How Does Childhood Trauma Impact Women’s Sexual Desire? Role of Depression, Stress, and Cortisol

ABSTRACT

The relationship between childhood trauma and adult sexual dysfunction is well documented; however, there is a paucity of research that examines the physiological and psychological mechanisms that may potentiate this relationship. As depression, perceived stress, and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation are correlates of childhood trauma and sexual dysfunction, the current study sought to examine the association of each of these domains with low sexual desire in a sample of (N = 275 [n = 137 women with low sexual desire; n = 138 sexually healthy women]) non-clinically depressed women. First, we assessed the relative contributions of HPA axis dysregulation (as indexed by the diurnal cortisol slope), childhood trauma, depression symptoms and perceived daily stress on low sexual desire. Next, we examined the degree to which HPA axis dysregulation, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms, respectively, mediated the relationship between childhood trauma and sexual desire. Results indicate that diurnal cortisol slope and depression symptoms contribute to low desire over and above perceived stress and childhood trauma and that childhood trauma is associated with low sexual desire predominantly through depressive symptomatology. Theoretical and clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Yvonne Erskine for assistance with project administration, Chanel Wood for assistance with recruitment and data collection, Melissa Moses for assistance with recruitment, data collection, and clinical/diagnostic interviewers, Miriam Driscoll for assistance with recruitment, Kelly Smith and Erin Breckon for assistance with clinical/diagnostic interviews, Wayne Yu and Tammy Bodnar for consultation and conducting hormone assays, and Rosemary Basson and Joanne Weinberg for consultation.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Notes

¹ Data collection for the current study began in 2011, prior to the introduction of the DSM 5 in which HSDD was replaced with Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (SIAD).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research [grant number F11-01015].