Arousal doesn’t begin when sex begins, and it certainly doesn’t exist in a vacuum. More factors contribute to arousal than you might think.
Sexual arousal is influenced by what’s happening in your body even before sexual touch, stimulation, or desire occur. This ties into the first phase of the Vella Pleasure Continuum: Baseline. You can view the baseline as your starting point: the physical, mental, and physiological conditions your body is starting from at any given time.
You might notice that on some days (or weeks, or months) you experience changes in arousal, desire, vaginal lubrication, sensitivity, or ability to orgasm. These factors don’t necessarily mean something’s wrong—it might just mean something in your baseline is different.
Keep reading to learn more about what factors into your baseline.
What is your sexual baseline?
Your sexual baseline is your body's natural starting point. The baseline is fluid and unique to you. It can vary day-to-day, or even hour-to-hour depending on what’s happening in your body and your life.
The body’s capacity to become aroused can vary from day to day, even with the same partner and the same sexual activity.
It’s also important to distinguish between desire and arousal here. Desire refers to your psychological interest in sex, while arousal refers to the physiological changes that happen in your body in response to sexual stimuli, such as your clitoris becoming erect or your vagina getting wet.
Of course, desire and arousal commonly overlap, but they aren’t the same thing. Desire doesn’t always equal arousal, and arousal doesn’t always equal desire. For example, you can mentally desire sex while your body is slower to respond, or your body can show signs of arousal even when you aren’t feeling mentally interested (this is known as arousal non-concordance).
Understanding your baseline and the factors that contribute to it can help you approach changes in your sexual response with curiosity rather than assuming something is “wrong.”
10 factors that affect your sexual baseline
Your baseline can change depending on where you are in your menstrual cycle, stage of life, or even what you’re experiencing that day. The following 10 factors affect how receptive your body feels to stimulation and how easily arousal comes to you.
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Hormonal fluctuations
In women of reproductive age, hormones fluctuate monthly throughout the menstrual cycle. Sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone play a role in libido, arousal, and lubrication. Estrogen supports vaginal tissue health and blood flow, while testosterone impacts sexual desire. Fluctuations in these hormones can impact how easily your body responds to stimulation.
For example, you might notice that you feel more desire and arousal during your follicular phase or around ovulation due to increased levels of estrogen and testosterone. However, these patterns vary considerably from person to person.
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Perimenopause/menopause
For many women in midlife, the sexual baseline is completely different. You may notice a lower sex drive and reduced signs of arousal, like vaginal lubrication. This is mostly due to dropping estrogen levels, which can lead to decreased blood flow, vaginal dryness, and changes in tissue elasticity. These changes can make arousal feel less automatic than it did when you were younger.
However, this doesn’t mean that pleasure and amazing sex are off the table. Your body may simply need more time, stimulation, or added lubrication (may we suggest Everslide?) to reach the same level of arousal.
Recognizing that your baseline has shifted alongside your hormones can help you adjust to what your body needs during perimenopause/menopause rather than expecting it to respond exactly as it did in the past.
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Pelvic floor
Pelvic floor tension and dysfunction can contribute to reduced arousal, genital sensations, and lubrication. On the flip side, a strong pelvic floor is linked to greater arousal.
However, the key isn’t just having a strong pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor muscles need to be able to relax and coordinate properly during sexual activity. For example, a pelvic floor that is constantly tense (a hypertonic pelvic floor) may have difficulty relaxing during penetration or sexual stimulation, which can contribute to discomfort or changes in sensation.
Pro tip: if you think you struggle with a pelvic floor that is too weak or too tense, see a pelvic floor physical therapist. These professionals can diagnose pelvic floor dysfunction and devise a treatment plan to help either strengthen or relax your pelvic floor.
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Medications
Certain medications can affect your libido and how you experience arousal. Medications that may potentially impact sexual functioning include:
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Antidepressants (especially SSRIs and SNRIs)
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Antipsychotics
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Hormonal birth control
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Opioids
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Beta blockers
Although these drugs are in different classes and work in different ways, downstream effects can influence desire, arousal, sexual sensations, and ability to orgasm.
Note: Even if you take one of these medications and think it might be contributing to sexual difficulties, you should never stop taking the medication without consulting your doctor first.
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Stress levels
It likely comes as no surprise that stress affects arousal. That’s why after a long stressful day at work you don’t necessarily feel so in the mood. And, in general, higher stress levels are linked to lower sexual desire in women.
