Cindy M Meston
Professor — Ph.D., University of British Columbia

Contact
- E-mail: meston@psy.utexas.edu
- Phone: (512) 232-4644
- Office: SEA 3.232
- Office Hours: By appointment
- Campus Mail Code: A8000
Interests
Sexual psychophysiology (vaginal photoplethysmography), sexual function/dysfunction, women's sexual arousal, the relation between sexual abuse and sexual function
Biography
Dr. Meston plans to accept a graduate student in Clinical Psychology for Fall 2021 admission.
Cindy Meston is a full professor of Clinical Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1995 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Sexual and Reproductive Medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine in 1996. She was awarded a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council, Ford Foundation, NY from 1996–1998 to study the cognitive processes that mediate the relationship between early childhood sexual abuse and later adult sexual dysfunction. She is the recipient of numerous awards for her research. These include a Sexuality Research Fellowship from The Ford Foundation, New York, an International Research Award from the Athena Institute for Women’s Wellness, a Distinguished Professor Award from the Canadian Research Foundation and the University of Ottawa, the Raymond Dickson Centennial Endowed Teaching Fellowship, the Wulf H. Utian Endowed Lecturer Award from the North American Menopause Society, and the Career Service Award from the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health. She has won nine international awards for Best Manuscript by societies including the International Academy of Sex Research, the International Society for Sexual Medicine, and the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health. In 2016 Meston was named one of the 100 most influential and inspiration women in the world by the BBC, London, England (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-38012048). She is Past President of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH) and an active member of the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) and the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS).
Meston has published over 200 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and two books, Women’s Sexual Function and Dysfunction (coauthored with Dr. Irwin Goldstein, Dr. Susan Davis, Dr. Abdul Traish) and Why Women Have Sex (coauthored with Dr. David Buss). Her book Why Women Have Sex has been translated into nine languages. She has given over 300 presentations both nationally and internationally on sexuality topics that span the areas of nervous system regulation of women’s sexual arousal, drug effects on sexual response, the development of sexual self-views, body image influences on sexual functioning, treatments for women with a history of childhood sexual abuse, and ethnic and religious influences on sexual behavior. Her research has appeared in the New York Times, Scientific American, Newsweek, and numerous women’s and health magazines. For information on her current research, see: www.mestonlab.com.
Courses
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
44055 • Spring 2014
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM NOA 1.126
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43410 • Spring 2013
Meets M 3:00PM-6:00PM NOA 1.126
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43415 • Spring 2013
Meets W 3:00PM-6:00PM NOA 1.126
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43240 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM BUR 216
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43245 • Spring 2012
Meets TTH 11:00AM-12:30PM NOA 1.126
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43755 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 2:00PM-3:30PM WEL 1.308
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43760 • Spring 2011
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM WEL 1.308
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43907 • Spring 2010
Meets MW 2:00PM-3:30PM WEL 1.308
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43908 • Spring 2010
Meets MW 3:30PM-5:00PM WEL 1.308
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43155 • Spring 2009
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM WEL 3.502
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
43160 • Spring 2009
Meets MW 4:30PM-6:00PM WEL 3.502
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality
44860 • Fall 2006
Meets TTH 3:30PM-5:00PM FAC 21
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
40930 • Fall 2002
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM SEA 2.108
C2
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
40135 • Spring 2002
Meets MW 5:00PM-6:30PM PAR 105
C2
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
41140 • Fall 2001
Meets MW 3:00PM-4:30PM UTC 1.116
C2
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
39925 • Spring 2001
Meets MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM PAR 308
C2
PSY 394Q • Thry And Techniq Of Assessment
40140 • Spring 2001
Meets M 2:00PM-5:00PM BEN 422
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
40845 • Fall 2000
Meets MWF 12:00PM-1:00PM GAR 200
C2
PSY 341K • Human Sexuality-W
39320 • Spring 2000
Meets MWF 11:00AM-12:00PM PAR 308
C2
Publications
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Books

Cindy Meston, David M. Buss
Why Women Have Sex
December 2010
St. Martin's Press
Goldstein, I, Meston, C. M., Davis, S. R., & Traish, A. M. (Eds.) (2006). Women’s Sexual Function and Dysfunction. London: Taylor & Francis Group.
Meston, C. M., & Buss, D. M. (2009). Why Women Have Sex: Sexual Motivation From Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between). New York: Henry Holt and Company, Inc. (Translated into 14 languages, some currently in press).
Peer Reviewed Articles
Meston, C. M., & Buss, D. (2007). Why humans have sex. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 36, 477-507.
Meston, C. M., & *Ahrold, T. (2010). Ethnic, gender, and acculturation influences on sexual behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39, 179-189.
* Hamilton, L. D., & Meston, C. M. (2010). The effects of partner togetherness on salivary testosterone in women in long distance relationships. Hormones and Behavior, 57, 198-202.
