Severity of climacteric symptomatology related to depression and sexual function in women from a private clinic

Abstract

Introduction:The climacteric is a natural transition stage in women, in which hormonal changes occur that affect the physical and psychological well-being. Therefore, the objective was to determine the relationship of the severity of climacteric symptomatology with depression and sexual function in women.Materials and methods: It was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, with a sample of 60 women between 40 and 65 years old. The Female Sexual Function Questionnaire-2, the Menopause Rating Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory were used.Results: The mean age of the women was 49.1 ±5.6 years. 21.7% of the women had severe depression, 28.3% moderate, and 50% mild/minimal. Changes in sleep habits (1.73 ±0.88) and in appetite (1.63 ±0.73) were the most severe manifestations. Difficulty sleeping (1.05 ±0.99), physical and mental fatigue (1.48 ±0.98), and vaginal sequelae (1.45 ±1.26) were the most serious complaints in the somatic, psychological, and urogenital domains, respectively. 60% presented severe sexual dysfunction regarding genital pain and 55% in vaginal penetration. Communicating sexual preferences to the partner was common in 75% of women. 88.3% had frequent sexual activity, but 63.3% had zero or low sexual satisfaction.Conclusions: Climacteric symptomatology is related to depression but not to women's sexual function.

Sexual Health and Psychological Well-Being of Women: A Systematic Review

“…Thus, in the present systematic review study, 14 selected articles were analyzed, in which population samples and variables related to psychological well-being and sexual health were examined. Regarding the former, it was found that 42.9% of the studies used clinical samples as the study population [25][26][27][28][29][30], while 35.7% used representative samples of the general population [31][32][33][34][35]. Only three studies (21.4%) used both types of samples, clinical and general populations [36][37][38].…”

“…In relation to sexual health variables, 50% of the studies exclusively evaluated variables linked to sexual functioning, while two articles (14.3%) analyzed aspects other than sexual functioning but in relation to sexual health [28,33]. Five articles (35.7%) examined variables associated with sexual functioning along with other variables related to sexual health [26,27,29,37,38]. For example, Fogh et al [26] reported odds ratios indicating an increasing probability of sexual dysfunction with more/worse depressive symptoms.…”

“…The other two articles were categorized as medical-psychological, focusing on risk factors related to ADHD and hypoactive sexual desire diagnosis, respectively [30,37]. Additionally, another four articles (28.6%) centered only on medical outcomes, addressing factors related to cancer, menopause, and pelvic-genital pain [26,27,29,38]. Two articles (14.3%) presented exclusively psychological outcomes, with anxiety and depression as the risk factors [35,36].…”

Sexual Health and Psychological Well-Being of Women: A Systematic Review

“…Thus, in the present systematic review study, 14 selected articles were analyzed, in which population samples and variables related to mental and sexual health were examined. Regarding the former, it was found that 42.9% of the studies used clinical samples as the study population [25][26][27][28][29][30], while 35.7% used representative samples of the general population [31][32][33][34][35]. Only three studies (21.4%) used both types of samples, clinical and general population [36][37][38].…”

“…In relation to sexual health variables, 50% of the studies exclusively evaluated variables linked to sexual functioning, while two articles (14.3%) analyzed aspects other than sexual functioning but related to sexual health [28,33]. 5 articles (35.7%) examined variables associated with sexual functioning along with other variables related to sexual health [26,27,29,37,38].…”