Oral contraceptives and sexual desire: replies to Graham and Bancroft (2013) and Puts and Pope (2013).

In our Letter (Roberts, Cobey, Klapilová, & Havlı́ček, 2013), we proposed that insights from studies on mate preferences may provide new avenues for understanding the relationship between use of oral contraceptives (OCs) and women’s sexual desire. In the context of growing evidence from studies by evolutionary psychologists that indicate OCs alter women’s partnerpreferences,wepresentedevidence tosuggest thatquantification of effects of OCs on sexual desire will be improved if (1) thetargetofwomen’sdesire ismoreclearlydefinedwhenit is being measured and (2) women’s history of OC use, specifically at the time of initiating her current relationship, is also considered alongside current use. In commentaries on our Letter, Graham and Bancroft (2013) and Puts and Pope (2013) raised a number of points, which we seek to address here.