Changes in sexual desire after voluntary sterilization
Bean, F.D.; Clark, M.P.; South, S.; Swicegood, G.; Williams, D.
Social Biology 27(3): 186-193
1980
ISSN/ISBN: 0037-766X PMID: 7292041 DOI: 10.1080/19485565.1980.9988420Document Number: 460686
The authors consider 3 hyypotheses of prediction of self-reported changes in sexual desire, not frequency of sexual relations, following contraceptive sterilization. The hypotheses are: 1) the fear of pregnancy hypothesis, which predicts an increase in self-reported desire for sexual relations among both sterilized and nonsterilized females and males; 2) the compensatory hypothesis, which predicts an increase in sexual desire only among those sterilized; and 3) the gender-specific hypothesis, which predicts different effects of sterilization depending upon gender. Data were drawn from a sample of 713 husbands and wives who obtained either a female or a male sterilization, and who completed a questionnaire before the procedure; 224 people returned a completed questionnaire 6 months after the procedure. In this follow-up questionnaire respondents were asked whether desire for sexual intercourse had increased, decreased, or remained the same; 2 control variables, age and education, were introduced into the analysis. Approximately the same proportion of males and females reported an increase in sexual desire, which is consistent with the findings of other investigators. In the case of males the higher the education the less likely the respondent is to report an increase in desire; in females, the older the respondent the less the likelihood of reported increase. Sterilized females are also less likely than nonsterilized females to report an increase in sexual desire, while sterilized males are no more likely than nonsterilized males to report an increase. The major finding of the analysis is that the effects of sterilization on desire for sexual intercourse varies depending on whether it is the male or the female who is sterilized; thus, the gender-specific hypothesis predicting that the effect of sterilization is less likely to make for an increase in sexual desire among females is supported by the results; sterilized females were found to be less likely than females whose husbands are sterilized to report an increase in desire, which is consistent with the idea that surgical sterilization may involve a greater degreee of physical trauma for some women than for men.