Non-pharmacological interventions for treating sexual dysfunction in postpartum women: a systematic review protocol

Sexual dysfunction in the postpartum period is a very common and relevant clinical problem, which has a significant adverse impact on the health of women. We aim to analyse the efficacy and safety of non-pharmacological interventions for treating sexual dysfunction in postpartum women. Our review aims to provide accurate data for effective policy-making and improve our understanding of the treatment of postpartum sexual dysfunction with non-pharmacological therapies.

The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in The Cochrane Library, clinicaltrials.gov, Medline/PubMed, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature), LILACS (Literatura Latino-americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde) and Embase will be used to search for articles dated from database inception to July 2019. Randomised controlled clinical trials and large prospective cohorts with control groups using non-pharmacological treatments for sexual dysfunction in postpartum women will be included. Sexual problems are directly linked to sexual dysfunction; thus, the primary outcome will be the absolute number or percentage of sexual issues in each treatment group. The secondary outcomes will be assessed by decreased sexual problems, such as lack of lubrication, decreased libido and difficulty reaching orgasm. Three reviewers will independently select trials and extract data from the original publications. The citations will be screened independently by reviewers in duplicate. The risk of bias of the included studies will be assessed according to the Cochrane risk of bias tool. Data synthesis will be performed using Review Manager (RevMan) software V.5.2.3. In the event that a meta-analysis is possible, we will assess the heterogeneity across the studies by computing the I² statistic.

As the design of this study includes a review of published data, the need to obtain ethical approval was waived by our institutional review committee. We intend to publish the findings of this systematic review in a peer-reviewed journal.

CRD42018103077.