Women are being condemned to asexual marriages, chastity and masturbation several times a day in a desperate bid to find relief from the mysterious persistent genital arousal disorder, US researchers have found.

Until now, research on the condition, which mostly occurs in women and leads to unprovoked sexual arousal or orgasm, has been virtually non-existent.

But after reviewing the medical histories of 10 affected women (average age 53), researchers from Harvard Medical School are shedding new light on persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD), including the finding that some cases appear to arise from lesions in the sacral sensory networks that transmit sexual arousal.

They have suggested new nomenclature, allodiegersis, to reflect a neurophysiological basis for the disorder similar to neuropathic pain and itch and improve medical awareness.