Hormonal contraception and sexual desire: A questionnaire-based study of young Swedish women

Abstract

Objectives The aim of the study was to determine whether a decrease in sexual desire is more prevalent among women using hormonal contraception than among women using hormone-free contraception, and whether a decrease increases the risk of changing to another contraceptive method.

Methods A validated questionnaire was posted to 3740 women (aged 22, 25 or 28 years) living in Sweden. Descriptive statistics were used to present the results; differences between groups were tested using χ² analyses. A multiple logistic regression model was used for analysis of possible confounders.

Results The response rate was 50%. The majority (81%) of respondents used some kind of contraception, and 88% were generally satisfied with the method used. Regardless of the type of method, 27% of hormonal contraceptive users reported a decrease in sexual desire that they attributed to their use of hormonal contraception, whereas only 12% of women using hormone-free contraception reported a decrease in sexual desire (p<0.01). This twofold risk of a decrease in sexual desire was shown in the multiple regression analysis to be independent of age group, depression, BMI, educational level and parity. However, having a partner was found to be a factor of equal importance: women with partners experienced reduced desire twice as often as women without partners. The observed odds ratio for planning to stop hormonal contraception or to change to a different type due to reduced desire was 8.16 (95% confidence interval 6.65-10.1) among women who had had the same experience during a previous period of hormonal contraceptive use.

Conclusions Women using hormonal contraception were more likely to experience reduced sexual desire compared with women using hormone-free contraception. Experiencing reduced desire was a strong predictive factor for women to change contraceptive method.

Keywords:

• Hormonal contraceptives
• Sexual desire
• Intrauterine devices
• Progestin
• Cross-sectional study

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Appendix to be found online at http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13625187.2015.1079609.