Final answer:
Women who suffer from PGAD experience extended periods of unwanted and distressing genital arousal. This condition requires understanding of the sexual response cycle and can often be misdiagnosed, despite increasing recognition of female sexual dysfunctions and developments in treatment.
Step-by-step explanation:
Women who suffer from PGAD experience relatively long periods of genital arousal that are unbidden, unwanted, and highly distressing. Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD) is a medical condition characterized by continuous, persistent, and often unrelenting genital arousal without any related sexual desire or solicitation. Importantly, the arousal experienced with PGAD is not related to sexual pleasure and is often not relieved by orgasm. It can lead to substantial personal distress and difficulty with daily functioning. This condition can be particularly troubling when it appears to have no clear cause or trigger, and can often be misunderstood or misdiagnosed.
While the advancement of age can sometimes see a decrease in sexual dysfunctions due to lowered anxiety over pregnancy and caregiving responsibilities, as noted by Bryant (2004), both men and women can experience difficulties. Fortunately, with increasing recognition of female sexual dysfunctions alongside male ones, more treatments are becoming available to address various conditions such as PGAD.
The sexual response cycle, as detailed by Masters and Johnson, contains four phases: excitement, plateau, orgasm, and resolution. Understanding these phases can help in acknowledging and treating sexual dysfunctions, such as PGAD which does not correspond to the normal arousal and resolution phases of the cycle. Moreover, it demonstrates that sexual desire and the physical response of arousal can be separate functions, an observation that aligns with one of the findings of the Kinsey study.