Female Sexual Dysfunction: A Primer for Primary Care Health Professionals

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is common and associated with decreased quality of life, relationship satisfaction, and overall well-being. However, primary care practitioners report discomfort discussing, diagnosing, and treating FSD.

We delivered two sessions on the approach to evaluation and treatment of FSD: a 60-minute didactic session and a 90-minute workshop. The intended audience was primary health care professionals who care for women. The workshop utilized interactive teaching methods including a large-group discussion, case-based discussions, debrief of an observed patient-physician discussion, and language drills to develop participants' knowledge and skills. Participants were surveyed about their practice patterns and attitudes toward FSD following the sessions on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).

We collected 131 evaluations from a national Veterans Health Administration 60-minute didactic and four evaluations from the Society of General Internal Medicine Annual Meeting 90-minute workshop (response rates were 60% and 15%, respectively). One hundred thirty-five interdisciplinary trainees and practitioners from both audiences highly rated the workshop content (M = 4.1) and the overall session (M = 4.3). Didactic participants (n = 131) also reported high satisfaction (M = 4.5), increased knowledge and skills (M = 4.4), and improved interprofessional collaborative practice (M = 4.4) as a result of the training.

Our evaluation shows high satisfaction following interactive multimodal sessions on FSD. These adaptable resources can be used in multiple educational settings (didactic and workshop) and for multiple time frames to teach about FSD.