FRIGIDITY

FRIGIDITY (from Latin frigidus - cold). By frigidity, sexual coldness, sexual anesthesia in women, very different conditions are understood, caused by diverse causes. Although there is extensive literature on the physiology of human sexual functions, belonging both to specialist physicians and non-physicians, this area can still be considered one of the least researched to the present day. In cases of frigidity, in some instances there is a significant reduction and even complete absence of sexual excitement, while in other cases it is a state where, despite having sexual desire during sexual intercourse, there is no sexual excitement (voluptas) or sexual satisfaction - orgasm. The absence of desire for sexual intercourse or attraction to physical and spiritual contact (Kontrectationstrieb MoPy) is very often observed in women, and in any case significantly more often than in men. One can distinguish congenital and acquired frigidity. Undoubtedly, constitutional features have significant importance in the occurrence of frigidity. Sexual feeling (desire) is often absent in young women who have just married. Sometimes several weeks and months pass (sometimes even more) before it appears in them. In other cases, sexual feeling manifests itself for the first time only after childbirth. In rarer cases, it is absent throughout a woman's sexual life. The causes of frigidity, besides constitutional factors and endocrine influences, can be various diseases, both of a local, sexual nature, and of a psychological order. The feeling of pain sub coitu, a rough approach by the man to sexual intercourse, fear of pregnancy (or infection), psychological trauma experienced by some girls during first intercourse, fear of defloration - can undoubtedly lead to the development of persistent or temporary frigidity. Excessive work, both physical and mental, has a great influence on reducing sexual feeling, and especially excessively frequent sexual intercourse. Sexual coldness is to some extent connected with the function of the ovary, however not completely, since women surgically deprived of both ovaries can retain the ability to become sexually excited. - From the form of frigidity just described - absence or reduction of sexual feeling - one should distinguish a second form - absence sub coitu of sexual excitement (voluptas). As is known, a woman, in contrast to a man, can enter into sexual intercourse without having sexual excitement. Frigidity sexualis in all its forms may arise in a woman only in relation to her husband; but, remaining completely cold at the moment of marital intercourse, she can have completely normal sexual intercourse with expressed excitement with another man. - Cases can also be attributed to frigidity where, despite having sexual excitement (voluptas), a woman never experiences sexual satisfaction - orgasm during sexual intercourse. This often makes the sexual act undesirable and burdensome for her. Sexual satisfaction, leading to a series of endocrine and vasomotor changes in the body, has enormous importance for maintaining the balance of the nervous system in a woman's body, and therefore the absence of such satisfaction is the cause of a series of disorders, such as nervous irritability, migraines, increased sensitivity, etc. Often sexual frigidity turns into aversion to sexual intercourse and even fear of it in a woman. Only some women suffer greatly from their sexual coldness, while most of them get used to the absence of sexual excitement and sexual satisfaction in them, and this absence does not affect fertility. In rare cases, frigidity, as a protective reaction, leads to the most severe pains sub coitu, making sexual intercourse impossible (vaginismus). The opposite of frigidity can be considered excessive sexual excitement - nymphomania (see). Therapy for frigidity very rarely leads to the goal. In some cases, eliminating local diseases of the sexual sphere already brings improvement. The application of long sitz baths is recommended. Regulating sexual life often gives good results.

K. Skrobansky