CONTEXT OR CONTRACEPTIVE ?
STUDYING THE LINK BETWEEN DESIRE AND BIRTH CONTROL
Dr . Kristen Mark , director , Sexual Health Promotion Lab
KHP Researcher Publishes Study in Journal of Sexual Medicine
Taking “ the pill ” doesn ’ t lower sexual desire , contrary to popular belief , according to research published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine . Dr . Kristen Mark , director of the Sexual Health Promotion Lab and assistant professor of health promotion at the University of Kentucky College of Education ’ s Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion , and her co-authors UK doctoral candidate Christine Leistner and Justin Garcia from Indiana University say the evidence explaining what affects women ’ s sexual desire is mixed and more research is needed .
Contraceptives are designed to prevent unwanted pregnancies and , for some , to protect from sexually transmitted infections . A very popular anecdote is that using contraceptives — particularly oral hormone contraceptives , frequently called the pill — decreases desire . But so far scientific evidence has been mixed , with some studies supporting the claim and others suggesting the opposite .
In their paper , Mark and her colleagues describe two studies they carried out to explore the impact of using different contraceptives on the sexual desire of women and men in relationships .
“ We wanted to understand the link between desire and contraceptive choice , especially in the context of longerterm relationships ,” said Mark . “ Most research doesn ’ t focus on partners or people in long-term relationships but many contraceptive users are in long-term monogamous relationships , so this is an important group to study .”
The findings revealed significant differences in the way contraceptives affected the desire of women alone and in their relationships : women on non-hormonal contraceptives reported higher desire on their own and women on oral contraceptives reported higher desire with their partner .
However , when the researchers adjusted the results to take into account relationship length and age , the differences were no longer significant , suggesting that it ’ s the context rather than the contraceptive type that has the biggest impact on desire .
To read more about the study results , visit https :// uknow . uky . edu / research / uk-researcher-discovers-pill-doesnt-killdesire .
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