Understanding Women's Sexual Desire: The Role of Sexual Agency.

Understanding Women's Sexual Desire: The Role of Sexual Agency, Jill Wood, Patricia Barthalow Koch, and Phyllis Mansfield, Penn State University

A qualitative grounded theory research design was used to study sexual desire among postmenopausal women. Twenty-two postmenopausal women participating in the TREMIN Research Program on Women's Health responded to semi-structured telephone interviews. The resulting qualitative data were analyzed in Nvivo 2.0 using the constant comparison method of grounded theory research. The results suggested that women's experience and meaning of sexual desire is intrinsically related to their negotiation of their sexual agency. Women were challenged to negotiate their sexual agency within three sites: within themselves, within their relationships with their partners, and within their interactions with the medical system. We discuss findings with regard to how women's sexual desire is deeply embedded in the sociocultural context of their lives. These women's own words describe the importance of sexual agency to their experience (or lack) of sexual desire and overall sexual satisfaction. Implications include the need to reconsider the current conceptualization and treatments of sexual desire (disorders) for women.