The Masters and Johnson research team , composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson , pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from until the s. Louis and was continued at the independent not-for-profit research institution they founded in St. In the initial phase of Masters and Johnson's studies, from until , they recorded some of the first laboratory data on the anatomy and physiology of human sexual response based on direct observation of women and men in what they conservatively estimated to be "10, complete cycles of sexual response".
Their findings, particularly on the nature of female sexual arousal for example, describing the mechanisms of vaginal lubrication and debunking the earlier widely held notion that vaginal lubrication originated from the cervix and orgasm showing that the physiology of orgasmic response was identical whether stimulation was clitoral or vaginal, and, separately, proving that some women were capable of being multiorgasmic , dispelled many long-standing misconceptions.
They jointly wrote two classic texts in the field, Human Sexual Response and Human Sexual Inadequacy , published in and respectively.
Both of these books were best-sellers and were translated into more than thirty languages. The team has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame.
Masters and Johnson met in when William Masters hired Virginia Johnson as a research assistant to undertake a comprehensive study of human sexuality. According to author Thomas Maier , as part of their clinical research Masters and Johnson observed paid volunteers engaging in sexual activity while hooked to wires in their lab. By the time Masters divorced his first wife in , associates believed that he and Johnson essentially lived together and worked and traveled together seven days a week.
