Somatosensory phenotyping in women with persistent genital arousal disorder: a case-control study.
7 affiliations
- 1Department of Urology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
- 2Department of Anesthesiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands.
- 3MediD Consultancy Group, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
- 4Outcomes Research Consortium, Houston, TX, USA.
- 5Centre for Human Drug Research, Leiden, the Netherlands.
- 6Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
- 7Department of Sexology and Psychosomatic Gynecology, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Abstract
Introduction
Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is a rare and distressing condition characterized by persistent, unwanted genital arousal in the absence of sexual desire or stimulation. Persistent genital arousal disorder is increasingly recognized as a disorder of abnormal genital sensory processing, but objective neurophysiological data remain limited.Methods
We conducted an exploratory case-control study to characterize somatosensory function in women with PGAD. Thirty women with PGAD and 30 age-matched healthy controls were recruited at Leiden University Medical Center. Participants underwent quantitative sensory testing (QST) at hand and external genital sites, conditioned pain modulation, and corneal confocal microscopy.Results
Hand QST values were within normal range in both groups. In the genital region, PGAD participants showed altered thermal pain processing, with cold and heat hyperalgesia compared with controls. Mechanical pain thresholds did not differ between groups; however, PGAD participants reported higher pain intensity ratings to mechanical stimuli and showed significantly greater temporal summation of pain in genital regions. Genital dynamic mechanical allodynia occurred more frequently in PGAD participants but did not differ significantly at the group level. Conditioned pain modulation magnitude did not differ between groups and showed substantial interindividual variability. Corneal confocal microscopy abnormalities were observed in a proportion of participants in both groups without significant between-group differences.Discussion
These findings show that QST is feasible in women with PGAD and indicate that PGAD is associated with altered somatosensory processing demonstrating genital thermal hypersensitivity and central pain sensitization in a subset of patients.
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BibTeX
@article{uhm2026somatosensory,
title = {{Somatosensory phenotyping in women with persistent genital arousal disorder: a case-control study.}},
author = {Janneke van Uhm and Astrid Hamel and Albert Dahan and Marieke Niesters and Maxime Kummeling and Stephanie Both and Henk Elzevier and Monique van Velzen},
journal = {Pain reports},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1097/pr9.0000000000001509},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42903543},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Somatosensory phenotyping in women with persistent genital arousal disorder: a case-control study.
AU - Janneke van Uhm
AU - Astrid Hamel
AU - Albert Dahan
AU - Marieke Niesters
AU - Maxime Kummeling
AU - Stephanie Both
AU - Henk Elzevier
AU - Monique van Velzen
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
JO - Pain reports
DO - 10.1097/pr9.0000000000001509
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42903543
AB - Introduction Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is a rare and distressing condition characterized by persistent, unwanted genital arousal in the absence of sexual desire or stimulation. Persistent genital arousal disorder is increasingly recognized as a disorder of abnormal genital sensory processing, but objective neurophysiological data remain limited.Methods We conducted an exploratory case-control study to characterize somatosensory function in women with PGAD. Thirty women with PGAD and 30 age-matched healthy controls were recruited at Leiden University Medical Center. Participants underwent quantitative sensory testing (QST) at hand and external genital sites, conditioned pain modulation, and corneal confocal microscopy.Results Hand QST values were within normal range in both groups. In the genital region, PGAD participants showed altered thermal pain processing, with cold and heat hyperalgesia compared with controls. Mechanical pain thresholds did not differ between groups; however, PGAD participants reported higher pain intensity ratings to mechanical stimuli and showed significantly greater temporal summation of pain in genital regions. Genital dynamic mechanical allodynia occurred more frequently in PGAD participants but did not differ significantly at the group level. Conditioned pain modulation magnitude did not differ between groups and showed substantial interindividual variability. Corneal confocal microscopy abnormalities were observed in a proportion of participants in both groups without significant between-group differences.Discussion These findings show that QST is feasible in women with PGAD and indicate that PGAD is associated with altered somatosensory processing demonstrating genital thermal hypersensitivity and central pain sensitization in a subset of patients.
SN - 2471-2531
ER -