Sexual functioning and quality of life of Hong Kong Chinese women with infertility problem

Abstract

Infertility is estimated to affect 10–15% of couples in industrialized countries and many of them are under tremendous stress. Stress can lead to poor quality of life and sexual dysfunction in general, but little is known about their prevalence in infertile women. We, therefore, conducted this cross-sectional survey in two primary care subfertility clinics between August 2012 and April 2013. A total of 159 women completed two validated Chinese questionnaires: Female Sexual Function Index and core Fertility Quality of Life. The overall Female Sexual Function Index score (mean ± SD) of the whole group was 24.99 ± 4.22. Using the urban Chinese cut-off, the prevalence of female sexual dysfunction, low desire, arousal disorder, lubrication disorder, orgasmic disorder and sexual pain were 32.5%, 15.7%, 19.3%, 22.3%, 33.1% and 15.1%. The core Fertility Quality of Life score of the whole group was 59.76 ± 13.59 and the subgroup of infertile women with sexual dysfunction (n = 50) had significantly lower mean core Fertility Quality of Life score than those without sexual dysfunction (n = 109) (55.03 versus 61.88) (p = 0.005). Among the subscales, the relational score had the strongest correlation with sexual dysfunction. Infertile women with sexual dysfunction had significantly worse quality of life especially in the relational aspect.

Keywords:

• Infertility
• Female Sexual Function Index
• quality of life
• psychometric tool

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Chang Shiow-Ru for permitting us to use the Taiwan Version of FSFI for our research and Drs. Lee Ka Yu and Lau Sin Yee for overseeing the field work in the Subfertility Clinics.

Disclosure statement

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