Top 50 most cited articles about female sexual dysfunction: a bibliometric analysis

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) consists of low libido, sexual arousal problems, anorgasmia, and dyspareunia. Sexual function is an important aspect of life for many women and is closely correlated with overall well-being. FSD is often underrepresented in the academic space when compared with male sexual disorders, such as erectile dysfunction. As FSD spans many fields (eg, urology, gynecology, psychology), bibliometric analyses are an important resource to highlight landmark articles.

To identify key articles about FSD by citation number and bibliometric analysis to facilitate future scholarly efforts into more FSD research.

We searched for articles in the Web of Science Core Collection between 1900 and 2023 using terms specific to FSD. We identified relevant FSD articles and selected the top 50 most cited. A bibliometric analysis was performed to collect and analyze data about title, authorship, publication year, citation number, journal and impact factor, country and institution, study type, citation index, specialty, and conflict of interest.

An overall 6858 results were identified. The top 50 most cited articles were published between 1997 and 2014 in 12 countries, across 32 institutions, and in 20 journals. The United States produced the most articles. The Journal of Sexual Medicine published the most articles. The mean number of citations per article was 351.64. Observational studies were most common. More than half were sponsored. Of all the specialties, most articles were categorized as urology and nephrology. Research about FSD has been much less impactful than research about male sexual dysfunction, possibly owing to stigma and decreased clinical training.

As FSD covers many fields, bibliometric analyses are invaluable to understand the vast body of knowledge. We hope that this research emphasizes the lack of attention that FSD has had and that it provides health care professionals with a valuable tool to understand the trajectory of FSD to guide future education efforts.