Meston, C. M., *Rellini, A. H., & *McCall, K. M. (2010). The sensitivity of continuous laboratory measures of physiological and subjective sexual arousal for diagnosing women’s sexual arousal disorder. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 7(2), 938-950.
* Bradford, A., & Meston, C.M. (2011). Behavior and symptom change among women treated with placebo for sexual dysfunction. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 8, 191-201.
* Lorenz, T. K., *Harte, C. B., *Hamilton, L.D., & Meston, C. M. (2012). Evidence for a curvilinear relationship between SNS activation and women’s physiological sexual arousal. Psychophysiology, 4, 111-117.
* Lorenz, T. K., & Meston, C. M. (2012). Associations among childhood sexual abuse, language use and adult sexual functioning and satisfaction. Child Abuse and Neglect, 36, 190-199.
* Lorenz, T. K., & Meston, C. M. (2012). Acute exercise improves physical sexual arousal in women taking antidepressants. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 43, 352-361.
* Harte, C., & Meston, C. M. (2012). Recreational use of erectile dysfunction medications and its adverse effects on erectile function in young healthy men: The mediating role of confidence in erectile ability. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 9, 1852-1859.
Meston, C. M., & *Lorenz, T. K. (2013). Physiological stress responses predict sexual functioning and satisfaction differently in women who have and have not been sexually abused in childhood. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 5, 350-358.
Meston, C. M., *Lorenz, T, K. A., & *Stephenson, K. R. (2013). Effects of expressive writing on sexual dysfunction, depression, and PTSD in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse: results from a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 10, 2177-2189.
* Stephenson, K. R., *Pulverman, C. S., & Meston, C. M. (2014). Assessing the association between childhood sexual abuse and adult sexual experiences in women with sexual difficulties. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27, 274-282.
* Lorenz, T. K., & Meston, C. M. (2014) Exercise improves sexual function in women taking antidepressants: results from a randomized crossover trial. Depression and Anxiety, 31, 188-195.
* Harte, C. B., & Meston, C. M. (2014). Effects of smoking cessation on heart rate variability among long-term male smokers. International Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21, 302-309.
* Goetz, C., Easton, J. E., & Meston, C. M. (2014). The allure of vulnerability: Advertising cues to exploitability as a signal of sexual accessibility. Personality and Individual Differences, 64, 121-125.
* Pulverman, C. S., *Lorenz, T. K., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Linguistic changes in expressive writing predict psychological outcomes in women with a history of child sexual abuse and adult sexual dysfunction. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 7, 50-57.
* Stephenson, K. R., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Why is impaired sexual function distressing to women? The primacy of pleasure in female sexual dysfunction. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12, 728-737.
Knack, N. M., Murphy, L., Ranger, R., Meston, C., & Fedoroff, J.P. (2015) Assessment offemale sexual arousal in forensic populations. Current Psychiatry Reports, 17, 18-x.
* Fleischman, D. S., *Hamilton, L., D., *Fessler, D. M. T., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Disgust versus lust: Exploring the reciprocal interaction of disgust and fear on sexual arousal in women. PLOS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0118151.
* Stanton, A. M., *Boyd, R. L., *Pulverman, C. S., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Determining women’s sexual self-schemas through advanced computerized text analyses. Child Abuse & Neglect.
* Stanton, A. M., *Lorenz, T. A., *Pulverman, C. S., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Heart rate variability: A risk factor for female sexual dysfunction. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 40, 229-237.
* Lorenz, T. K.,* Harte, C. B., & Meston, C. M. (2015). Changes in sympathetic nervous system activity are associated with changes in sexual wellbeing in women with a history of childhood sexual abuse: Results from a randomized clinical trial. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 12, 1545-1554.
* Stanton, A. M., *Pulverman, C. S., & Meston, C. M. (2016). Vagal activity during physiological sexual arousal in women with and without sexual dysfunction. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. DOI:10.1080/0092623X.2015.1115793
* Kilimnik, C. & Meston, C. M. (2016). The role of body-esteem in the sexual excitation and inhibition responses of women with and without a history of childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13, 1718- 1728. doi: 10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.09.004
* Handy, A., & Meston, C. M. (2016). Interoceptive awareness moderates the relationship between perceived and physiological genital arousal in women. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 13(12), 1907-1914.
* Stephenson, K. R., & Meston, C. M. (2016). Heterosexual women’s causal attributions regarding impaired female sexual function: Factor structure and associations with well-being. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45, 1989-2001.
* Pulverman, C. S., *Boyd, R., *Stanton, A. M., & Meston, C. M. (2017). Changes in the sexual self-schema of women with a history of childhood sexual abuse following expressive writing treatment. Psychological Trauma: Theory, research, Practice, and Policy, 9(2): 181-188.
* Hamilton, L. D. & Meston, C. M. (2017). Differences in neural response to romantic stimuli in monogamous and non-monogamous men. Archives of Sexual Behavior. DOI 10.1007/s10508-017-1071-9