Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T17:26:26.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Menstruation and Marital Sex

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

Naomi M. Morris
Affiliation:
School of Public Health, University of Illinois, Chicago
J. Richard Udry
Affiliation:
Carolina Population Center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA

Summary

Using daily report data from 85 husbands and wives for about 100 days each, this paper explores differences in sexual behaviour between menstrual and non-menstrual days. Intercourse and orgasm are reduced during menstruation, in association with impressively less female desire for intercourse during menstruation. In the highly educated group studied, the women respond to a resultant potential increase in male sexual frustration by providing the husbands an increase in non-coital orgasm on menstrual days.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1983, Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Davenport, W. (1965) Sexual patterns and their regulation in a society of the Southwest Pacific. In: Sex and Behaviour, p. 192. Edited by Beach, F. A.. Wiley, New York.Google Scholar
Ford, C.S. (1945) A Comparative Study of Human Reproduction. Yale University Press, New Haven.Google Scholar
Gold, A.R. & Adams, D.B. (1981) Motivational factors affecting fluctuations of female sexual activity at menstruation. Psychol. of Women Q. 5, 670.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hite, S. (1976) The Hite Report, p. 629. Dell, New York.Google Scholar
Kinsey, A.C., Pomeroy, W.B., Martin, C.E. & Gebhard, P.H. (1953) Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Saunders, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Koran, (1935) The Holy Qur'an, 3rd edn. Translated and edited by Muhammed Ali, Maulvi. Ahmadiyya Anjuman-i-Ishaat-i-Islam, Lahore, India.Google Scholar
Masters, W.H. & Johnson, V.E. (1966) Human Sexual Response, p. 125. Little, Brown, Boston.Google Scholar
Miller, D. (1938) The Secret of the Jew: His Life – His Family. A Marriage Guide to How to Stay Married. Published by the author, 1930, revised 1938. Oakland, California.Google Scholar
Morris, N.M. & Udry, J.R. (1976) Incidence of coitus during menstruation. Med. Asp. hum. Sex. 9, 31.Google Scholar
Morris, N.M. & Udry, J.R. (1978) Pheromonal influences on human sexual behaviour: an experimental search. J. biosoc. Sci. 10, 147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roheim, G. (1933) Women and their life in central Australia. JlR. anthrop. Inst. 63, 207.Google Scholar
Udry, J.R. & Morris, N.M. (1968) Distribution of coitus in the menstrual cycle. Nature, Lond. 220, 593.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Udry, J.R. & Morris, N.M. (1970) The effect of contraceptive pills on the distribution of sexual activity in the menstrual cycle. Nature, Lond. 227, 502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Udry, J.R., Morris, N.M. & Waller, L. (1973) The effect of contraceptive pills on sexual activity in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Archs sex. Behav. 2, 205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar