Abstract
Background
Sexual dysfunction in some men is predictive of occult cardiovascular disease. We
investigated whether dissatisfaction with sexual activity, a domain of female sexual
dysfunction, is associated with prevalent and incident cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal
women.
Methods
Data from the Women′s Health Initiative-Observational Study were used. Subjects who
were sexually active in the past year were classified at baseline as sexually satisfied
or dissatisfied. We performed multiple logistic regression analyses modeling baseline
cardiovascular conditions including myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization,
peripheral arterial disease, congestive heart failure, and angina. We then created
Cox proportional hazards models to determine hazard ratios for incident cardiovascular
disease by baseline sexual dissatisfaction status.
Results
Dissatisfaction with sexual activity at baseline was significantly associated with
prevalent peripheral arterial disease (odds ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval, 1.15-1.84),
but not prevalent myocardial infarction, stroke, coronary revascularization including
coronary artery bypass graft and percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty, or
a composite cardiovascular disease variable. The odds of baseline angina were decreased
among those reporting sexual dissatisfaction at baseline (odds ratio 0.77, 95% confidence
interval, 0.66-0.86). In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, dissatisfaction with
sexual activity was not significantly related to an increased hazard of any cardiovascular
disease.
Conclusions
Dissatisfaction with sexual activity was modestly associated with an increased prevalence
of peripheral arterial disease, even after controlling for smoking status. However,
dissatisfaction did not predict incident cardiovascular disease. Although this may
represent insensitivity of the sexual satisfaction construct to measure sexual dysfunction
in women, it might be due to physiological differences in sexual functioning between
men and women.
Keywords
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Article info
Footnotes
The Women’s Health Initiative program was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. McCall-Hosenfeld was supported by a Department of Veterans Affairs Special Fellowship in the Health Issues of Women Veterans.
Identification
Copyright
© 2008 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
