The female sexual response cycle: do Malaysian women conform to the circular model?

The concept of a sexual response cycle (SRC) for women has gained interest lately with the reintroduction of terms with new definitions and a new model for the sexual response, especially the Basson's circular model.

To determine the correlations among the SRC's phases (i.e., sexual desire, sexual arousal, orgasm, sexual satisfaction, and sexual pain) in Malaysian women, in order to validate the circular model of women's SRC.

Principal component analysis (PCA), a factor analysis technique with varimax rotation method, was used to explore the correlation structure of items in female respondents who scored on the Malay version of Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). The number of factors or components to obtain was decided using Kaiser's criteria.

To measure the correlation between female SRC's domain.

A total of 230 married women aged 18-70 years old participated in this study. Factor loadings using PCA with varimax rotation divided the sexual domains into three components based on Kaiser's criteria with eigenvalues of 6.11, 5.59, and 3.50, respectively. Sexual desire, sexual arousal, and lubrication were highly correlated, and therefore, they fall in one component, reflecting one construct, whereas orgasm and sexual satisfaction fall in another component. The third component was formed by the pain items.

The strong correlation between sexual desire/arousal/lubrication means that they were the same and may support the contemporary theory of circular model of SRC in women.