In the February issue of Contemporary Sexuality , we took a look at the latest research on testosterone. This led, inevitably perhaps, to the question of whether or not testosterone levels affect sexual desire. Pharmaceutical companies, especially, have been pushing to develop a cure for hypoactive sexual desire in women, focusing in on testosterone-based creams and patches. Because questions of female sexual desire — how it's defined, how it differs from sexual arousal, what levels of desire could be considered problematic, etc. Russell Stambaugh, a psychologist and certified sex therapist explains why this is so: "One of the great problems for researchers on low sexual desire," he says, "especially for women, is that it defies operational definition.

Arousal is the state of being awake and focused on a certain stimulus. For individuals who have a vagina, this involves a number of physiological changes in the body. According to the Cleveland Clinic , desire disorders involve a lack of sexual desire or interest in sex, while arousal disorders involve wanting sex but struggling to get your body in the mood. The sexual excitement stage — also known as the arousal stage — involves a range of physiological changes in the body. Most of these functions prepare the body for vaginal intercourse.

Ah, the enchanting pixy dust known as sexual desire. But what happens when fairy tale and reality collide? Low sexual desire is a common challenge among women.

What do women want? It has been at the centre of numerous books, articles and blog posts, and no doubt the cause of countless agonised ponderings by men and women alike. But despite decades spent trying to crack this riddle, researchers have yet to land on a unified definition of female desire, let alone come close to fully understanding how it works.