Many Women Suffer Sex Problems: Study

Oct. 31, 2008— -- About four out of every 10 women experience sexual dysfunction. But of these women, only about one in four said their dysfunctions cause them significant personal distress.

So says a new study in which researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston studied 32,000 women, the largest number of participants ever for a study of this kind, the authors say.

The study, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, found that 43 percent of the women reported having some sort of sexual dysfunction, although only 12 percent said that these problems affected their day-to-day lives.

In the study, 39 percent of women 18 and older reported low levels of desire, 26 percent had problems with arousal and 21 percent had difficulties with orgasm. Women older than 65 had the highest levels of sexual problems, but they also reported the least amount of distress about the issue.

But the most important finding to take away from the study is that only 12 percent of women have distressing sexual problems, according to Dr. Jan Shifren, lead study investigator and director of the Vincent Menopause Program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

"I think the most important finding is that the overall prevalence of women with distressing sexual problems is 12 percent," Shifren said.

"On the one hand, it's a great number because it is so much less than the number of women who report having any kind of sexual problem," she added. "But on other hand, it's still a lot of women and it's important to realize that it is truly bothering them and affecting their quality of life. So as clinicians, we really need to identify them and help."

According to the National Institutes of Health, sexual dysfunction can be classified as a lack of sexual desire, an inability to become aroused, a lack of orgasm or painful intercourse.

This latest study coincides with previous studies looking at the prevalence of sexual dysfunction among women in the United States. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February of 1999 also found that about 43 percent of women report having sexual dysfunction.