(018) DIMENSIONAL NON-LINEAR ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN PERSISTENT GENITAL AROUSAL SYMPTOMS, ASSOCIATED DISTRESS, AND SEXUAL FUNCTION IN FEMALES
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Introduction Persistent genital arousal/genito-pelvic dysesthesia (PGAD/GPD; henceforth “PGA”) has often been studied as a dichotomous variable, comparing symptomatic vs asymptomatic individuals (e.g., Jackowich, Poirier, & Pukall, 2020). Consequently, little is known about the associations between PGA symptoms and sexual function across a continuum of PGA symptom intensity. Objective The objectives are: (1) test for linear and non-linear associations between PGA symptoms and sexual desire; (2) test for linear and non-linear associations between PGA symptoms and other sexual function variables; and (3) distinguish between PGA symptoms and distress caused by those symptoms when predicting sexual function. Testing for non-linear associations is possible only by treating PGA symptoms as a continuum. Methods A sample of n = 1904 females (M = 30 years, SD = 9.7) completed an online survey on sexual function (Female Sexual Function Index, FSFI), genital pain (1 question), PGA symptoms (Jackowich & Pukall, 2020), and distress associated with PGA symptoms (Jackowich & Pukall, 2020). Analyses tested for linear and quadratic (curvilinear) associations between PGA symptoms and sexual function, and between distress caused by PGA symptoms and sexual function. Results The correlation between PGA symptoms and distress caused by those symptoms was r = .31 (p < .0001, no evidence of a curvilinear association), suggesting that these symptoms are only moderately associated with distress. Groups reporting (a) no genital pain, (b) vulvar pain, (c) vaginal pain, or (d) vulvar and vaginal pain differed in their levels of PGA symptoms (Fig. 1), with vaginal pain appearing to contribute little to the pain-related elevation in PGA symptoms. Analyses testing for linear and non-linear associations between PGA symptoms and FSFI sexual desire found a significant positive association and a negative quadratic (curvilinear) effect (Fig. 2), showing that as PGA symptoms increase so does desire, but that this association reverses at the high end of PGA symptoms. Finally, analyses testing for linear and non-linear associations between PGA symptoms and sexual function (total FSFI), and between distress caused by PGA symptoms and sexual function (total FSFI), showed no significant effects of PGA symptoms, but significant negative linear and curvilinear effects for distress caused by those symptoms (Fig. 3). Negative associations (either linear, curvilinear, or both) between distress and sexual function were observed for all FSFI subscales except the satisfaction subscale. Conclusions This is the first study to document an inverted-u shaped association between PGA symptoms and sexual desire. Moreover, whereas PGA symptoms themselves had a negligible effect on sexual function, distress caused by those symptoms had a consistent negative effect. Clinically, these results suggest that PGA symptoms are not universally a negative experience, and that emphasis should be placed on the consequent distress. However, the distinction between sexual function as defined by the FSFI, and distress about sexual function, may be especially relevant to those experiencing PGA symptoms. Finally, the finding that vulvar pain is associated with PGA symptoms, with vaginal pain contributing little to the increased levels of PGA symptoms, may provide insights to the neural underpinning for some people’s PGA symptoms (refer to Pukall, Jackowich, Mooney, Chamberlain, 2018, for related discussion). Disclosure Any of the authors act as a consultant, employee or shareholder of an industry for: Initiator Pharma; Pelva Health.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
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 teacher head, 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".