Assessment of Sexual Function in Infertile Women in a Gynecological Care Setting

Infertility has a high prevalence worldwide. There is also a high prevalence of sexual problems, mainly in gynecological care settings, but many women are unlikely to discuss sexual problems with their physicians.

To verify how second-year gynecology residents (SGRs) assess the sexual function of infertile women who are undergoing assisted reproductive techniques (ART) at a single infertility tertiary care center in Brazil.

Medical records of patients.

This retrospective cohort study evaluated all medical records of women who underwent in vitro fertilization (IVF) or intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) between January 2011 and December 2012 at a fertility clinic of the Hospital das Clinicas of Ribeirão Preto Medical School, University of São Paulo.

A total of 616 women underwent ART during the study period. The mean patient age was 34.5 ± 4.4 years, mean weight was 65.6 ± 12.4 kg, mean height was 163 ± 0.6 cm, and mean body mass index (BMI) was 24.8 ± 4.3 kg/m(2). We classified the methods that medical residents used to assess the sexual frequency of these women as a numerical method, by categorization, or none (no assessment). A total of 26.7% (n = 166) of the SGRs did not assess female sexual function and 26.2% (n = 163) made assessments using categorization. SGRs who used a numerical method rather than categorization to classify the sexual frequency of their female patients were more likely to record answers to other questions on sexual desire, arousal, and orgasm.

SGRs typically do not assess female sexual function in infertile couples. There was considerable heterogeneity among SGRs in their assessment of coital frequency and female sexual function.