The impact of COVID-19 and long COVID on sexual function in cisgender women, 2023, Seehuus et al.

The impact of COVID-19 and long COVID on sexual function in cisgender women
Seehuus, Martin; Fertig, Madison; Handy, Ariel B; Clifton, Jessica; Stanton, Amelia M

Background: Research suggests that COVID-19 impairs sexual function in men, but little is known about the impact of COVID-19 (or long COVID) on sexual function in women.

Aim: We sought to compare the sexual function of cisgender women who had never had COVID-19, who had COVID-19 but not long COVID, and who had long COVID, and assessed whether long COVID symptoms and/or emotional distress mediate the relationship between COVID-19 history and sexual function.

Methods: In total, 2329 adult cisgender women were recruited online as study participants. Half of these women reported having had COVID-19, and the other half reported never having had COVID-19. Of those who had COVID-19, 25% (n = 170) reported having long COVID. We compared the mean Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) scores by using t-tests for each of the primary comparison categories (never COVID vs COVID and only COVID vs long COVID). Four path models were used to test the hypotheses that (1) long COVID symptoms or (2) depression, anxiety, and/or stress assessed with the subscales of the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) mediated the relationship between COVID-19 and sexual function.

Outcomes: Sexual function was measured with the FSFI, long COVID symptoms were assessed using the Centers for Disease Control working symptom set, and emotional distress was measured with the DASS-21.

Results: In total, 1313 participants provided data suitable for analysis. The never-COVID group (n = 645, 49.1%) had higher scores on the Desire, Arousal, Lubrication, and Satisfaction subscales of the FSFI (mean [M] [SD] FSFI total M never COVID = 27.98 [4.84] vs M COVID = 27.05 [5.21]) than the combined only-COVID (n = 498, 37.9%) and long-COVID (n = 170, 12.9%) groups. The FSFI subscale scores were significantly higher in the only-COVID group than in the long-COVID group for the Arousal, Lubrication, and Orgasm and lower for the Pain subscales and higher for overall sexual function (FSFI total M only COVID = 27.49 [5.00] vs M long COVID = 25.77 [5.61]. None of the proposed mediation models had adequate model fit.

Clinical Implications: Clinicians treating cisgender women who have COVID-19 should consider proactively discussing sexual function with their patients and offering available resources.

Strengths and Limitations: In this study we used a large and diverse sample, but this sample did not include transgender or gender-diverse persons. This study was also correlational; as such, causal conclusions cannot be drawn. Further, the mechanism of action remains unexplained.

Conclusions: The study findings suggest the following: (1) COVID-19 infection is associated with impaired sexual function in cisgender women, and (2) that women with long COVID experienced incrementally more impaired sexual function than women with COVID-19 who did not develop long COVID.

Link | PDF (The Journal of Sexual Medicine)

 

Sex is an exertion, just like walking, concentrating, or anything else that might require a certain level of energy. So if someone has a condition that reduces their energy levels, that will have an impact on their sexual function. So no surprises but important that is is investigated, and I'm sure that the same would be found in pwME.

 

I agree the same would be found in ME. Energy impairment is importantly limiting, but this is looking at much more: eg psychological, endocrine, vascular, autonomic and somatic neurological factors.

The authors are unfortunately very psychosomatically-inclined in their discussion, but what I think this paper is actually highlighting is the problem with the endocrine, vascular, autonomic and somatic neurology factors, even if these authors don't recognise it.

 

I would argue that energy impairment will impact on all of that.