Background/Purpose:

Rheumatic diseases comprise a diverse group of about 150 degenerative, autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. Sexual dysfunction affects about 70% of patients with rheumatic diseases and is related to both anxiety and depression. However there are few studies which analyze in depth the sexuality of patients with rheumatic diseases.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study where the patients enrolled in two clincal settings (public heatlh insurance and social security service). We evaluated every patient with a rheumatic disease by the classification criteria ACR / EULAR which may apply. The presence of sexual dysfunction was assessed with the questionnaire ‘Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI)’ proposed by Rosen. The FSFI is a self-administered aimed at assessing female sexual response questionnaire in six domains: sexual desire, sexual arousal, vaginal lubrication, orgasm, sexual satisfaction and pain. The FSFI contains 19 questions that assess sexual function in the last four weeks. A total of ≤26 indicates sexual dysfunction . An historical comparison with an aged matched control group was conducted.

Results:

We included 356 women with a mean age of 48.9 years (SD 13.2). The 76.7% of those evaluated were represented by the following diseases: Rheumatoid Arthritis (195, 54.8%) Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (43, 12.1%), Osteoarthritis (21, 5.9%) and Primary Sjögren’s syndrome, (14, 3.9%). The median FSFI score was 14.1 (IQR 12), the percentage of women with sexual dysfunction was 94.9%. Median and IQR scores of every item were as follows: Desire 4.8 (2.4), Excitation 1.5 (3.3), Lubrication 2.4 (2), Orgasm 1 (3.6), Satisfaction 2.4 (1.2) and Pain 0.2 (4.4). There was no difference between the different rheumatic diseases studied and FSFI score or the percentage of patients with sexual dysfunction. There is a negative correlation (Spearman rho -0.31 p = 0.01) between age and the total score; and a positive one (0.434 p = 0.01) with the Desire item and negative (-0.391 p = 0.01) for pain item. The was statistical diference between the rheumatic cohort and the historical aged matched control group (14.1 vs 25.2 (p = 0.001)).

Conclusion:

Compared with other reports on the prevalence of rheumatic diseased sexual dysfunction is high and the score is very low compared with healthy. It is necessary to investigate and act on this problem that had family and psychosocial implications in our patients.

« Back to ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting 2016

ACR Meeting Abstracts - https://acrabstracts.org/abstract/lack-of-awareness-of-sexual-health-in-rheumatology-high-prevalence-of-sexual-dysfunction-among-women-with-rheumatic-diseases/