Clinical Trial: Female Sexual Dysfunction: Prevalence Among Italian Healthy Women

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational

Official Title: Prevalence of Female Sexual Dysfunctions Among Healthy Women Coming to the University of Bologna Gynecology Clinic as Outpatients.

Brief Summary:

Purposes of this study are:

  • To determine the prevalence of female sexual dysfunctions among Italian general population
  • To determine which sexual domains are more frequently compromised
  • To evaluate which of the factors we took into consideration are more frequently associated with FSD

Detailed Summary:

BACKGROUND:

Female Sexual Dysfunctions (FSD) are a relatively new field of study as are possible interventions. Until recently FSD were regarded as only a psychological matter and consequently the exact definition of the problem was to some extent controversial. Things have changed and now we refer to FSD according to the classification decided during the International Consensus development Conference on FSD (Basson et al, 2000). There are 5 major categories of FSD: Sexual Desire Disorders, Sexual Arousal Disorders, Orgasmic Disorders, Sexual Pain Disorders. A woman can be considered sexually dysfunctional if she has one or more of these disorders and if she feels uncomfortable about them.

Recent studies completed abroad show the prevalence of FSD to be extremely high: from 38% to 63% of women interviewed about their sexuality have complaints about it.

RATIONALE:

So far, in Italy there are no studies showing the prevalence of FSD among healthy women. We have no reasons to think that the results will demonstrate lower percentages than those found abroad indicating therefore a high number of women complaining about their sexuality.

To define the prevalence of alteration in sexual function we decided to use a questionnaire that would explore all the area included in the definition of FSD. We chose the Female Sexual Function Index (Rosen et al, 2000). This is commonly recognized as a reliable and specific instrument. Moreover there is a validated Italian translation of it.

Women coming to the Gynecologic Clinic for routine examination represent in our opinion a realistic sample of Italian female population.