Many are constantly searching for the key to more satisfying sex, but a recent study suggests that finding that key may be easier than we think.

Researchers at the Sexual Psychophysiology Laboratory at the University of Texas-Austin found that women experienced improvements in symptoms such as low sex drive just from getting a placebo in a clinical trial.

Women may have experienced increased satisfaction simply because they decided to take action and experienced increased hope, says researcher Andrea Bradford. The study was published in September in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

‘It’s not going to change if you just wait for it to happen,’ Bradford says. ‘Changing how you approach the problem might in itself make a big difference.’

Bradford and psychology professor Cindy Meston used data that drug company Lilly ICOS collected in a clinical trial of Cialis, an erectile dysfunction drug, on women. One-third of the 50 women on the placebo experienced more satisfying sex over a 12-week period, during which they completed questionnaires and met with clinicians to assess symptoms.

Measuring female sexual dysfunction and satisfaction can be difficult sometimes, because it is very much based on the woman’s own observations of her symptoms, says Meston.

‘Sexual dysfunction is, in a way, what […]