William Atkins
Saturday, 01 November 2008 21:20
Science -
Health
Page 1 of 3
A study headed by Jan Shifren has concluded that 40 percent of women in the United States have sexual problems but only 20 percent have personal distress over these sexual problems.
The study was published in the November 2008 issue of the journal
Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Its title “
Sexual Problems and Distress in United States Women Prevalence and Correlates” was authored by Dr.
Jan L. Shifren (Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston), along with Brigitta U. Monz (Germany), Patricia A. Russo (Washington D.C.), Anthony Segreti (North Carolina), and Catherine B. Johannes (Massachusetts).
The objective of their study was to measure the number of self-reported sexual problems and personal distress in women with regards to
“desire, arousal, and orgasm.”
The Shifren-led team studied 31,581 women that were eighteen years of age or older from 50,002 households across the United States.
They found that 43.1% of American women reported sexual problems and 22.2% reported sexually related personal distress (as reported based on the Female Sexual Distress Scale).
The Female Sexual Distress Scale is a a 12-point measurement of a woman's distress
about her sex life. The FSDS measures anger, guilt, frustration, worry, stress, embarrassment, and unhappiness during the 30 days before the measurement is taken.
In addition, distressing sexual problem (classified as having both a sexual problem and a sexually related personal distress) was reported in 12.0% of the women.
Page two reports more statistics and comments based on them.
