Prevalencia de los trastornos de la sexualidad en mujeres climatéricas: Influencia de la menopausia y de la terapia de reemplazo hormonal

background: few trials have studied the prevalence of sexual dysfunction (sd) and related risk factors in postmenopausal women using the dsm-iv criteria. aim: to evaluate the prevalence of sd in menopausal women and the impact of risk factors. patients and methods: five hundred thirty four healthy women, 40 to 64 years of age were interviewed using the laumann test (dsm-iv). results: mean age was 52.4±5.7 years. eighty three percent were peri or postmenopausal, 23% used hormonal substitution therapy and 79.2% were sexually active. among sexually active women, the prevalence of sd increased along with age, from 22.2% at the 40-44 years old range to 66.0% in the 60-64 years old group. hormone users and healthy women had a low risk for sd (odds ratio (or): 0.1 ic: 0.0-0.1 and or: 0.6 ic: 0.3-0.9, respectively). the risk increased in menopausal women (or: 3.3 ic: 1.6-6.9), those older than 49 years (or: 3.4 ic: 1.8-6.4), those subjected to hysterectomy (or: 3.7 ic: 1.3-10.6) or those with an impotent sexual partner (or: 3.2 ic: 1.2-8.6). conclusions: there is a high prevalence of sd among climacteric women. estrogens, either endogenous or exogenous, have a positive influence on sexuality (rev méd chile 2002; 130: 1131-8)