Couples share wine, movies, vacations and bedrooms. Do couples also share sexual problems and solutions?
In the November issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, researchers have published the first-ever prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multi-institutional treatment study with multi-dimensional psychometrically valid outcomes and concluded that an effective erectile dysfunction treatment in men also significantly improved sexual function and sexual satisfaction in untreated women partners. The research concluded that women partners' sexual function improvements related significantly and consistently to treatment-related improvements in men's erectile function. Furthermore, erectile dysfunction management should acknowledge that both members of the couple may be affected by erectile dysfunction and its treatment.
The research, in an article entitled: "Women's Sexual Function Improves When Partners Are Administered Vardenafil for Erectile Dysfunction: A Prospective, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial," published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine, involved 229 men with erectile dysfunction for more than 6 months and their women partners. The women completed baseline sexual function questionnaires including the Female Sexual Function Index, which has 19 questions concerning 6 domains: desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain. Other outcome scales used included the Sexual Life Quality Questionnaire.
The couples were divided into two groups, those couples in which the men with erectile dysfunction received a safe and effective PDE5 inhibitor (vardenafil, Levitra) and those in which the men received placebo. There was no difference between the untreated women's sexual function scores in the two groups at baseline. After 12 weeks and approximately 20 intercourse experiences, the untreated women who were with men assigned to placebo were observed to have their sexual function scores fall in all domains. The untreated women who were with men assigned to effective erectile dysfunction treatment recorded significantly increased sexual function scores in all domains. The greatest increases in sexual function were noted in orgasm and satisfaction domains.