Sexuality and Psychopathological Aspects in Premenopausal Women with Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract

Introduction Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors that have been suggested to impact female sexual function. Aims This study aims to assess the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) in premenopausal women with MetS compared with healthy controls (HC). Psychopathological aspects and the relationship to FSD were also evaluated in both groups. Methods Two hundred four premenopausal women, of whom 98 had diagnosis of MetS, were asked to complete the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS), and the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ). Routine laboratory tests and anthropometric measurements were routinely performed. Main Outcome Measures FSFI and FSDS questionnaires, prevalence of FSD, and MHQ scores. Results In the MetS group compared with the HC group, we found: a lower global FSFI score (P = 0.005), higher prevalence of pathological scores compared with HC group, and lower scores in the desire, arousal, lubrication, and orgasm domains. An inverse correlation between the FSFI score and the number of risk factors for MetS was detected. MetS women reported significantly higher total scores in the somatization and depression domains when compared with the HC group. The logistic regression showed that high triglycerides (odds ratio [OR] 3.097; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.272–7.542; P = 0.026) and somatization (OR 7.068; CI 95% 2.291–21.812; P = 0.001) are independently associated with FSD in premenopausal women. Conclusions Our results indicate a higher prevalence of sexual dysfunction in MetS women. A number of risk factors for MetS are positively associated with FSD and higher triglycerides seem to be the strongest predictors of sexual dysfunction. Psychopathological dimensions such as somatization are strongly associated with sexual dysfunction.

The Impact of Metabolic Syndrome and Its Components on Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Narrative Mini-Review

“…The number of participants ranged from 88 to 2,270 women. Only 9 studies looked specifically at MS [2,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32]. The remaining included data about components of MS [2,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58].…”

“…Total 35 studies met the inclusion criteria (Table 1, 2) [2,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54,55,56,57,58]. Sixteen studies were classified as case-control studies [2,28,29,32,37,38,39,41,42,44,47,49,51,52,54,57] and the rest as observational/cross-sectional studies.…”

“…Sixteen studies were classified as case-control studies [2,28,29,32,37,38,39,41,42,44,47,49,51,52,54,57] and the rest as observational/cross-sectional studies. The number of participants ranged from 88 to 2,270 women.…”

Metabolic syndrome and sexual function in postmenopausal women

“…We chose the FSFI questionnaire because this instrument is easily administered in women of a broad age group, including postmenopausal women, but also because it is widely used in international research, as reported in several studies (9,11,10,23). The FSFI was developed as a brief selfreport instrument to assess the main dimensions of the female sexual function.…”

Funkcjonowanie seksualne i objawy depresyjne u kobiet z różnymi typami stanu przedcukrzycowego — badanie pilotażowe

“…Sexual dysfunction was observed in most studies including women with type 2 diabetes [7][8][9][10], in whom the relative risk of sexual dysfunction is estimated at 2.29 [11]. Moreover, most [12][13][14], but not all [15], studies revealed that the prevalence of sexual dysfunction was higher in women with metabolic syndrome than age-matched healthy controls. However, these studies have serious limitations.…”