A new treatment that sounds shocking might actually help women who experience low sex drive.
Electrical impulses on the dorsal genital nerve around the clitoris have been shown to stimulate sexual arousal in women — including patients with severe spinal-cord injuries.
The research, conducted at the University of Michigan, included nine participants in three groups: three women who had some level of sexual dysfunction, three with a spinal-cord injury and three with neither sexual dysfunction nor a spinal-cord injury.
All nine participants completed one session of clitoral stimulation, and five of them completed a second session. Each session lasted about 30 minutes.
During the sessions, when two electrodes about the size of a quarter were placed on either side of the clitoris, the participants reported sensations including “tingling,” “pulsation” and “lubrication,” but no pain or discomfort.
Before and after each session, the women rated their level of sexual arousal on a five-point scale. The women without spinal-cord injuries noted a one- or two-point increase in arousal after their sessions.
But the women with spinal-cord injuries reported a substantial two- or three-point jump in their levels of sexual arousal following clitoral stimulation.
The researchers noted that their study — which has not yet been peer-reviewed or published — was limited by the small number of participants and by the lack of audio-visual materials, which makes it difficult to compare their results with other studies that included pornography or other sexual materials.
Estimates vary, but about 27% of pre-menopausal women have some degree of low sexual desire, according to a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Other estimates state that one in three women experience periods of low libido at some point during their lives.
Illness, surgery, use of street drugs or alcohol, prescription medications such as antidepressants, stress or fatigue can contribute to a loss of sexual desire in both men and women, according to the Mayo Clinic.
The type of nerve stimulation used in this research, often referred to as neuromodulation, has been used to treat a number of other conditions, particularly neurological and psychiatric or behavioral disorders.
Neuromodulation has shown some promise in treating movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, pain and depression, and is often used off-label for other neurologic conditions, according to a 2022 report in the journal Neurology.