Prevalence and factors associated with female sexual dysfunction among women attending the gynecology clinic at Kawempe National Refferal Hospital, Kampala

Abstract

Introduction: FSD refers to a clinically significant disturbance in a woman’s ability to respond sexually or to experience sexual pleasure, occurring over the last 6 months (Four months adopted 4Tfor this study). The prevalence of female sexual dysfunction was found to be 44.6% at Kawempe National referral hospital. Factors that were found to be significantly associated with female sexual dysfunction are depression, chronic pelvic pain and being single or divorced. Objective: To determine the prevalence of and factors associated with female sexual function disorders among women attending the gynecology clinic at Kawempe National referral hospital, Kampala, Uganda. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of women aged 18-49 years attending the outpatient gynecology clinic at Kawempe National referral hospital (KNRH) between July and September 2021. Data was collected using 1) a pre-tested questionnaire. 2) the Female sexual function (FSFI) tool and 3) the Edinburg postnatal depression scale. The data collected was entered into Epi-data software version 3.2 and then exported to Stata software version 14 where it was cleaned and analyzed. Results: A total of 365 women who had come to seek services at the gynecology clinic of KNRH were enrolled. The prevalence of FSD was found to be 44.3%. Of the different sexual function disorders, sexual arousal disorder was the most prevalent (77.1%) while satisfaction disorder was the least prevalent (50.6%). Female Sexual Disorder was more among single women compared to those who are married/ cohabiting, (65% vs. 33%)- aPR-1.65, 95%CI (1.076-2.540), p-0.022; 33% statistically significantly more among women with history of pelvic pain compared with those without, aPR-1.33, 95%CI (1.008-1.761), p-0.044; and 52% statistically significantly more among women with minor/major depression compared to those with no depression, Apr-1.52, 95%CI (1.115-2.071), p-0.008. Conclusion: Female sexual dysfunction had a prevalence of 44.6% at Kawempe National referral hospital. Depression, chronic pelvic pain and being single were associated with Female sexual dysfunction. With the prevailing burden of female sexual dysfunction in low resource settings, there is a need for healthcare providers to routinely screen for FSD and the associated factors in order to detect those who are affected so that they can be linked to appropriate care.