ArticleInternational journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health2023
Sexual Pleasure Matters - and How to Define and Assess It Too. A Conceptual Framework of Sexual Pleasure and the Sexual Response.
Article in International journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Measurement properties of patient-reported outcome measures for sexual health in the general population: a systematic review following the COSMIN 2.0 guidelines.Health and quality of life outcomes · 2026Pooled it
- Least Equal When Most Teachable: The Biodevelopmental Learning Opportunities and Outcomes Model of Gender Differences in Sexuality.Personality and social psychology review : an official journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc · 2026Review
- "It was the Best Sex of My Life": A Qualitative Analysis of Black Women's Most Pleasurable Sexual Experiences.Journal of sex research · 2026Article
- The impact of COVID-19 on sexual behavior, male sexual function, and reproductive health: an interdisciplinary narrative review from a urological perspective.International urology and nephrology · 2026Review
- Rethinking sexual pleasure in research, health care and society.Nature reviews. Urology · 2026Review
- Diminished anticipatory pleasure predicts anhedonia in women with endometrisois: a case-control study.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Sexuality in Positive Psychology: Toward the Integration of a Neglected Component of Human Flourishing.The journal of positive psychology · 2026Article
- What About Well-Being? Measuring What We Really Care About in Sexual and Reproductive Health.Studies in family planning · 2025Article
- Urethral foreign body insertion for symptom relief: a case report.Journal of medical case reports · 2025Article
- Depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, and sexual wellbeing in assigned females: exploring the moderating role of sexual flexibility.The journal of sexual medicine · 2025Article
- Psychometric properties and qualitative evaluation of a Swedish translation of the New Sexual Satisfaction Scale-Short (NSSS-S).PloS one · 2025Article
- Young People's Trust in Digital Sexual Healthcare: A Narrative Review.International journal of sexual health : official journal of the World Association for Sexual Health · 2025Article
- Positive sexuality, relationship satisfaction, and health: a network analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- What Sexual Problems Does a Sample of LGB+ People Report Having, and How Do They Define Sexual Pleasure: A Qualitative Study to Inform Clinical Practice.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Objective: Sexual pleasure is central to current understandings of sexual function, health, and wellbeing. In this article, we suggest that we lack a sufficiently specific, yet encompassing, definition of sexual pleasure and that we therefore lack comprehensive assessments of sexual pleasure. We introduce a definition of sexual pleasure and position it centrally in an adapted framework of the sexual response. In the framework, we include a taxonomy of rewards which can be retrieved from sex and thereby aim to capture the multifaceted nature of sexual pleasure. Methods/Results: Through narrative review, we arrive at the definition, framework, and taxonomy by integrating theories of sexual motivation and response with the literature on sexual pleasure and basic rewards. We position this literature within theories of affect and personality which allows us to differentiate between the experience of and the tendency to experience sexual pleasure (i.e., state versus trait sexual pleasure). We discuss how this conceptualization of sexual pleasure could be reflected in self-report assessments to quantitatively assess sexual pleasure. Conclusions: The framework may aid to understand the role of the diverse facets of sexual pleasure in sexual function, health, and wellbeing and contribute to giving sexual pleasure the center position it deserves in sex research and therapy.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.