IS FERTILITY STATUS ASSOCIATED TO SEXUAL DYSFUNCTION? A COMPARATIVE STUDY IN A MEXICAN FERTILITY CENTER

Abstract

To determine if the infertility diagnosis correlates with lower scores in the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Prospective analytical and comparative study. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) is a 19-item, self-report scale of female sexual function1. Women attending a Mexican fertility clinic from January 2019 to April 2020 were reached via e-mail and requested to fill an online form that included the FSFI questionnaire (Chilean Spanish validated version2) and general demographic information, after informed consent. Likewise, a smaller group of non-infertile patients from a general gynaecological practice filled the same forms. Answers were stored in a database for further analysis. Prevalence of sexual disfunction was calculated as a percentage of patients not achieving an overall FSFI score of 26.551. Out of 1,345 participants, 18% responded the online form. Furthermore, 34 patients were excluded to avoid bias favoring sexual dysfunction after selecting, at least one time, the absence of sexual activity in the past 4 weeks in the FSFI questionnaire. The remaining patients were classified in two groups: 142 (69%) self-identified as infertile and 65 (31%) without that diagnosis. Patients from the first group where older (35.15±5.69 vs. 29.5±5.52 years, p<0.001) and with higher body mass index (27.76 ±6.45 vs. 23.91 ±5.58 kg/m2, p<0.001). There were no differences in marital status, academic level or gynecological pathologies. The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction in the infertility group was 68.3%, in contrast to 61.5% for the control group. A tendency for lower scores in the infertile group was seen in each domain and the overall scores of the FSFI, but it only was statistically significant in the arousal domain (p<0.05, OR 1.4). After adjusting for age and other variables, this difference gap persisted. The present study demonstrated a very high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in our patients, with and without infertility, almost twice as reported in other groups3,4. Furthermore, there was no association between the fertility status and the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction (except for arousal) using the FSFI compared to controls. Further studies are warranted to determine if this pattern repeats with larger data set.