(104) THE IMPORTANCE OF ERECTILE FUNCTION IN FOSTERING INTIMACY IN HETEROSEXUAL RELATIONSHIPS FROM THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Introduction Heterosexual men with erectile dysfunction (ED) commonly site fear of losing intimate partners due to lack of sexual performance and pursue invasive treatments to maintain erections. Female views on the significance of erectile function in healthy relationships remains under-explored, however. This study examines female perspectives on the importance of erections in relationships. Objective The objective of the study is to explore female perspectives on importance of erections in relationships and determine if female partners will pursue and/or maintain relationships with males with ED. Methods A survey-based study employed a virtual 35-item questionnaire adapted from the McCoy Female Sexuality Questionnaire. Participants included heterosexual females aged 18 years and older. Results From May to November 2024, 217 survey responses were received, 56 of which had >50% incomplete entries leaving 161 for analysis. The average age of participants and their male partners was 33 (Standard Deviation, SD = 11) and 35 (SD = 10) years, respectively. A majority were either married or in long-term relationships (93/161). Only 89 of 161 female respondents considered penetrative intercourse important for their connection with their partners, citing narrative reasons such as partner satisfaction, stress relief, and viewing intercourse as an expression of love, attraction, intimacy, and vulnerability. Some females (47/161) felt that a lack of penetrative intercourse would negatively impact their relationships with narrative concerns around changes in relationship dynamics, male partner masculinity, his mental well-being, and female sexual gratification. Conversely, 33 of 161 females saw penetrative intercourse as non-essential, emphasizing other aspects of intimacy. Majority of females (79/161) indicated they would not end a relationship due to a partner’s erectile dysfunction (Fig. 1). When asked if they would start a relationship with a male with erectile dysfunction 56 of 161 of females said they were open to it, while 51 of 161 were not. Conclusions While penetrative intercourse holds significance as a means of intimacy for many heterosexual females, it is only one component of relationships and other aspects of intimacy are also highly valued. The outcomes of our study can help counsel men considering invasive treatments for erectile function and provide context on how women view erectile dysfunction and its significance on current and new relationships. Disclosure No.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.007 | 0.001 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".