THURSDAY, April 10 (HealthDay News) -- Sexual dissatisfaction in
postmenopausal women isn't associated with cardiovascular disease,
say U.S. researchers.
It's known that sexual dysfunction in some men is predictive of
cardiovascular disease but this association has never been examined
in women.
In this study, researchers from Boston University School of
Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) analyzed data
collected from more than 93,000 sexually active postmenopausal
women, aged 50 to 79, in the Women's Health Initiative
Observational Study.
The women, recruited at 40 clinical centers across the United
States, were followed for eight to 12 years. They were classified
as either sexually satisfied or dissatisfied based on their
responses to a baseline survey.
The researchers looked for information about cardiovascular
disease -- acute myocardial infarction, stroke or coronary
revascularization procedure -- and related cardiovascular problems
such as congestive heart failure, peripheral artery disease and
angina.
The study did find a modest association between sexual
dissatisfaction and having peripheral artery disease. It also found
that women who were sexually dissatisfied had a lower rate of
angina. However, the researchers found no association between
sexual dissatisfaction and any other form of cardiovascular
disease.
The study was published in the April issue of
The American Journal of Medicine.
"In men, erectile dysfunction is a manifestation of
cardiovascular disease and can predict the development of adverse
cardiovascular outcomes such as heart attack," researcher Dr.
Jennifer McCall-Hosenfeld, a fellow in the department of general
internal medicine at BMC and Women's Health at BUSM, said in a
prepared statement.
"In our study, we used decreased sexual satisfaction as a rough
proxy measure for sexual dysfunction and controlled for lifestyle
issues and other factors that might impact sexual satisfaction. We
did not find that sexual satisfaction predicted cardiovascular
disease in the future," she said.
More information
The U.S. National Women's Health Information Center has more
about
heart disease.
