Pelvic floor muscle strength and sexual function in primigravid and multigravid women: An observational study

 Weakened pelvic floor muscles can affect the female sexual response cycle phases: desire, arousal, lubrication and orgasm. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between pelvic floor muscle strength and sexual function in non-pregnant women and examine the influence of the number of pregnancies.

 This observational study was conducted on 48 pregnant women (24 primigravid and 24 multigravid women with the age range of 25 to 40 years in Belagavi city. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire was used to evaluate the sexual function. The floor muscle strength was evaluated by vaginal using the oxford scale. Spearman correlation tests was used to check the strength and direction of the linear relationships between pairs of variables.

 The mean age of the women was 37.08±5 years. Female sexual function was positively correlated with pelvic floor muscle strength (rho= 0.50, P= 0.001). Pelvic floor muscle was negatively correlated with age (rho= -0.37, P= 0.010) and parity (rho= -0.52, P= 0.001). In addition, female sexual function was negatively correlated with age (rho= -0.41, P= 0.004) and parity (rho = -0.52, P= 0.001).

 The results suggest that multigravida women have lower pelvic floor muscle strength and worse sexual function than primigravid women.