TY - JOUR
T1 - Patterns of sexual behavior and psychological processes in asexual persons
T2 - a systematic review
AU - the EAU-YAU Men’s Health Working group
AU - de Oliveira, Leonor
AU - Carvalho, Joana
AU - Sarikaya, Selcuk
AU - Urkmez, Ahmet
AU - Salonia, Andrea
AU - Russo, Giorgio Ivan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Asexuality is commonly regarded as lack of sexual attraction. Research in asexuality grew progressively in the past two decades. However, asexuals’ patterns of sexual behavior and psychological processes were not yet systematized. This review searched for articles that could potentially help establishing these patterns. Articles published in English until December 31st 2019 were retrieved from Medline, Embase, Cochrane, EBSCO, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycARTICLES. A systematic search was conducted using an exhaustive list of key terms regarding asexuality and sexual behavior following PRISMA guidelines. Of the 195 initially retrieved, only 23 were considered for this review. Of the 23 articles, 16 were quantitative studies, 5 were qualitative studies, and 2 comprised quantitative and qualitative studies. Overall, current findings suggest that asexuals present great heterogeneity of sexual behaviors and psychological processes regarding sexuality, including different aspects and types of interpersonal and romantic relationships, sexual attitudes or fantasies. Conversely, data did not find support for the claim that asexuals present impaired sexual functioning. The little geographic and cultural diversity of the samples is a major limitation in these studies, preventing the properly representation of asexuals. Furthermore, asexuals may benefit from evidence on the biopsychosocial factors shaping sexual, emotional, and relationship well-being, as far as such evidence is built upon asexuals’ lenses, rather than on heteronormativity criteria.
AB - Asexuality is commonly regarded as lack of sexual attraction. Research in asexuality grew progressively in the past two decades. However, asexuals’ patterns of sexual behavior and psychological processes were not yet systematized. This review searched for articles that could potentially help establishing these patterns. Articles published in English until December 31st 2019 were retrieved from Medline, Embase, Cochrane, EBSCO, PubMed, Scopus, and PsycARTICLES. A systematic search was conducted using an exhaustive list of key terms regarding asexuality and sexual behavior following PRISMA guidelines. Of the 195 initially retrieved, only 23 were considered for this review. Of the 23 articles, 16 were quantitative studies, 5 were qualitative studies, and 2 comprised quantitative and qualitative studies. Overall, current findings suggest that asexuals present great heterogeneity of sexual behaviors and psychological processes regarding sexuality, including different aspects and types of interpersonal and romantic relationships, sexual attitudes or fantasies. Conversely, data did not find support for the claim that asexuals present impaired sexual functioning. The little geographic and cultural diversity of the samples is a major limitation in these studies, preventing the properly representation of asexuals. Furthermore, asexuals may benefit from evidence on the biopsychosocial factors shaping sexual, emotional, and relationship well-being, as far as such evidence is built upon asexuals’ lenses, rather than on heteronormativity criteria.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85089247787&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41443-020-0336-3
DO - 10.1038/s41443-020-0336-3
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32778774
AN - SCOPUS:85089247787
SN - 0955-9930
VL - 33
SP - 641
EP - 651
JO - International Journal of Impotence Research
JF - International Journal of Impotence Research
IS - 6
ER -