Women's Sex Lives Improve After Bariatric Surgery

Thursday, 05 August 2010 15:19

A study presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery found that nearly 70 percent of women who underwent bariatric surgery experienced an improvement in sexual function.

Female sexual function is evaluated with the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), which assesses sexual function in 6 areas - desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain -on a scale of 2 to 36, which higher scores representing better sexual function. An overall score of 26.55 or lower indicates sexual dysfunction.

Earlier, researchers at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University in Providence, RI, found that 60 percent of female candidates for weight-loss surgery experienced some sort of sexual dysfunction. In a follow-up study, a team of doctors evaluated 54 women who had undergone bariatric surgery to determine if the procedure improved their FSFI scores. Thirty-eight of the women had undergone adjustable gastric banding, while the remaining 16 received gastric bypass surgery.

Six months after surgery, the gastric band patients lost an average of 34 percent of their excess weight, and the gastric bypass patients lost an average of 60 percent excess body weight. According to Medscape Today, however, all women showed improved scores in all 6 areas, regardless of the total weight lost.

Before surgery, 63 percent of the women had FSFI scores low enough to indicate sexual dysfunction. Six months following surgery, sexual dysfunction had resolved in 68 percent of those women. All 54 women showed improvement in their overall FSFI scores. Post-surgical scores were even improved in women who were taking antidepressants, which can diminish sexual function.

The women experiencing the greatest improvement were those who were younger, were married, and exhibited the lowest pre-surgery scores.

The average score increased from 24.0 to 29.4 after surgery. Dr. Dale Bond, lead author of the study, reported that the women's post-surgical scores were the same as normal control levels. Dr. Bond told Medscape General Surgery that several factors could be responsible for the improved scores, especially the improved self-confidence that often occurs after surgery, as well as other psychological factors. "There are numerous improvements in various aspects of the quality of life and mood that we can expect to see during this initial period," he said.

He also noted that the improved FSFI scores are consistent with the degree of improvement in other obesity-related health conditions.

Because the study only looked at women 6 months after surgery, further research is needed to evaluate the long-term effects of bariatric surgery on female sexual function.