Abstract
At the onset of my research in female sexual dysfunction in 2014, a colleague approached me with a copy of Moynihan's 2003 publication, “The Making of a Disease: Female Sexual Dysfunction,” which criticized the over-medicalization of women's sexual health.1 In his BMJ commentary, Moynihan challenged the frequently cited statistic from Laumann et al2 that the prevalence of sexual dysfunction in women 18 to 59 years old was 43%; Moynihan claimed that this estimate might be exaggerated owing to the ambiguous classification of female sexual dysfunction in the survey. He also questioned pharmaceutical companies' financial involvement in prevalence surveys, because a “widespread disease” could become a profitable business.1,3 Moynihan's arguments seemed well-founded and provided healthy skepticism as I began my research on the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction∗ We chose to use the term female sexual dysfunction for our systematic review to align with the nomenclature applied in 3 previous systematic reviews of population studies12–14 and with the work of Laumann et al.2
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
