Vaginismus and Dyspareunia: Automatic vs. Deliberate Disgust Responsivity

Supporting the view that disgust is involved in vaginismus and dyspareunia, for both, clinical groups' sex stimuli automatically elicited associations with disgust. Particularly for the vaginismus group, these initial disgust associations persisted during subsequent validation processes and were also evident at the level of facial expression and self-report data. Findings are consistent with the notion that uncontrollable activated associations are involved in eliciting defensive reactions at the prospect of penetration seen in both conditions. Whereas deliberate attitudes, usually linked with the desire for having intercourse, possibly generate the distinction (e.g., severity) between these two conditions. Borg C, de Jong PJ, and Schultz WW. Vaginismus and dyspareunia: Automatic vs. deliberate disgust responsivity.