Sexual Boredom Is Not the Same as Low Desire, a Study of 1,559 Portuguese Adults Finds

Latent profile analysis in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found distinct patterns among women and men in long relationships

Sexual Boredom Is Not the Same as Low Desire, a Study of 1,559 Portuguese Adults Finds

Latent profile analysis in the Journal of Sexual Medicine found distinct patterns among women and men in long relationships

The Study

Researchers from Portugal published a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine arguing that sexual boredom in long relationships “doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of desire,” as PsyPost reported in May 2023. The authors are Leonor de Oliveira, Aleksandar Stulhofer, Azra Tafro, Joana Carvalho and Pedro Nobre. De Oliveira, a PhD student at the University of Porto, is lead author.

The sample was 1,559 Portuguese adults, 81.1 percent of them women, with a mean age of 32.8. All were in monogamous, cohabiting relationships of at least 12 months, and all were recruited through Instagram and Facebook.

Method

Participants completed online self-report assessments of sexual boredom, sexual desire, sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction. Desire was measured in three forms: desire for the partner, desire for attractive others and solitary desire. The researchers then used latent profile analysis, a statistical method that sorts people into subgroups according to patterns across several measures, instead of comparing averages.

Profiles Among Women

Three profiles emerged for women. The largest had low boredom, high partner-related desire, and low desire for others and for solitary activity. The second had high boredom, low partner desire, and high desire for others and solitary activity. The third had high boredom, low partner desire and minimal solitary desire. The two bored profiles were linked to lower relationship satisfaction. The PsyPost article does not give profile sizes.

Profiles Among Men

Men fell into two profiles. The larger had low boredom and lower desire for others and for solitary activity. The smaller had above-average boredom and above-average desire, with partner desire still above average.

Overall, women reported lower sexual boredom than men, and men scored higher on all desire dimensions. No significant overall gender differences were found in sexual or relationship satisfaction. For both genders, high boredom combined with low partner desire was linked to lower sexual satisfaction. For women this combination was also linked to lower relationship satisfaction; for men it was not significantly linked. No effect sizes or p-values are reported in the summary.

Why Profiles Help

Averages hide differences. If researchers had simply compared the average boredom of women and men, they would have lost the finding that women split into groups with very different combinations of boredom and desire. Latent profile analysis keeps those combinations visible, and it suggests that two women with the same boredom score can differ greatly in their desire.

For clinicians, that is a reminder to ask about several aspects of desire rather than one, including desire for a partner, for others and for solitary activity, before deciding what is happening.

What It Suggests

The finding that boredom and low desire are separate means they may need different responses. A person who is bored but still has strong desire may want novelty and variety. A person with low desire and no boredom may need a medical or psychological assessment. Treating both as the same problem could lead to the wrong advice.

The study also complicates the common story that long-term desire inevitably fades. Many participants, particularly the largest profile among women, reported low boredom and high partner desire.

For context, a study led by Amy Muise on sexual frequency found that, among couples, relationship satisfaction rose with frequency up to about once a week, with no added benefit from more frequent sex. The two studies measure different things, but both caution against simple rules.

What the Authors Ask For Next

The authors call for longitudinal and qualitative studies, which would follow the same people over time and ask them to describe their experience. Such work could show whether boredom comes before a fall in desire or after it, and what people who stay engaged do differently. Until then, the profiles are descriptions of a moment and not a map of a path.

Researchers outside Portugal will also need to test whether the same profiles appear in other countries, in older and younger samples and among men in greater numbers.

Limits

The design was cross-sectional, so it cannot show how boredom develops or what people who avoid it do differently. The authors call for longitudinal and qualitative studies. The sample was heavily female, which limits comparison with men, and recruitment through social media may not represent the general population. All participants were Portuguese, so findings may not generalise to other cultures.

People worried about their own sexual interest or relationship can speak to a licensed therapist or physician, who can look at individual circumstances.

Property Nerves, Seen From Elsewhere

Fear of a market travels fast. The same jitters turn up in the comic dispatches on the Cebu condominium story: a Manila News report on a Mactan broker with three brochures, a London Prat account of the references demanded of British retirees (direct link: https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and a Bohiney piece on two-hour open houses. Read them for the human detail a market report leaves out. The wider network is at prat.uk and bohiney.com.

For the lighter side of the news, there is always The Daily Squib.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/