The Truth about Female Desire

Channel 4 Science collaborates with the world renowned Kinsey Institute to conduct a groundbreaking investigation into female sexuality. Eight inquisitive young women from all over Britain come together to embark on a journey of sexual self-discovery as their sex lives go under the microscope. Over the course of a week, the women live together and take part in a number of ground breaking experiments under the guidance of Dr John Bancroft, former head of the Kinsey Institute, and several other leading authorities in the field of female sexuality. In this first episode, the emphasis is on genital physiology and arousal, and the women make the astonishing discovery that the clitoris is a massive 9cm long. Two of the girls get to take part in a pioneering experiment to capture the first ever internal 3D images of the clitoris during sexual arousal. In another experiment, the women learn that they can be unaware of their own physical sexual arousal, highlighting the fact that genital response is not always central to a woman's sexual experience. As well as taking part in the experiments, the women take time with the scientists to discuss the research and get answers to questions about their own interesting sex lives.

Tonight the group finds out about the powerful evolutionary forces shaping sexual attraction. The women make some uncomfortable discoveries tonight, when they realise how universal their sexual tastes are: it seems they can be turned on by virtually any image portraying sexual activity. Under the guidance of Dr Erick Janssen of the Kinsey Institute, the women learn that their arousal to such diverse stimuli may serve the important evolutionary purpose of preparing the body for the prospect of any sort of harmful penetration. Later, 10 strapping men arrive at the lab and the group takes part in some entertaining experiments designed for the series by evolutionary psychologist Dr John Manning, to find out why they are attracted to certain men and not others. With one of the girls' boyfriends secretly infiltrating the line-up, there's a lot at stake: can she pick her own boyfriend out of a line-up of anonymous attractive men? As usual the girls share their experiences, discuss the results of the experiments and quiz the scientists on their work and what it means for women.

Tonight the women find out about the precise nature of the female sex drive and the many factors that influence it. Dr Erick Janssen from the Kinsey Institute in America devises a classic placebo experiment to explore the role of the mind in influencing sex drive. Giving all the women a necklace, Dr Janssen tells half the group that their necklace contains pheromones, which will increase their sex drive, and the other half that their necklace contains a substance that will decrease their sex drive. In reality, the necklaces are all the same and contain no active substance. The experiment is designed to see whether the power of suggestion affects women's sexual responses and the results are astonishing. The programme also tests the affects of alcohol and mood on women's sex drive and again, the results prove interesting to both the women and scientists conducting the experiments.

In this final programme in the series, the eight women are coming to the end of their intensive week of sexual self-discovery and putting their sex lives under the microscope. Tonight Dr John Bancroft, former head of the Kinsey Institute, helps them try and understand the nature and purpose of the female orgasm. One of the women takes part in a pioneering study being conducted by leading neuroscientist Dr Gert Holstege, becoming the first British woman to have a brain scan to find out what happens to the brain during sexual arousal and orgasm. Another of the girls volunteers to have blood taken whilst aroused to find out what hormones are active during orgasm. Dr Pierre Bouloux, who conducts the experiment, is genuinely amazed to find that the stress hormone adrenalin rose to levels more usually associated with a heart attack! At the end of the week of scientific endeavour, the women and scientists reflect on the unique experiment in which that they have taken part and discuss how much both parties have learnt from the experience.