Background/Purpose: Impaired sexual function is common among women with chronic illnesses, including Systemic Sclerosis (SSc). Studies of sexual functioning among women with SSc have concluded that sexual impairment is common, according to comparisons with both the general population and women with other chronic diseases. There are no studies in our country that evaluate the impact of SSc in this area.

Objectives: To evaluate sexual impairment in women with SSc. To investigate sociodemographic, disease characteristics and psychological variables associated with sexual impairment in women with SSc.

Methods: Observational, analytical, cross-sectional study. We included women between 20 and 59 years of age diagnosed with SSc according to 2013 American college of rheumatology/European league against rheumatism classification criteria, from 5 public rheumatology centers of Argentina, between April 2017 and April 2018. We excluded patients with severe chronic diseases or other autoimmune rheumatologic diseases. Sexual impairment was assessed using the spanish version of Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire, which has been validated among latin american women aged 20 to 59 years. Higher subscale or total scores indicate better sexual function. A cutoff score of 26.55 is proposed as a criterion for impaired sexual function. We used Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) questionnaire to evaluate anxiety and depression. For the descriptive analysis, the continuous variables were reported as mean and standard deviation or median and interquartile range (IQR). The categorical variables were reported as percentage. A multiple linear regression model was performed, taking sexual dysfunction as the dependent variable, adjusted for possible confounders. The performance of the model was evaluated (assumptions, atypical observations, multicollinearity).

Results: We included 46 patients. The mean age was 44.78 years (+/- 9.84) and 39.13% were postmenopausal women. The mean FSFI score was 21.07 (+/- 8). Eighty percent presented sexual dysfunction and 13.04% of them correspond to sexually inactive patients due to the disease. The variables that showed significantly association with sexual dysfunction in the univariate analysis were: dyspnea (β coefficient: -2.91. CI 95%: -5.79 to -0.04), VAS pain (β coefficient: -0.08. CI 95%: -0.15 to -0.005), VAS fatigue (β coefficient: -0.09. CI 95%: -0.17 to -0.01), body image satisfaction (β coefficient: 4.34. CI 95%: 0.80 to 7.88), age (β coefficient: -0.28. CI 95%: -0.51 to -0.05) and fibromyalgia (β coefficient: -14.73. CI 95%: -21.99 to -7.47). The variables that showed significantly and independent association in the multivariate analysis were: body image satisfaction (β coefficient: 4.11. CI 95%: 1.10 to 7.13), age (β coefficient: -0.25. CI 95%: -0.45 to -0.05), fibromyalgia (β coefficient: -11.37. CI 95%: -18.26 to -4.48).

Conclusion: We found that sexual dysfunction is frequent between women with Systemic Sclerosis, and that is in concordance with other studies. According with our results, patients with greater body image satisfaction, younger and without fibromyalgia had better sexual function.

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ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/sexual-dysfunction-in-women-with-systemic-sclerosis/