Women on birth control date bedroom "duds," study suggests
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(CBS) Birth control pills have been tied to several side effects, including nausea, vomiting, cramps, and even hair growth. But a new study suggests another possible side effect women might experience while taking the pill:
Picking men who are duds in the bedroom.
New research out of the U.K. says women who met their partners while on the pill are less sexually satisfied.
For the study - published in the Oct. 12 issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B - researchers surveyed 2,500 heterosexual women with one child. The researchers asked the women about their relationship with their child's biological father. About 1,000 of the women were taking the pill, while 1500 used no form of hormonal contraception.
The study found that women who took the pill were less sexually satisfied, found their partners less attractive, and were more likely to be the one to initiate an eventual separation.
But these guys aren't total duds. The same women said they were more satisfied with their men's paternal traits - like being caring and reliable - and the study found these women had relationships on average two years longer than women who weren't on the pill.
"Our results show some positive and negative consequences of using the pill when a woman meets her partner," study author Dr. Craig Roberts, professor of psychology at the University of Stirling in Scotland, said in a written statement." Such women may, on average, be less satisfied with the sexual aspects of their relationship, but more so with non-sexual aspects."
Why? The researchers themselves aren't sure, but suspect an evolutionary reason might explain the trend.
Preferences in mates shift over the menstrual cycle, according to Roberts. When women are ovulating they might be more interested in someone they find sexually attractive, and when women aren't ovulating they are more interested in men who possess fatherly traits.
"It's part of the subconscious 'chemistry' of attraction between men and women," Roberts told The Guardian.
But women taking the pill don't experience these shifts, and that might explain why they are more likely to be attracted to the caring "duds."
What should women do if they're looking for their prospective partner?
Roberts said in the statement that perhaps women should opt for another kind of birth control:
"Choosing a non-hormonal barrier method of contraception for a few months before getting married might be one way for a woman to check or reassure herself that she's still attracted to her partner," he said.
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The women taking sex hormones are less satisfied... but it's the MEN's fault.
Good freakin' grief.
With a lower testosterone level, a woman is less likely to look for the same kind of sex that she will look for with a higher level.
More about this simple idea, explanations, and ways of dealing with this fact can be studied at Training for Sex dot com.
"It's part of the subconscious 'chemistry' of attraction between men and women," Roberts told The Guardian."
Oh?
I wonder if these "researchers" (probably grad students doing the grunt work for their professor who will inevitably take all the credit) ever gave a thought to the earliest days of "The Pill"? I bet they're too young to remember the "sexual freedom" of the 1960s, but lest I digress ...
Beta males may offer comfort and solace (if they have a clue) to the partner when much is needed by her.
On the other hand, we Alpha Males do much the same, but with elan. To be an Alpha entails structural/functionalism.
"There's somewhere out there for everyone", as the old saying goes, but speaking as an Alpha, "many are called, but few are chosen". We can and ARE both.
Note to Beta Males: At least get in shape, read "how-to" books, and pay your child support on time or wind up in jail.
(betas at the zoo are so entertainingly self-interested)
(wink)
~(A)~
In this analysis (figure 1a), we again found significantly lower sexual satisfaction in women who were using OC when they met their partner (F1,1200 = 7.57, p = 0.006), despite scoring higher in terms of general satisfaction (F1,1206 = 10.07, p = 0.002). Women also scored their partner as less attractive (F1,1203 = 13.98, p < 0.001) if they met while using OC.
0.006, 0.002 and < 0.001 are all more than significant at the standard 5% alpha level.
It's amusing that you just spit p-values when challenged, as if a low p-value will escort you to whatever result you fathom. The p-values only show that there was significant signal vs. the noise. What you don't address is the rather obvious potential misidentification of the meaning of the signal, namely that it could represent not an attribute of the men at all, but rather just a change in the mode of perception of these or any men by the hormonally changed women.
But yeah, when I tried the pill (I quit after a month after switching pills 3 times because of extreme depression, constant crying, inability to eat anything, extreme chest and leg pain etc...) I had no interest in having sex. I had never had an issue making myself orgasm but on the pill the thought of anything sexual was frightening. The pill doesn't empower women, it actually takes away not only a woman's enjoyment of sex and attraction to their partner, but it also changes who you are -- for the worst. There needs to be a birth control method that doesn't involve implants, chemicals, hormones and is 100% effective other than abstinence (which would ruin a relationship). I would be just as worried if my boyfriend had to take a hormonal pill because it could be just as dangerous for him. If vasectomies were 100% effective and 100% reversible (and completely affordable on any budget) then it would be worth it. Though I will admit that after 4 years of not getting pregnant without the use of contraception (and we're talking multiple times a day, every day) except good timing, it would be possible to prevent pregnancy with a diaphragm and pulling out combined, which makes me wonder how people who do use condoms end up pregnant if all you have to do is pull out.