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07.12.2016

Vitamin D3 deficiency lowers quality of sex in women

The sex life of women who have low levels of vitamin D3 in their blood is generally speaking worse than that of women who have a good vitamin D3 status. Endocrinologists at Sisli Etfal Training and Research Hospital in Turkey report on this in International Urology and Nephrology.

Study
The researchers got 108 women aged between 22 and 51 to fill in the Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire. Sexologists use this questionnaire to determine the quality of women's sexual functioning.

Women who score higher than 26.55 are usually functioning well. Women who score lower than this have reduced sexual functioning.

The researchers also measured the concentration of vitamin D3 in the women's blood.

Results
The women who scored high on the Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire, and therefore had no sexual problems, had higher levels of vitamin D in their blood than the women with lower scores.

The Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire contains questions on "desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and genital pain" that women have experienced during lovemaking in the past four years. The women with a high level of vitamin D scored better for all factors than the women with a low level of vitamin D.

The researchers also measured the concentrations of hormones including estradiol, testosterone, LH, FSH, DHEA, thyroxin and TSH in the women's blood. Here there was no difference in hormone levels between the women with a high score and those with a low score on the Female Sexual Function Index. So it's unlikely that vitamin D influences sexual functioning via the hormonal status. How vitamin D does work the researchers were unable to determine.

Conclusion
"This study demonstrated that deficiency of vitamin D3 levels is lower in women with sexual dysfunction as noted on the Female Sexual Function Index questionnaire", the researchers wrote.

"However, further studies with larger sample size are necessary to understand the pathophysiology of vitamin D3 deficiency-induced female sexual dysfunction."

Source:
Int Urol Nephrol. 2016 Nov;48(11):1789-95.

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Daily dose of vitamin D keeps over 50s' muscles in shape 19.12.2015

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