The Fact
Female genital arousal involves parasympathetic nervous-system activity, smooth-muscle relaxation, nitric-oxide signaling, and increased blood flow to pelvic tissues. Stress-related sympathetic activation can interfere with those vascular processes.
What This Means
Sexual readiness is not purely psychological. The nervous system and blood vessels have to shift into a physiological state that permits engorgement and tissue response.
Sources
- Levin, R.J. (2002), “The physiology of sexual arousal in the human female”; Meston & Frohlich (2000), “The neurobiology of sexual function.”