You go to college, leave your girlfriend behind, and now live right next to a girl.  She is interested in you, but you have a girlfriend at home, you can not cheat can you?  Now it is a month later and you have not had sex and you are drunk.  Your neighbor comes by your room and you decide to have sex with her.

            According to a recent study by Birnbaum, and Laser-Brandt that created the “Experience of Heterosexual Intercourse Scale” published in the Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality (2002) men and women have different experiences during sex.  This study upheld many commonly accepted beliefs: women are more emotional, men find sex pleasurable, and men more often feel satisfied than women after sex.  However, this study produced a result which is not commonly believed.  It showed that men are most worried about their partner and their feelings during sex.

The participants of the study were 181 women and 178 men ages 19 to 35.  The mean age, education, and length of relationships is consistent among the men and women.  The study was an open ended questionnaire given to the participants to analyze their sexual experience in terms of relationships, worry, and pleasure.  Its goal was to quantify the difference between men and women in these three areas and to see if the results of the study were consistent with commonly held beliefs (stated above).

            The results of the study were in accordance with many commonly accepted beliefs about men and women during sex.  Men and women had many similar results except for one important difference in the emotional aspect of sex.  Women found themselves more emotionally attached to their partners during sex while men are more interested in the pleasure aspect of sex.  For this reason and various physiological reasons, other studies have shown that men find their first sexual experience more gratifying than women.

            The most interesting and unexpected result was that men find themselves more concerned with their partner’s feelings than women.  This was the only startling result of the survey.  Men who participated in the study were more focused on their partner’s needs and thoughts.  The study was not sure why this was the case whether it was experience related or related to the belief that men need to be proactive during sex while women need to be reactive which was upheld in studies done by O’Sullivan and Byers (1992) and Rosen and Leiblum (1988).

            Finally, the results of the study were ranked based on percentages into two scales measuring pleasure and worry.  Some questions asked the participants what worries they had during sex.  Others were asked to examine their pleasure during sex.  The results indicated 74% of participants say they felt lonely during sex whereas 72% of participants said they felt pleasure and satisfied.  When separated for genders, 55% of women reported feeling lonelier during sex whereas 58% of men reported feeling satisfied.    

            The results of this study are not startling as many would expect women to be more emotional than men and men to feel more pleasure.  The only startling result was that men are more concerned about their partner during sexual intercourse.  If one takes into account that this study this study measures feelings during sex this result is not surprising.  Many young men may worry about their partner’s feelings during sex due to performance anxiety or other concerns.  A young man may feel as if he is going against the girl’s will or that he is not good enough for her.  When analyzing this study, one must account for the ages of the people surveyed. 

This study found that women are more emotionally attached during sex than men, and they engage in sex searching for a relationship more often than men.  The results also indicate that men are more concerned with their partner and their feelings than women which refutes a commonly accepted belief.  One must account for the possible anxiety of the young man as stated above.  This study has upheld many commonly accepted beliefs, but it has also advanced new beliefs.  It is one of the first studies to analyze sex not as a first time experience, but sex and people’s emotions during sex.  The results are not startling, but it is important for college students to understand what their partners might be thinking during sex.

 

Works Cited

Birnbaum, Gurit, and Dafna Laser-Brandt. 2002  “Gender Differences in the Experience

            of  Heterosexual Intercourse.”  The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality 

11. 143-158.