Physical therapy in sexually dysfunctional women: a systematic review

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) considers Female Sexual Dysfunctions (FSDs) to be a public health issue. There are a multitude of disorders such as female sexual arousal disorder, hypoactive sexual desire disorder, orgasmic disorder, dyspareunia, and vaginismus. FSDs are detected in 67.9% of the women in the world and are present in 50% of Asians, in 30-50% of Americans, and in 30% of Brazilians. Objective: To systematically review the literature on the different physiotherapy techniques used in the treatment of FSDs. Methods: A systematic search was conducted in the databases EMBASE, PEDro, and MedLine in data as recent as June 2013, by combining words and descriptors of physical therapy treatments and female sexual dysfunctions. Excluded from review were articles concerning male sexual dysfunction, pilot studies, multicentric papers of projects, and those which were either not available in their entirety or were duplicated in another database. After the selection of studies was complete, the randomized clinical trials were scored on the PEDro Evaluation Scale. Results: Eleven articles were included, six of which went on to be qualitatively evaluated on the PEDro scale. The present study followed the methodological structure of PRISMA (Statement for Reporting Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses of Studies). All studies found used questionnaires to assess the effects of physical therapy on FSDs. A total of five different types of interventions were verified: kinesiotherapy (Kegel exercises and pelvic floor muscle training - PFMT), Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), biofeedback, electrotherapy (transcutaneous electrical stimulation - TENS, and therapeutic ultrasound - US), and manual therapy. The limitations found in this systematic review were related to the unavailability of the articles in full and the low methodological quality of the studies. Conclusion: All studies showed improvements in sexual function after physical therapy intervention. There is no consensus on any intervention with better results; however, kinesiotherapy using PFMT proved to be advantageous because of its easy application, low cost, easy learning curve, and lasting results achieved in a short period. However, there are methodological shortcomings that still need to be dealt with to determine the most suitable physical therapy treatment for FSDs, as well as defining the best dosage, the protocol to be followed, and the duration of therapy, as well as the best cost-benefit