[Steroid hormones and female sexuality]

Abstract

A literary review is presented of the relationship between steroid hormones and human female sexual behaviour with references to the sexuological problems of menarche, menstrual cycle, hormonal contraceptives, pregnancy and puerperium, sexual dysfunctions and climacteric. The author notes great progress made by the endocrinology of sexual behaviour where androgens have as crucial a role to play as in men. The female sexual behaviour, however, is a complex process multifactorially conditioned by biopsychosocial influences.