Female sexual dysfunction is more prevalent in women with hypertension compared to those with normal blood pressure, a study says.
Age and duration of hypertension appear to be significant predictors of FSD, a persistent or recurring decrease in sexual desire, arousal, inability to achieve an orgasm, and pain during sexual intercourse, a study presented at the 21st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension said.Researchers who evaluated more than 400 women at an outpatient clinic in Greece found sexual dysfunction in more than twice as many of those with essential hypertension as those with normal blood pressure.
They also found that sexual dysfunction rates gradually increased in older versus younger hypertensive women and that the longer a woman had hypertension the more likely she was to experience sexual dysfunction.
These findings are significant because although hypertension affects more than 20 per cent of the population and is a known risk factor for male sexual dysfunction, there have been no definite data on a relation between sexual dysfunction and hypertension in women, Michael Doumas of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Athens said.
Doumas and colleagues evaluated sexually active Caucasian women aged 31 to 60 years with and without hypertension using the questionnaire called the Female Sexual Function Index.
Among those with hypertension, FSD was also more frequent in treated (47.8 per cent) as opposed to untreated (32.5 per cent) women.
Source: PTI News
