Women with COVID history may have low sex drive, says study

Published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, a study involving over 2,000 cisgender women revealed that COVID-19 can adversely affect sexual function, particularly in cases of long Covid.

San Francisco: Women, who have suffered from coronavirus, have been found to be interested less in sexual activity, a new study has discovered.

The study of more than 2,000 cisgender women, published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, found the coronavirus disease can impair sexual function, with long Covid having a notably detrimental effect.

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“If you’re sick with Covid, you’re probably less interested in sex and maybe your body is less prepared to have sex,” said Amelia M. Stanton, assistant professor at the US-based Boston University.

“But what might be surprising to some folks is that long Covid symptoms really may have a physiological and psychological impact on sexual well-being for women,” she added.

To find out Covid’s impact on intimacy, the researchers conducted an online survey, in which nearly half of the women who participated had reported never having had Covid, and the rest said they had tested positive.

They found that the levels of “desire, arousal, lubrication, and satisfaction” were all lower in those who had Covid as compared to those who hadn’t. Orgasm and pain scores weren’t significantly different between the two groups.

But while women in the Covid group were still classed within the index’s functional range, participants with long Covid had “an average FSFI full-scale score in the dysfunctional range,” according to the researchers.

“I hope it’s validating. If women type in ‘sex long Covid’, something will come up now,” said Stanton.

“Sex, sexuality, and sexual function are still relatively taboo subjects. But this offers something patients can bring to their providers and say, ‘This is going on for me’, and maybe create an open dialogue around sex,” she added.

In the study, Stanton and her team noted that the results suggested “that Covid-19 infection may be associated with impairment of both cognitive and physiological aspects of sexual function”.