Women's perceptions of sexological interview during gynaecological consultations: A cross-sectional study

Sexological interviews in gynecological consultations remain a practice that is not routinely undertaken despite the importance of sexual health. The objectives of this study were to investigate patients' expectations from a sexological interview, and the elicitation of sexual dysfunctions. A cross-sectional study was performed at the Maternity and Neonatology Center of Tunis. We included patients aged >18 years who consulted for gynecological reasons outside of any emergency or pregnancy. Our study included 200 patients with a mean age of 41 (±10) years. We found that72.5% of the patients appreciated the approach to sexuality during gynecological consultations. A total of 77.5% of the women indicated that their current gynecological pathology affected their sexuality. The mean of female sexual function index score was 25.05 (±5.03). The most affected domain was desire, with a mean of 3.54 (±1.05). The main predictive factors for sexual dysfunction were: age > 40 years, endometriosis, gynecological cancer, and abnormal uterine bleeding. Thus, it's important to introduce sexological interviews in gynecology consultations, especially for patients at risk of sexual dysfunction.