Temperature change of the labia minora as an objective measure of female eroticism

Reviving the Labial Thermistor Clip

“…First, although peak response is not achieved until 10 min (Henson et al, 1979a(Henson et al, , 1979b, a satisfactory response capable of distinguishing between arousal and non-arousal conditions should be attainable within 5 min. Furthermore, even after peak labial temperature response was achieved by Henson et al (1977), most participants returned to baseline within 15 min, with the notable exception of peak responders. With a briefer exposure to the stimulus film, the inter-stimulus interval to allow for return to baseline will also likely be shorter.…”

“…The labial thermistor clip was first introduced as a physiological measure of female sexual arousal almost 30 years ago (Henson, Rubin, Henson, & Williams, 1977); however, only a few studies have subsequently reported on its use. The development of the clip was based on the idea that surface temperature reflects changes in blood volume such as what causes genital tumescence during physiological sexual arousal.…”

Effects of Individual Differences on the Efficacy of Different Distracters During Visual Sexual Stimulation in Women

“…It has demonstrated convergent (Henson, Rubin, Henson, & Williams, 1977) and discriminant (Prause & Heiman, 2009) validity. It also has demonstrated clinical utility in verifying sexual arousal prior to testing pain thresholds for dyspareunia (Payne et al, 2007).…”

Assessing female sexual arousal with the labial thermistor: Response specificity and construct validity

“…The endocrine changes themselves also are altered by sexual arousal in both men (for review see Kruger et al, 2002) and women (Exton et al, 1999). Temperature has been shown to increase reliably during sexual arousal in the groin area (Seeley et al, 1980), genital area (Kukkonen et al, 2007;Abramson et al, 1981), penis (Webster and Hammer, 1983), and labia minora (Henson et al, 1977). There also is evidence that temperature changes in the labia (Henson et al, 1977) and genital area (Kukkonen et al, 2007) converge with subjective measures of sexual arousal.…”