Sexual functioning in women with eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To describe sexual functioning in women with eating disorders.


METHODS
We assessed physical intimacy, libido, sexual anxiety, partner status, and sexual relationships in 242 women from the International Price Foundation Genetic Studies relative to normative data.


RESULTS
Intercourse (55.3%), having a partner (52.7%), decreased sexual desire (66.9%), and increased sexual anxiety (59.2%) were common. Women with restricting and purging anorexia nervosa had a higher prevalence of loss of libido than women with bulimia nervosa and eating disorder not otherwise specified (75%, 74.6%, 39%, and 45.4%, respectively). Absence of sexual relationships was associated with lower minimum lifetime body mass index (BMI) and earlier age of onset; loss of libido with lower lifetime BMI, higher interoceptive awareness and trait anxiety; and sexual anxiety with lower lifetime BMI, higher harm avoidance and ineffectiveness. Sexual dysfunction in eating disorders was higher than in the normative sample.


CONCLUSIONS
Sexual dysfunction is common across eating disorders subtypes. Low BMI is associated with loss of libido, sexual anxiety, and avoidance of sexual relationships.
Pinheiro
Andréa Poyastro
AP
Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Raney
T J
TJ
Thornton
Laura M
LM
Fichter
Manfred M
MM
Berrettini
Wade H
WH
Goldman
David
D
Halmi
Katherine A
KA
Kaplan
Allan S
AS
Strober
Michael
M
Treasure
Janet
J
Woodside
D Blake
DB
Kaye
Walter H
WH
Bulik
Cynthia M
CM
D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D015992:Body Mass Index; D052018:Bulimia Nervosa / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007989:Libido; D015995:Prevalence; D012725:Sexual Behavior