Effects of Caffeine on Women's Sexual Arousal

May 26, 2015 updated by: Tierney Kyle Ahrold Lorenz, University of Texas at Austin

The Effects of Caffeine on Female Genital Arousal

The key research question in this study is whether or not caffeine facilitates genital sexual arousal in women in the presence of an external erotic stimulus. Caffeine's impact on the human sexual response cycle has yet to be studied in the field, so the goal is to determine if this substance will have any impact on genital arousal well as potentially identify the mechanisms underlying its ability to do so. Considering that this will be a single blind study, a key goal of the project is to determine how participant expectations regarding what they ingest will impact their subjective sexual arousal. At present, we hypothesize that, as caffeine's stimulant properties increase a human's heart rate and blood pressure, caffeine intake will facilitate genital arousal.

Study Overview

Status

Withdrawn

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
        • University of Texas at Austin

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Women aged 18 or older
  • Heterosexual
  • Experiencing regular menstrual cycles (not more than 1 missed menstrual period in the past 6 months).
  • Currently involved in a stable, sexually active relationship.
  • Fluent in the English language.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Self-report of sexual aversion or distress; or of distress related to a history of unwanted or coercive sexual contact.
  • Perimenopausal or menopausal status, or >1 missed menstrual period in the previous 6 months; or currently pregnant, breastfeeding, or having breastfed within the past 3 months; or clinically significant untreated renal or endocrine disease.
  • History of HIV infection or active, untreated pelvic, vaginal, or urinary tract infection including sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia, genital herpes, gonorrhea, or syphilis.
  • Previous major pelvic surgery that may have caused nerve damage, including hysterectomy, vulvectomy, circumcision, colostomy, cystostomy, or serious bladder, rectal, or abdominal surgery; or neurological impairment due to diabetes, stroke, pelvic nerve damage secondary to trauma, cancer treatments, myasthenia gravis, multiple sclerosis or spinal cord damage.
  • Self-report of an untreated psychosis (e.g., bipolar disorder or schizophrenia).
  • Women who do not use caffeine products regularly (i.e., on a daily basis).
  • Women receiving any of the following medications will be excluded from the study, as they have been shown to alter sexual function or arousal response: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), testosterone and other androgens, estrogens (except oral contraceptives), progesterone, tamoxifen, raloxifene, and other selective estrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), Beta blockers or other drugs that affect the autonomic nervous system and/or cardiovascular system, any approved or experimental medications or treatments used to enhance the sexual response (e.g., sildenafil), and antidepressants

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Caffeine
Participants will ingest a tablet with 400 mg caffeine
Dietary supplement: Caffeine
400 mg of caffeine in tablet form
Placebo Comparator: Placebo
Participants will ingest an inert placebo tablet
Dietary supplement: Placebo
Inert tablet

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Sexual arousal
Time Frame: 15 minutes post administration of drug or placebo
Vaginal pulse amplitude, as measured by a vaginal photoplethysmograph
15 minutes post administration of drug or placebo

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Texas at Austin

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Corey A Pallatto, B.A., University of Texas at Austin

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 15, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 15, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

November 16, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

May 27, 2015

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 26, 2015

Last Verified

May 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2010-07-0070

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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