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Sexual Health in Bariatric Surgery: A Bibliometric Study
1Selçuk University, Konya, Turkey. pinartunctuna@gmail.com.
Background:
Bariatric surgery not only treats obesity-related diseases but also positively impacts sexual health. However, research in this field is limited. Analyzing the overall status of the literature is essential to guide researchers. This study aims to bibliometrically examine publications on bariatric surgery and sexual health.
Methods:
The study was conducted using publications on bariatric surgery and sexual health in the WoS database (N = 217). The Web of Science database was searched on June 19, 2025, using a topic, which includes the title, abstract, author keywords, and keyword plus fields. Data were used the keywords ("Obesity surgery" OR "bariatric surgery") AND ("sexual life" OR "sexuality" OR "sexual health" OR "sexual problems" OR "sexual function" OR "sexual dysfunction") without time restrictions. Analyses were performed using R (R 4.2.2.), and results were presented under basic information, treemap, trend topics, and thematic map.
Results:
A total of 217 publications from 1996 to 2025 were analyzed. The average publication age was 7.66 years. The United States had the most publications, and bariatric Surgery was the leading journal in the field. Although the annual number of publications has fluctuated, the highest number of publications was reached between the years 2017 and 2019. Treemap analysis highlighted weight loss (n = 26, 6%), quality of life (n = 24, 6%), and erectile dysfunction (n = 12, 3%) as prominent keywords. The topics that have been on the agenda for the last 2 years are "infertility, overweight." "Pregnancy" and "contraception" are themes that continue to develop, "erectile dysfunction" is a theme that drives the field, while "quality of life" is a well developed but isolated topic.
Conclusions:
The topic of sexual health in the field of bariatric surgery is rapidly growing despite its relative novelty. Quality of life and body reconstruction topics constitute a limited portion of the literature. However, research is largely focused on male sexual problems, while studies on women are mostly shaped around the axis of pregnancy. This highlights the need for research specifically addressing women's sexual health.
