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The Costs and Benefits of Sexual Communal Motivation for Couples
Coping With Vulvodynia
Amy Muise
York University and Dalhousie University
Sophie Bergeron
Université de Montréal
Emily A. Impett
University of Toronto Mississauga
Natalie O. Rosen
Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre, Halifax, Nova
Scotia, Canada
Objective: Most women with vulvodynia—a prevalent, chronic, vulvovaginal pain condition— engage in
intercourse with their partners despite experiencing pain. Their motivation for doing so appears to be
interpersonally oriented (e.g., to meet their partners’ sexual needs), but the costs and benefits of such
motivations are unknown. We tested whether sexual communal strength (being responsive to a partner’s
sexual needs) and unmitigated sexual communion (focusing on a partner’s sexual needs to the exclusion
of one’s own needs) were associated with sexual function, and sexual and relationship satisfaction in
couples with coping with vulvodynia. Method: In an 8-week daily experience study, 95 women
diagnosed with vulvodynia and their partners reported on sexual communal strength, unmitigated sexual
communion, sexual function, and sexual and relationship satisfaction on days when sexual activity
occurred. Results: On days when women reported higher sexual communal strength, both they and their
partners reported greater sexual function and satisfaction, and their partners reported greater relationship
satisfaction. When women’s partners reported higher sexual communal strength, both they and the
women reported better sexual function, partners reported greater sexual satisfaction, and women reported
greater relationship satisfaction. On days when women reported higher unmitigated sexual communion,
they reported poorer sexual function and lower sexual satisfaction, and both the women and partners
reported lower relationship satisfaction. When women’s partners reported higher unmitigated sexual
communion, they reported poorer sexual function. Conclusions: These novel aspects of sexual motiva-
tion should be targeted in psychological interventions aimed to improve the sexual and relationship
well-being of affected couples.
Keywords: vulvodynia, couples, sexual motivation, sexual function, satisfaction
Vulvodynia is a highly prevalent vulvovaginal pain condition
that affects 8% of reproductive-aged women (Harlow et al., 2014).
The most common subtype of vulvodynia is provoked vestibulo-
dynia (PVD), a recurrent pain specific to the vulvar vestibule that
is elicited via pressure in sexual and nonsexual contexts (Bergeron,
Binik, Khalifé, Pagidas, & Glazer, 2001). Women with vulvodynia
typically score in the clinical range of sexual dysfunction for low
desire and arousal (Masheb, Lozano-Blanco, Kohorn, Minkin, &
Kerns, 2004) and report lower sexual satisfaction compared with
women without vulvodynia (Bergeron, Rosen, & Morin, 2011).
Similarly, controlled studies show that male partners of women
with vulvodynia report more erectile difficulties and lower sexual
satisfaction compared with pain-free controls (Pazmany, Bergeron,
Verhaeghe, Van Oudenhove, & Enzlin, 2014;Smith & Pukall,
2014). Given that sexual and relationship satisfaction are highly
interdependent and bidirectional (McNulty, Wenner, & Fisher,
2016), it is perhaps not surprising that both women with vulvo-
dynia and their partners report negative consequences to their
romantic relationships, such as poorer communication and less
affection (Elmerstig, Wijma, & Berterö, 2008;Smith & Pukall,
2014).
Like many pain conditions, the etiology and maintenance of
vulvodynia is multifactorial (Bergeron et al., 2011). Interpersonal
factors are particularly relevant because the functional “disability”
associated with vulvodynia is its interference with partnered sexual
activities. Prior studies have linked interpersonal variables such as
This article was published Online First February 6, 2017.
Amy Muise, Department of Psychology, York University and Depart-
ment of Psychology & Neuroscience, Dalhousie University; Sophie
Bergeron, Department of Psychology, Université de Montréal; Emily A.
Impett, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga;
Natalie O. Rosen, Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Dalhousie
University and Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, IWK Health
Centre, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
This work was supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council Banting postdoctoral fellowship and an IWK Health Center post-
doctoral fellowship awarded to Amy Muise, and a Canadian Institutes of
Health Research Operating Grant awarded to Natalie O. Rosen. We thank
Kathy Petite, Myléne Desrosiers, Gillian Boudreau, Isabelle Delisle, and
Mark Steben for their contribution to this research, as well as the couples
who participated in this study.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Amy
Muise, Behavioural Sciences Building Room 244, Department of Psychol-
ogy, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3. E-mail:
muiseamy@yorku.ca
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Health Psychology © 2017 American Psychological Association
2017, Vol. 36, No. 8, 819– 827 0278-6133/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000470
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