Prevalence of Female Sexual Dysfunctions Among Healthy Women Coming to the University of Bologna Gynecology Clinic as Outpatients.

BACKGROUND:

Female Sexual Dysfunctions (FSD) are a relatively new field of study as are possible interventions. Until recently FSD were regarded as only a psychological matter and consequently the exact definition of the problem was to some extent controversial. Things have changed and now we refer to FSD according to the classification decided during the International Consensus development Conference on FSD (Basson et al, 2000). There are 5 major categories of FSD: Sexual Desire Disorders, Sexual Arousal Disorders, Orgasmic Disorders, Sexual Pain Disorders. A woman can be considered sexually dysfunctional if she has one or more of these disorders and if she feels uncomfortable about them.

Recent studies completed abroad show the prevalence of FSD to be extremely high: from 38% to 63% of women interviewed about their sexuality have complaints about it.

RATIONALE:

So far, in Italy there are no studies showing the prevalence of FSD among healthy women. We have no reasons to think that the results will demonstrate lower percentages than those found abroad indicating therefore a high number of women complaining about their sexuality.