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Impact of mindfulness versus supportive sex education on stress in women with sexual interest/arousal disorder

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Abstract

Low desire in women is the most common sexual difficulty, and stress has been identified as a significant predictor of symptoms. We evaluated a mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) group treatment versus a sex education comparison group treatment (STEP) on self-reported stress and on the physiological stress response measured via morning-to-evening cortisol slope in 148 women with a diagnosis of sexual interest/arousal disorder (SIAD). Perceived stress decreased following treatment in both groups, and significantly more after MBCT. The cortisol slope was steeper (indicative of better stress system regulation) from pre-treatment to 6-month follow-up, with no differences between the groups. As an exploratory analysis, we found that the reduction in perceived stress predicted increases in sexual desire and decreases in sex-related distress for participants after MBCT only. These findings suggest that group mindfulness targeting women with low sexual desire leads to improvements in self-reported and physiological stress, with improvements in self-reported stress partially accounting for improvements in sexual desire and distress.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the original team who co-led this project: Rosemary Basson, Lori Brotto, Andrea Grabovac, Martin Lalumière, Joanne Weinberg, Kimberly Schonert-Reichl, and to the research coordinator who managed the data collection and prepared data for analysis, Faith Jabs. We are grateful to the 148 women who participated in this study.

Funding

Funding for this study was from an Operating Grant (MOP-136876) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research awarded to authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, 2775 Laurel Street, 6th Floor, Vancouver, BC, V5Z 1M9, Canada

    Lori A. Brotto & Bozena Zdaniuk

  2. Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Rosemary Basson & Andrea Grabovac

  3. Department of Psychology, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

    Meredith L. Chivers

  4. Department of Cellular and Physiological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    Tamara S. Bodnar & Joanne Weinberg

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  1. Lori A. Brotto
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  2. Rosemary Basson
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  6. Tamara S. Bodnar
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Correspondence to Lori A. Brotto.

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The authors have no competing interests to disclose.

Ethical approval

The study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Board of the University of British Columbia (H12-01659) as well as the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute Ethics Board. All participants provided written informed consent prior to participating. The study was pre-registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01690897. The data and code are housed at https://osf.io/6wmgt/?view_only=cfb7e40581aa4d80bb85b6376c892ac4.

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Brotto, L.A., Basson, R., Grabovac, A. et al. Impact of mindfulness versus supportive sex education on stress in women with sexual interest/arousal disorder. J Behav Med (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-024-00491-5

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