Abstract Introduction Female sexual function may be affected by pharmacological, behavioral, and contextual factors. Among young women, the use of psychotropic medication, hormonal contraception, and the academic environment may play an important yet understudied role in sexual health. Objective To evaluate the impact of antidepressant/anxiolytic use, hormonal contraception, and academic field on sexual function among university students. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted including 398 female university students. Sexual function was assessed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI). Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) was defined as a total FSFI score ≤ 26.55. Groups were compared according to the use of psychotropic medication (n = 62 vs. n = 336), hormonal contraception (n = 266 vs. n = 132), and academic field (health sciences, social sciences/law, engineering/sciences, arts/humanities). Student’s t-test, Mann–Whitney, and ANOVA were used as appropriate. Results Use of antidepressants or anxiolytics was associated with lower scores across all FSFI domains (p 0.05). Users scored lower in desire (3.45 vs. 3.85), arousal (3.50 vs. 4.28), lubrication (3.94 vs. 4.45), orgasm (3.10 vs. 3.89), satisfaction (4.02 vs. 4.66), pain (3.73 vs. 4.25), and total FSFI (21.74 vs. 25.40; p 0.001). Regarding hormonal contraception (HC), only the orgasm domain differed significantly (3.45 without HC vs. 3.93 with HC; p = 0.016), though a trend toward higher mean scores was observed in other dimensions and total FSFI among users. Academic field also influenced sexual function: health sciences students showed higher desire (4.03) and arousal (4.50) scores compared with social sciences/law (3.45; 3.91) and arts/humanities (3.61; 3.79) (p 0.05). Total FSFI was also higher among health sciences students (26.17; p = 0.037). Conclusions Psychotropic medication use showed a consistent negative impact on all domains of sexual function. Conversely, hormonal contraception was associated with slightly higher FSFI scores, although statistical significance was limited. Academic field emerged as an additional relevant factor, reinforcing the need for an individualized and comprehensive approach to sexual health among university women. Disclosure No
Barbosa et al. (Mon,) studied this question.