TY - JOUR
T1 - What Does a Pregnancy Loss Mean for Sex? Comparing Sexual Well-Being Between Couples With and Without a Recent Loss
AU - Allsop, David B.
AU - Huberman, Jackie S.
AU - Cohen, Eva
AU - Bagnell, K. Brenna
AU - Péloquin, Katherine
AU - Cockwell, Heather
AU - Rosen, Natalie O.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2024/1
Y1 - 2024/1
N2 - It is unclear whether sexual well-being, which is an important part of individual and relational health, may be at risk for declines after a pregnancy loss given the limits of prior work. Accordingly, in a cross-sectional study, we used structural equation modeling to (1) compare sexual well-being levels—satisfaction, desire, function, distress, and frequency—of both partners in couples who had experienced a pregnancy loss in the past four months (N = 103 couples) to their counterparts in a control sample of couples with no history of pregnancy loss (N = 120 couples), and (2) compare sexual well-being levels of each member of a couple to one another. We found that gestational individuals and their partners in the pregnancy loss sample were less sexually satisfied than their control counterparts but did not differ in sexual desire, problems with sexual function, nor sexual frequency. Surprisingly, we found that partners of gestational individuals had less sexual distress than their control counterparts. In the pregnancy loss sample, gestational individuals had lower levels of sexual desire post-loss than their partners but did not differ in sexual satisfaction, problems with sexual function, nor sexual distress. Our results provide evidence that a recent pregnancy loss is associated with lower sexual satisfaction and greater differences between partners in sexual desire, which may be useful information for clinicians working with couples post-loss. Practitioners can share these findings with couples who may find it reassuring that we did not find many aspects of sexual well-being to be related to pregnancy loss at about three months post-loss.
AB - It is unclear whether sexual well-being, which is an important part of individual and relational health, may be at risk for declines after a pregnancy loss given the limits of prior work. Accordingly, in a cross-sectional study, we used structural equation modeling to (1) compare sexual well-being levels—satisfaction, desire, function, distress, and frequency—of both partners in couples who had experienced a pregnancy loss in the past four months (N = 103 couples) to their counterparts in a control sample of couples with no history of pregnancy loss (N = 120 couples), and (2) compare sexual well-being levels of each member of a couple to one another. We found that gestational individuals and their partners in the pregnancy loss sample were less sexually satisfied than their control counterparts but did not differ in sexual desire, problems with sexual function, nor sexual frequency. Surprisingly, we found that partners of gestational individuals had less sexual distress than their control counterparts. In the pregnancy loss sample, gestational individuals had lower levels of sexual desire post-loss than their partners but did not differ in sexual satisfaction, problems with sexual function, nor sexual distress. Our results provide evidence that a recent pregnancy loss is associated with lower sexual satisfaction and greater differences between partners in sexual desire, which may be useful information for clinicians working with couples post-loss. Practitioners can share these findings with couples who may find it reassuring that we did not find many aspects of sexual well-being to be related to pregnancy loss at about three months post-loss.
KW - Couples
KW - Gestational individuals
KW - Miscarriage
KW - Pregnancy loss
KW - Sexual relationships
KW - Sexual well-being
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173951667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85173951667&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10508-023-02697-1
DO - 10.1007/s10508-023-02697-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 37814102
AN - SCOPUS:85173951667
SN - 0004-0002
VL - 53
SP - 423
EP - 438
JO - Archives of Sexual Behavior
JF - Archives of Sexual Behavior
IS - 1
ER -