[The prevalence of sexual problems in female medical students]

Female sexual dysfunction and even female sexual function are widely unknown. We therefore evaluated the sexual behaviour of younger and older women using a questionnaire. A total of 998 young women entered the study at Hannover Medical school. They were between 19 and 43 years old (median 24 years), and 64% answered the questionnaire. A total of 97.1% of the female students were heterosexual, 1.6% were lesbians and 1.3% were bisexual. Lack of sexual intercourse in the previous month was recorded by 21.1%, while 21.3% recorded intercourse 1-3 times a month, 46.8% 1-3 times a week and 5.5% daily. Adverse reactions to sexual situations were reported by 25% of the women, 20.5% had a negative perception for special partners or circumstances. Some 55% of the evaluated women were satisfied with their sexual life in the last month, 20% were fairly satisfied and 21% were un-satisfied. This study of a selected population of medical students shows a wide variety of sexual problems with a high prevalence of different disorders.