Psychosomatic Medicine 29:468-482 (1967)
© 1967 American Psychosomatic Society

Investigation into the Effects of Anxiety, Sexual Arousal, and Menstrual Cycle Phase on Uterine Contractions

¹ Department of Psychology, and the Center for Training and Research in Reproductive Biology, The University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Mich.

Ten female subjects were administered a battery of projective psychological tests and on the basis of the test results were divided into 2 groups. The women in one group were sexually anxious, passive, and neurotic, and the women in the other group were not sexually anxious, passive, or neurotic. When Ss were exposed to affect-arousing stimuli during all phases of the menstrual cycle, there were increases in the amplitude and tonus means and variance of uterine contractions. No relationship between menstrual cycle phase and stress effect could be noted. When only the significantly altered uterine and GSR curves were studied, sexually relevant stimuli had a markedly greater arousal effect than comparable sexually neutral stimuli for those Ss who were sexually anxious. Anxious Ss extruded the intrauterine balloon particularly when they were involved with sexual material. Those Ss who were not anxious evidenced tetanic uterine contractions in close correlation with significant increases in the GSR and BRL.