Study Finds Women With Low Sexual Desire Still Report About 2.5 Sexual Events Per Month

A study found that women with clinically low sexual desire still reported about 2.5 sexually satisfying events per month, raising questions about how desire is measured.

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A 2026 review examined baseline data from clinical trials involving women with hypoactive sexual desire disorder, a condition marked by persistently low sexual desire that causes personal distress. Despite documented low or absent desire, participants still reported sexual activity at a rate of roughly 2.5 events per month across much of the trial data. The researchers used the term mercy sex for consensual sexual activity that may occur without personal arousal because of relationship or emotional motivations. The finding matters because some clinical trials use the frequency of sexually satisfying events as an important measure of whether a treatment improves sexual function. If someone can have a satisfying experience without initially feeling spontaneous desire, simply counting sexual events may not fully capture whether a treatment has actually changed desire. The paper draws on several clinical trial datasets involving treatments such as testosterone, flibanserin, and bremelanotide, and proposes possible biological, psychological, and relationship-based explanations. Those explanations are hypotheses rather than established causes, and the study has important limits, including its focus on heterosexual women in monogamous relationships. The central issue is that sexual desire, sexual activity, satisfaction, emotional intimacy, and willingness are related but distinct experiences, so future research may need to measure them separately.

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