Sexual arousal in women comprises two components: genital arousal and subjective arousal. For some women, genital arousal enhances subjective arousal; for others, the two types of arousal are desynchronous. In this Review, Meston and Stanton describe the mechanisms and the relationship between genital and subjective arousal and consider how they assist in diagnosis and treatment of sexual arousal dysfunction and development of treatments for female sexual arousal dysfunction.
- Cindy M. Meston
- Amelia M. Stanton