Risk of hypoactive sexual desire disorder and associated factors in a cohort of oophorectomized women

BACKGROUND: Women with surgical menopause are at high risk of developing hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), which may cause sexual and emotional discomfort. AIM: To determine the prevalence of HSDD and related risk factors in Spanish surgically postmenopausal women. DESIGN: Multicenter, cross-sectional study. Material and methods The Brief Profile of Female Sexual Function (B-PFSF) questionnaire was given to 1136 surgically postmenopausal women between 18 and 81 years old (mean 52.1 +/- 7.1 years) attending gynecological consultations in different urban and rural areas in Spain, covering the country widely. RESULTS: From the entire sample, 1083 subjects were finally included. The mean score on the B-PFSFwas 15.9 and a total of 74.4% of the patients presented total scores lower or equal to 20, indicating the risk of presenting with HSDD. The possibility to be at risk of HSDD increased with age from 65.9% in the age group <45 years old to 76.6% in the age group > or =55 years old. Non-users of hormone replacement therapy presented a higher risk of HSDD (odds ratio 2.1; 95% confidence interval 1.3-3.4); the risk was increased as well when the time elapsed since surgical menopause was <5 years (odds ratio 1.8; 95% confidence interval 1.0-3.0). CONCLUSION: Nearly three out of four women who had undergone bilateral oophorectomy were at risk of suffering HSDD; this risk was increased when less than 5 years since surgical menopause had elapsed. The use of hormone replacement therapy was associated with lower HSDD risk.