It’s not just about being mentally distracted, though. Stress also results in physiological changes that truly make it more difficult to get aroused. When stress is running high, your body has high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which can suppress sexual desire.
For optimal arousal, your body should be in a relaxed state. But when you’re stressed, you have high levels of cortisol, and your body is in a fight-or-flight state, you’re less likely to experience physical arousal, even if you mentally want sex.
This is related to the Dual Control Model of Sexual Response, which basically proposes that we all have a gas pedal and a brake pedal when it comes to arousal. Stress acts as a brake pedal, slowing the process of arousal.
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Mental health conditions
Mental health struggles affect far more than mental health, which is often overlooked. Therapists or doctors might not explain to patients with mental health conditions that these disorders can impact their sex life, too.
Research shows that conditions such as depression, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder can lead to reduced arousal and vaginal lubrication. For example, depression can reduce sexual interest and energy, while anxiety can make it harder to relax or stay present during sexual activity. Intrusive thoughts or compulsive behaviors related to OCD can also pull your attention away from sexual stimulation.
Beyond arousal, these conditions can also impact your ability to orgasm (for example, it might take way longer to orgasm than it used to) and/or your satisfaction from orgasms.
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Sexual trauma
Past sexual trauma can also influence your sexual baseline, including how safe, relaxed, and receptive your body is to sexual stimuli. Even if trauma happened years ago, it can still affect your sexual response, especially if you’ve been suppressing this trauma and never truly addressed it.
Research shows a majority of sexual trauma survivors experience arousal dysfunction, a decrease in sexual desire, and difficulty achieving an orgasm. Sexual trauma is also linked to vaginismus, a condition where the muscles around the vagina in the pelvic floor involuntarily tighten, which can make penetration painful or difficult.
However, being a survivor of trauma doesn’t mean that trauma will always affect your sex life. Trauma-informed therapy can help you process what happened to you so you can develop a greater sense of safety in your body, a healthier relationship to sex, and more control over your ability (and right!) to feel pleasure.
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Sleep and fatigue
Your body needs energy for sexual response. Plus, poor sleep can also affect mood and stress levels, which, in turn, can impact your arousal and desire.
Research suggests that sleep disorders (such as insomnia, obstructive sleep apnea, or circadian rhythm disorders) have a negative impact on sexual arousal and desire, and that poor sleep quality correlates with greater rates of sexual dysfunction.
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Your overall physical health
Many factors contribute to your overall physical well-being, including the presence of chronic health conditions. Some conditions that might contribute to difficulties with arousal and overall sexual dysfunction include:
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Diabetes
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Heart disease
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Neurological disorders (like multiple sclerosis or spinal cord injury)
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Cancer
Circulation plays a big role here, too, since good blood flow is key for sexual arousal. When you’re aroused, blood flows to your clitoris, vulva, and vagina. This blood flow increases sensitivity, swelling, and lubrication. If your circulation isn’t great, then arousal may feel muted or take longer to build.
Various factors affect your circulation, including your cardiovascular health (AKA heart health), your physical activity levels, whether you’re a smoker, and if you have other health conditions, for example.
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Relationship dynamics and emotional safety
Your brain is the biggest sex organ, and how you’re feeling mentally and emotionally in the moment plays a big role in how aroused (or not aroused) you get.
Feeling safe and relaxed can influence how receptive your body feels to pleasure. This can be impacted by relationship dynamics, such as unresolved conflict between you and your partner or a lack of emotional intimacy. Emotional safety plays a big role, too, like how comfortable you feel with your partner, if you feel respected by them, and if you feel safe to express your needs and boundaries.
Emotional connectedness and safety can create a baseline where your body feels more receptive to arousal and desire.
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Remember: There is no single “normal” starting point for arousal—and your baseline is allowed to change. Learning the factors that play into your baseline will help you better understand why your sexual response might look different from one day to the next, and what your body and mind may need to become more receptive to pleasure.
So, this is your invitation to get curious about your baseline. If arousal has felt different for you lately, what factors could be contributing to your starting point? Are you under a lot of stress? Is there a mental health struggle or trauma that you’ve been avoiding? Are you taking a new medication? Empower yourself with this new knowledge and check in with yourself.
Understanding—and, in turn, optimizing—your baseline is the first step to unlocking greater pleasure. You deserve it.
