Pain curbs sex drive in females, but not males
Sexes respond to irritating injections differently, mouse study finds
Pain makes female mice less amorous, but males ignore burning injections in pursuit of females, a new study finds. The results, published in the April 23 Journal of Neuroscience, highlight stark differences between male and female sexual behavior in mice.
But it’s not clear whether the findings apply to the vagaries of human sexuality.
To test how pain affects the sexual behavior of female mice, Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues designed an arena that allowed female mice to choose when to mate. Because males initiate sex more frequently than females, this setup let the researchers test female motivation. Females could slip through small holes to reach eager males; larger males couldn’t squeeze through the holes, “though, boy, did they try,” Mogil says. In separate tests, male mice were observed in an open chamber with receptive females.