A study involving 2,400 women concludes that the use of lubes while masturbating or during sex with a partner contributed to higher ratings of pleasurable and satisfying sex.
To punctuate the study, those women indicated using lubes made sex feel more pleasurable and comfortable about 70 percent.
Eighty-five percent of the women — ages 18 to 68 — were heterosexual and 56 percent were married, with an average age of 32.
Debby Herbenick, associate director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University, and other researchers said the study involved women who used one of six different water- or silicone-based lubricants.
The study found that side effects were rarely associated with lubricant use — vaginal tearing occurred during less than 1 percent of vaginal intercourse events and genital pain was reported in less than 5 percent of intercourse acts when lubricant was used.
The findings were presented Monday at Indiana University by Herbenick who teaches undergraduate and graduate level human sexuality classes there. She also operates sex info site MySexProfessor.com.
