Women nearly as 'distressed' as men over compulsive sexual urges and behaviour, study finds

Article here. Excerpt:

'Of 2,325 U.S. adults surveyed, 10 per cent of men and seven per cent of women met the clinical cut-off point for “compulsive sexual behaviour disorder,” a newly named category of sexual pathology that involves a persistent inability to control intense, repetitive urges and feelings, resulting in repetitive sexual behaviour “that causes marked distress or social impairment.”

Until now, rough estimates pegged the condition’s prevalence at somewhere between one and six per cent of the population, with men assumed to be between two and five times more likely to suffer from the disorder than women.

The researchers hypothesized 20 to 30 per cent of those who met the clinical cut-off point would be women. But the new study, published in JAMA Network Open, found women accounted for 41 per cent of those who qualified for a CSBD diagnosis.
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The assumption that the phenomenon is predominantly male taps into a “sociosexual culture that underlies conceptualizations of masculine ideology,” the authors write — i.e., that male sexuality is “irrepressible” —  and that when men get access to more sexual ‘outlets,’ they may be more prone to developing compulsive sexual behaviour.

The feminine ideology, by contrast, marks women as “’sexual gatekeepers,’ who are expected to keep sexual urges in check.”

Dickenson said one possible explanation for the smaller-than-expected gender differences might mean compulsive, distressful sexual behaviour is increasing among women in the wake of a cultural shift toward more “permissive female sexual expression,” and the proliferation of online sexual imagery and casual sex. The internet has created once unimaginable access to sexuality, anonymity and relationships — or at least to the illusion of relationships.'