The first, definitive text on female sexual dysfunction, this major new book summarizes the current body of knowledge in the field, traces the history of developments in the area, and identifies work still needed in the future. Reflecting a multidisciplinary approach to the subject, the book details the methods and materials for ensuring the appropriate management of women with sexual health problems, and concentrates on the presentation of evidence-based data concerning the physiology, pathophysiology, diagnosis and treatment of sexual function and dysfunction in women. The inclusion of 'difficult cases' also enhances the use of text as a practical guide to all disciplines concerned with the field of female sexual dysfunction. This important work will become a key resource for basic science researchers, endocrinologists, gynecologists, psychologists, urologists, health care clinicians, and anyone else interested in women's sexual health. All proceeds are donated to the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health.

Do women have sex simply to express love, experience pleasure, or reproduce? When clinical psychologist Cindy M. Meston and evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss, both at the University of Texas at Austin, joined forces to investigate women's underlying sexual motivations, what they found astonished them.

Using women's own words, and backed by extensive scientific evidence, the authors delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a mate's infidelity, a ploy to boost social status, a barter for household chores, and even as a cure for a migraine headache. Meston and Buss offer a revelatory examination of the deep-seated psychology and biology that often unwittingly drive women to have sex, sometimes in pursuit of joy, and sometimes for darker, more disturbing reasons.

"Why Women Have Sex" stands as the richest and deepest psychological understanding of women's sexuality yet achieved and promises to inform every woman's (and her partner's) awareness of her relationship to sex.