Fibromyalgia and sexual problems

Submitted: 4 September 2012
Accepted: 4 September 2012
Published: 28 September 2012
Abstract Views: 2267
PDF: 1766
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

The aim of this review was to describe the recent literature concerning sexual dysfunction in fibromyalgic patients. To this end, we used the common online databases PubMed, MEDLINE and EMBASE (up to June 2012) and searched for the key words fibromyalgia (FM) and sexual dysfunction. All the studies examined underlined that FM is strictly associated with sexual dysfunction in women. The major findings observed were related to a decreased sexual desire and arousal, decreased experience of orgasm, and in some studies an increase in genital pain. The psychological aspects, together with the stress related to the constant presence of chronic widespread pain, fatigue and sleep disturbances, are certainly a major factor that adversely affects the sexuality of the patient with FM. Moreover, the drugs most commonly used in these cases may interfere negatively on the sexuality and sexual function of these patients. Therefore, the therapeutic intervention should be targeted and the side effects should be weighed up against the positive effects. It is of the utmost importance to recognise the problem of sexuality and sexual dysfunction in a more complex form of its expression and undertake a multidisciplinary therapeutic intervention to improve the quality of FM patients’ life.

Dimensions

Altmetric

PlumX Metrics

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations

How to Cite

Bazzichi, L., Giacomelli, C., Rossi, A., Sernissi, F., Scarpellini, P., Consensi, A., & Bombardieri, S. (2012). Fibromyalgia and sexual problems. Reumatismo, 64(4), 261–267. https://doi.org/10.4081/reumatismo.2012.261