The Hypothetical Pathogenetic Role of Inhibition of Pleasure and Muscular Tension in Uterine Fibroma

Abstract

In the framework of a psychophysiological integrated model of emotion, inhibition, and their linked role in developing pathology, we have examined some physiological and psychological aspects of 17 volunteer women with uterine fibromatosis and 14 women without pathology. The hypothesis was that women with uterine fibromatosis habitually inhibit the subjective feeling of pleasure during the sexual sequence, measured on a self-rating scale. Following the psychophysiological model of Ruggieri, the inhibitory mechanism would be actively produced by modulating the muscular tonic activity in particular of the rectus of the abdomen whose bioelectrical activity is measured at rest. The patients with uterine fibromatosis presented more elevated muscular tension than controls and less intense pleasure felt during the sexual sequence. Discussion of the data considered also the possibility that the muscular tension of the abdominal wall would play a role through reflex mechanisms (somatovisceral reflexes) in developing pathology.