265 women; M age, 24.8 years), 690 heterosexuals (190 men and 500 women; M age, 23.5 years), and 268 non-heterosexuals (homosexual and bisexual; 64 men and 204 women; M age, 29.0 years) completed online questionnaires. Asexual men and women were 2.4 and 2.5 times, respectively, more likely to be non-right-handed than their heterosexual counterparts and there were significant differences between sexual orientation groups in number of older brothers and older sisters, and this depended on handedness. Asexual and non-heterosexual men were more likely to be later-born than heterosexual men, and asexual women were more likely to be earlier-born than non-heterosexual women. We found no significant differences between sexual orientation groups on measurements of 2D:4D ratio. This is one of the first studies to test and provide preliminary empirical support for an underlying neurodevelopmental basis to account for the lack of sexual attraction characteristic of asexuality.

Physiological and subjective sexual arousal in self-identified asexual women.

Asexuality can be defined as a lifelong lack of sexual attraction. Empirical research on asexuality reveals significantly lower self-reported sexual desire and arousal and lower rates of sexual activity; however, the speculation that there may also be an impaired psychophysiological sexual arousal response has never been tested. The aim of this study was to compare genital (vaginal pulse amplitude; VPA) and subjective sexual arousal in asexual and non-asexual women. Thirty-eight women between the ages of 19 and 55 years (10 heterosexual, 10 bisexual, 11 homosexual, and 7 asexual) viewed neutral and erotic audiovisual stimuli while VPA and self-reported sexual arousal and affect were measured. There were no significant group differences in the increased VPA and self-reported sexual arousal response to the erotic film between the groups. Asexuals showed significantly less positive affect, sensuality-sexual attraction, and self-reported autonomic arousal to the erotic film compared to the other groups; however, there were no group differences in negative affect or anxiety. Genital-subjective sexual arousal concordance was significantly positive for the asexual women and non-significant for the other three groups, suggesting higher levels of interoceptive awareness among asexuals. Taken together, the findings suggest normal subjective and physiological sexual arousal capacity in asexual women and challenge the view that asexuality should be characterized as a sexual dysfunction.

Do East Asian and Euro-Canadian women differ in sexual psychophysiology research participation?

Evidence from studies of ethnic differences in sexual conservativeness and Papanicolaou (Pap) testing behaviors suggests that there may be culture-linked differences in rates of participation in physically invasive sexuality studies, resulting in volunteer bias. The effects of ethnicity and acculturation on participation in female psychophysiological sexual arousal research were investigated in a sample of Euro-Canadian (n = 50) and East Asian (n = 58) women. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires and were given either course credits or $10 for their participation. Participants were then informed about the opportunity to participate in a second phase of the study, which involved psychophysiological sexual arousal testing and which was completely optional. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that the East Asian women were more likely to participate in Phase 2 than the Euro-Canadian women. Among the East Asian women, greater heritage acculturation and lower mainstream acculturation predicted a lower likelihood of Phase 2 participation. The findings suggest the need to be wary of overgeneralizing female psychophysiological sexual arousal research results and may have implications for improving Pap testing behaviors in East Asian women.