Psychologic profiles of and sexual function in women with vulvar vestibulitis and their partners

To compare psychologic profiles of women with vulvar vestibulitis and their partners with a normal population, and to identify sexual dysfunction in women and their partners.

Forty-three women with vulvar vestibulitis and 38 partners, recruited from a gynecology outpatient clinic, completed the Symptom Check List-90, the Short Dutch Version of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Maudsley Marital Questionnaire, and the Questionnaire for Screening Sexual Dysfunctions.

The women with vulvar vestibulitis scored significantly higher on the somatization and shyness subscales than a normal population. They didn't differ in respect to their current level of psychologic distress, extraversion, risk of psychopathology, and marital satisfaction. Their partners had significantly lower scores for psychopathology than a normal population. They didn't differ from a normal population in respect to their level of psychologic distress, extraversion, shyness, somatization, and marital satisfaction. Women with vulvar vestibulitis reported more frequent problems and higher distress with genital pain, lubrication, sexual arousal, and negative emotions in the sexual interaction with the partner. During masturbation, however, they reported less frequent problems and distress. The partners of these women reported nearly no problems or distress in either sexual situation.

Women with vulvar vestibulitis and their partners seem in general to be psychologically healthy, although vulvar vestibulitis may be associated with a situationally defined sexual dysfunction for the women.