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Women Who Initiate Casual Sex Tend To Regret It Less, Says Study

But they also don't know how to communicate with their partner.
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Turns out, women who go after what they want tend to regret casual hookups less. At least, that's the case for some Norwegian and American students.

A new study conducted by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of Texas sought to discover why some women regret their most recent one-night stands more than men do, according to Indy100.

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The study used 547 Norwegian and 216 American students under 30 years old who identified as heterosexual. Researchers found that when a participant experienced greater negative emotions, such as worry, experienced disgust, or felt pressured into sex, it was a predictor of casual sex regret. On the other hand, great sex, a sexually competent partner, and initiated contact (by the woman) were predictors for reduced casual sex regret.

"Women who initiate sex are likely to have at least two distinguishing qualities. First, they are likely to have a healthy sexual psychology, being maximally comfortable with their own sexuality. Second, women who initiate have maximum choice of precisely who they want to have sex with. Consequently, they have less reason to feel regret, since they've made their own choice," Prof. David M. Buss of the University of Texas told BBC News.

The study also noted the participants were aware of the type of partner they wanted to have sex with, as they found that men and women cited revulsion as the biggest turn-off after they had a one-night stand.

"Sexual disgust is an important adaptive emotion. It functions to help people avoid, now or in the future, potential sex partners who are either low in mate value or who carry some risk of sexually transmitted infections," Prof. Buss added.

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A 2012 survey found that only 31 per cent of Canadian women routinely orgasmed, and 69 per cent of women said they were sexually satisfied compared to 84 per cent of Canadian men who said the same.

In 2007, sex therapist Joy Davidson noted that women are dissatisfied with their sex lives in part because they don't know what to ask for. "They are experiencing very little in the way of satisfaction because they don't even know what level to reach for," Davidson told NBC News.

When women's sexual responses or dysfunctions are studied and treated, the subjects, "Don't even know their own baseline functioning, even lubrication. They don't know. You have to be taught what to look for, and we don't teach this. We don't tell women about sex very much and [response] is all internal," Dr. Anita H. Clayton told NBC News.

Davidson also blamed the media for often presenting false expectations of sexual pleasure. "[Women] are afraid to speak up, and so we stay in patterns," Davidson said.

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When it comes to casual sex, women don't often communicate with their partner, according to research presented at the International Academy of Sex Research's 2013 meeting, reports Time. According to the researchers, women don't feel like they can tell their casual partner what they want in bed, whereas men aren't as concerned about pleasing their mate.

This results in women who are less than satisfied with their sex lives. In a 2017 list titled "World's Most Sexually Charged Women," Canadian women were nowhere to be found, according to a study conducted by the dating website Victoria Milan, which analyzed their most active women profiles in 20 countries.

This despite the fact that Canada reportedly leads the way in sexuality research — a field which examines consent, female desire, sexual dysfunction, orgasm, and more, The Globe and Mail reports.

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