One in 10 women finds sex painful, says study

Is sex all about pleasure? A new study finds that almost one in ten women experience pain during sex.

The findings, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology indicate that women between the ages of 55 and 64, followed by younger women between the ages of 16 and 24 were the most affected ones.

According to researchers from the University of Glasgow in UK, the study shows strong link between the pain that women experience during sex with anxiety, menopause and emotional connection.

There is no link between the amount of times a woman had sex and the pain that they experience.

 

"There is a tendency of health professionals to just focus on the presentation of pain and find an underlying cause, while sometimes health reasons like endometriosis or STIs will be a reason for painful sex, when this is not the case health professionals should delve further.," said Co-author Dr Kirstin Mitchell.

For the younger group of women who reported the second highest levels of pain during sex, Dr Mitchell explained, "In terms of prevention, this could be addressed in sex education in school, for example the importance of being able to talk about what you like and don't like."

The team included 7,000 British women and found that 7.5 percent of sexually active women between the ages of 16 and 74 reported painful sex lasting three months or more over the past year.

The results suggest that 62 percent of women said they lacked interest in having sex and 40 percent said they lacked enjoyment and almost a quarter said they experienced no excitement or arousal during sex too.

Mental health, depression, poor health, sexually transmitted infections were among other reasons of women experiencing painful sex.

The study also found no relationship between general happiness in the relationship and sex, but strong associations at different levels of interest in sex, lack of an emotional connection and not sharing the same sexual likes and dislikes.

"Younger age groups could also have difficulties becoming aroused or they feel anxious which could be a sign they are not ready or are in a relationship where they do not yet feel comfortable or trusting - all of these issues could be addressed in sex education," he stated.

For painful sex, the authors recommended health professionals to go for holistic treatment which could take into account the context of the symptoms.