New sex syndrome identified in women

Medics have identified a non-stop sexual arousal in women that can last for months and cannot be satisfied regardless of the number of orgasms.

A health journal on Friday describes a newly-identified syndrome affecting women -- non-stop sexual arousal that can last for months and cannot be satisfied regardless of the number of orgasms.

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The paper, which appears in the International Journal of Sexually-Transmitted Diseases and AIDS, tentatively calls it Persistent Sexual Arousal Syndrome, or PSAS.

It seems to affect only a small minority of women but the true extent is unclear. The study says that, despite the sniggering or smart remarks this condition may cause, the state of endless arousal can cripple a woman's life.

Sometimes embarrassing and often humiliating, the condition is unwanted because it occurs in the absence of genuine sexual interest. Some women have been so depressed by the problem that they have even been driven to electroshock therapy.

PSAS is a "distressing and perplexing condition," say the authors, David Goldmeir of St Mary's Hospital in London and Sandra Leiblum of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey.

"Indeed, women with persistent genital arousal report a high degree of psychological distress and even suicidal thoughts."

The syndrome is a physical disorder in which the labia, vulva and clitoris become engorged with blood, causing arousal. PSAS is different from the psychological condition of hypersexuality, the medical term for nymphomania.