Female sexual pain disorders: dyspareunia and vaginismus

To analyze literature on sexual pain disorders and to review and summarize the articles published throughout 2013 which contribute to the current knowledge on this subject.

By age 40, 7.8% of women reported vulvar pain. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, has combined vaginismus and dyspareunia into the same diagnostic label. The research reviewed in this article seems to differently point toward two conditions, focusing on different aspects both on the etiological and on the treatment area. Higher levels of partner-perceived self-efficacy and lower levels of partner catastrophizing were associated with less pain intensity in women with entry dyspareunia, independent of women's pain perception and self-efficacy. Alexithymia and fear were found to be important etiological factors in vaginismus.

The present findings did not provide clear evidence in support of the superiority of any treatment and highlight the need for randomized, placebo-controlled trials that compare treatments in the future. A lot of work remained to be done to understand such a complex and multifaceted disturbance as genital sexual pain, but the articles examined showed that we are slowly adding more knowledge on the etiological cause and treatment models for such conditions.