Ricerc@Sapienza

Objectives: Genital Sexual Pain (GSP) is a common symptom in
reproductive-age women: about 40% of women 20-40 y.o. suffer
from pain during sexual activity. Because of the lack of awareness,
many women could continue to go on with this symptom
without asking help to professionals, increasing the risk of pain
chronicization and sexuality impairment. The aim of the present
study was to investigate how many reproductive-age women in
the general population experience GSP, the characteristics of
such pain (duration, location, etiology), how they face the
symptom, and their sexual functioning.
Material and Methods: 653 women aged between 18 and 40
(mean age 25.7±4.37) were recruited with snowball method.
Participants completed a socio-demographic questionnaire, the
McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), the Female Sexual Functioning
Index (FSFI), the Female Sexual Distress Scale (FSDS).
Results: 190 women (29.6%) reported GSP in the last 6 months
(mean duration of the symptom 16.87±33.75). Pain was located
in: vaginal introitus and vestibule (52.1%), lower abdomen/
pelvis (44.7%), labia minora/majora (25.3%), clitoris (8.4%),
and perineum/anus (5.3%). Most women (75.3%) did not know
the cause of the pain, and a quarter of them (24.7%) reported a
specific diagnosis (vulvodynia, endometriosis, cystitis, vulvovaginal
infections, Bartholin cyst). 58 out of 190 (30.5%) reported
GSP as a “sexual problem”. Although 69 (36.31%) and 50
(26.31%) reached clinical scores on FSFI and FSDS, respectively,
only13 (7%) were under psychosexual therapy for GSP.
Conclusions: Even if GSP was present in almost 30% of this
cohort of women, just few of them asked help to a specialist for
diagnosis and treatment. Cultural aspects may play an important
role in explaining these results: most of women could either think that suffering from GSP is in some way normal or that
there are not solutions available. This study confirms that there is
still a lack of awareness about pain and sexuality and a low
attention to the female quality of sexual life.
Disclosure: Work supported by industry: no