Female sexual dysfunction is the psychological distress caused by a female individual’s inability to engage in or achieve her desired sexual relationship because of a disorder in one or more phases of the sexual response cycle or pain associated with intercourse. These include sexual desire disorders, sexual arousal disorders, painful intercourse disorders, and orgasm disorders. There is no gold standard or objective indicator for the diagnosis of female sexual dysfunction, but mainly relies on clinical judgment, and the necessary condition for the diagnosis is the mental pain caused by the female’s own sexual status.
The causes of female sexual dysfunction include psychological factors, age, physical diseases, drugs and other factors.
Psychological factors affecting female sexual function
At present, it is believed that more than 90% of the causes of female sexual dysfunction are psychological factors. Common psychological factors include.
1, the emotional relationship with the sexual partner (the most important factor)
2, previous negative sexual experience or history of sexual injury
3, low level of self sexual identity
4, low level of self-body identity
5, lack of security
6, wrong or negative perception of sex
7.Emotional tension, depression or anxiety
8.Physical or mental fatigue
Age
Women with age to aging, although the frequency of sexual desire and sexual activity decreases, does not mean the end of sexual interest, especially women whose spouses are alive. But aging can be due to tissue changes such as relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles and atrophy of the reproductive organs to reduce sexual responsiveness. During perimenopause and postmenopause, there is a decrease in estrogen and androgen levels, decreased libido, vaginal dryness and painful intercourse, and sexual activity can lack spontaneous desire, so the physical condition of the sexual partner plays an important role in the frequency of sexual activity in older women.
Somatic diseases
A variety of somatic diseases can directly or indirectly affect female sexual function and sexual satisfaction, including neurological abnormalities such as craniocerebral injury, multiple sclerosis, psychomotor epilepsy, spinal cord injury, stroke, etc.; cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension, blood vessel abnormalities such as leukemia and sickle cell anemia; internal organ abnormalities such as diabetes, hepatitis, kidney disease, etc.; psychological diseases such as anxiety and depression; bladder overstimulation, tension urinary excretory diseases such as urinary incontinence; malignant tumors and lung diseases, etc. These diseases can cause abnormal sexual arousal by affecting local blood flow, and can also affect sexual function and interest by decreasing physical state energy or chronic pain caused by the disease. Psychological depression not only decreases sexual satisfaction and frequency of intercourse, but also reduces sexual desire. Hysterectomy or mastectomy can reduce women’s self-identity and perceived lack of femininity and sexual attractiveness as a result, especially reproductive system surgery may lead to painful intercourse, but in recent years there have also been clinical questionnaire studies suggesting that benign disease state hysterectomy can improve female sexual function, the reasons for which are related to the improvement of post-somatic symptoms and mental stress relief due to disease after surgery.
Low hormone levels
Reduced estrogen levels from all causes can lead to vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, and orgasmic disorders. Decreased androgen levels after menopause can lead to sexual dysfunction, but the normal range of androgen levels required to maintain normal sexual function is not known.
Medications
Many commonly used medications can affect female sexual function. The most common are selective 5-hydroxytryptamine reuptake inhibitors used to treat depression/anxiety, which can suppress libido and difficulty with orgasm.