Women with low sex drive get support with new therapy from Universite de Montreal

A new sex therapy developed by a researcher at the Universite de Montreal helps women whose sexual desire has waned (Pexels.com)

A new sex therapy developed by a researcher at the Université de Montréal helps women whose sexual desire has waned, a problem thought to affect between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of adult women.

The couple-based therapy was recently tested and standardized by Sophie Bergeron, a professor in the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Intimate Relationships and Sexual Well-Being. It will now be the subject of a randomized clinical trial starting in January.

"We talk about sexual interest and arousal disorder when women have had low desire for at least six months, with significant accompanying distress," Bergeron summarized. "Low desire in women is the most common reason people go to sexologists and couple psychologists."

Up to a quarter of women who experience a drop in sexual desire feel such distress. Faced with such a situation, Bergeron added, both partners may question themselves, feel inadequate, or even begin to doubt their attraction to the other or the other's attraction to them.

Therapy, she said, "helps to normalize" these feelings, to understand "that it's a common problem" and to accept that "just because people do something wrong doesn't mean they have this problem."

The feasibility study conducted by Bergeron and colleagues Natalie O. Rosen, Dalhousie University, and Katrina Bouchard, University of British Columbia, resulted in moderate to significant improvements in the main symptoms of low dyadic sexual desire and sexual distress.

More desire in men

Bergeron said, all the evidence suggests that men have, at root, a slightly more intense sexual desire than women.

If some men have a weaker desire, she added, "women's sexuality would be more malleable, more adaptive."

Desire disorders are rarely the result of biomedical factors, Bergeron pointed out. More often, they stem from interaction within the couple. It is therefore important to see it as a problem that concerns both partners, she stressed, and "we really formulate the problem as belonging to the couple rather than the woman."

"A recent study says that it could have to do, among other things, with the many responsibilities that women still have in heterosexual couples, their increased mental load," said the researcher. "So there are also important psychosocial factors that would play a role. Women have a lot of responsibilities, a lot of work, it will fall more on them to take care of children, aging elderly parents, et cetera."

The intervention, which is offered only virtually to increase accessibility, is based on communication, acceptance, openness and vulnerability between the partners. While other therapists will see the woman alone, this intervention focuses primarily on developing intimacy within the couple.

Open discussion

The therapy also invites open discussion of sexuality, one of the most difficult subjects for couples, to the point where many avoid broaching it. Participants in this therapy will be invited to share their sexual preferences, for example.

A large part of the intervention also concerns debunking myths linked to sexuality, including those that lead women to blame themselves and feel guilty for their lack of desire.

"We need to take the burden off a woman's shoulders," said Bergeron. "We need to understand desire, what the gas pedals of desire are, but also what the brakes on desire are. We ask the couple to examine their daily lives to identify these factors. We'll be working a lot on developing and deepening intimacy."

"We'll also be working on developing empathy," she added, since we know that this is "an important protective factor that will improve desire."

Since sexuality involves a great deal of vulnerability, "the capacity for an empathic response on the part of each partner is important (...) because we want couples to be able to access this part of themselves, to show themselves vulnerable with the other, and to be welcomed in this, therefore through empathy."

Couples will be invited to practice body awareness exercises in order to connect with touch, but without the pressure that this will then result in a sexual relationship.

"The treatment is never aimed at increasing the frequency of sexual relations," said Bergeron. "We don't even try to increase desire because that would be counterproductive. We're going to put a lot of emphasis on how to experience more pleasure in sexual relations. The rationale is that the more pleasurable it is, the more we should want to indulge in it a little more often."

- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on July 27, 2024.