Desai Sethi Researchers Use Popular Wearable Device to Study Heart Rate During Sex

The findings suggest that wearable devices are reliable measures of physiologic changes during sexual activity and pave the way for research aimed at helping individuals overcome sexual dysfunction.

Researchers at the Desai Sethi Urology Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine noticed an uptick in young men with psychogenic erectile dysfunction during the pandemic. This is erectile dysfunction that has no physical cause, but rather is anxiety induced, according to Ranjith Ramasamy, M.D., associate professor of urology and director of reproductive urology at the Desai Sethi Urology Institute.

“Most of the studies we do aim to solve patients’ problems, and this is a big concern among young men,” Dr. Ramasamy said. “We know that getting anxious before having intercourse results in a rise in heart rate and the release of adrenaline. When anxiety levels are high, even medications like Cialis or Viagra simply don’t work.”

To better understand the problem, Dr. Ramasamy and colleagues would first have to determine what normal rises in heart rate look like in couples that do not have sexual dysfunction. They measured heart rate using Fitbit technology to noninvasively record heart rate changes during sexual activities. Many studies on physiological parameters during sex have relied on cumbersome research protocols or participants’ self-reports. Miller School researchers looked at whether they could overcome these limitations by having the subjects (three men and three women with no sexual dysfunction concerns) wear the Fitbit Versa 3 device for the six-week study, recording when they had engaged in intercourse.

The study’s findings are published in International Journal of Impotence Research, and Dr. Ramasamy is presenting the data April 28 during the American Urological Association 2023 meeting in Chicago.

“Basically, we found that the heart rates during sexual intercourse of young couples with normal sexual function fluctuate in patterns similar to those reported in the 1960s by Masters and Johnson,” said Farhan Qureshi, a medical student at the Miller School and first author on the study. “Another exciting and important finding is that wearable device technology is a convenient, privacy-preserving and reliable technology to measure physiologic changes during sexual activity.”

Tracking Physiologic Changes During Phases of Sex

Famous for their studies in human sexuality, researchers William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson observed subjects engaged in sexual activities and monitored physiologic changes during sex using devices that required wires connecting subjects to the technologies, as well as internal cameras.

Interestingly, their controversial research methods identified four sexual arousal stages — excitement, plateau, orgasm and resolution — which Miller School researchers confirmed decades later impact heart rate much as Masters and Johnson reported.

Dr. Ramasamy and colleagues found an initial rise in heart rate during the excitement phase, peak heart rate during the plateau and orgasm phases, and a decrease in heart rate (back to normal) during the resolution phase.

“Now that we’ve captured ‘normal’ changes in heart rate using wearable technology, we have gotten approval to start recruiting patients with psychogenic sexual dysfunction to do similar research,” Farah Rahman, a medical student and MARS scholar at the Desai Sethi Urology Institute said. “We will gather data to help these men and women better understand why their sexual dysfunction is happening, why the medications don’t work and what they can do about it.”

This is only the beginning of sexual research using noninvasive wearable technology, according to Dr. Ramasamy.

“The outcomes from this study show promise in helping to diagnose problems with not only sexual dysfunction but also other psychological factors that impact sexual quality, such as premature ejaculation, and hypoactive sexual desire disorder,” he said.

Tags: Department of Urology, Desai Sethi Urology Institute, Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, Fitbit, heart rate during sex, International Journal of Impotence Research, sexual dysfunction