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Factors associated with developing vaginal dryness symptoms in women transitioning through menopause: a longitudinal study
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October 2018
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Source: Menopause. 25(10):1094-1104
[PDF-653.07 KB]
Details:
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Alternative Title:Menopause
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Personal Author:
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Description:Objective
To evaluate factors associated with incident self-reported vaginal dryness and the consequences of this symptom across the menopausal transition in a multi-racial/ethnic cohort of community-dwelling women.
Methods
We analyzed questionnaire and biomarker data from baseline and 13 approximately annual visits over 17 years (1996–2013) from 2435 participants in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation, a prospective cohort study. We used discrete-time Cox proportional-hazards regression to identify predictors of incident vaginal dryness and to evaluate vaginal dryness as a predictor of sexual intercourse pain and changes in sexual intercourse frequency.
Results
The prevalence of vaginal dryness increased from 19.4% among all women at baseline (ages 42–53 years) to 34.0% at the thirteenth visit (ages 57–69 years). Advancing menopausal stage, surgical menopause, anxiety and being married were positively associated with developing vaginal dryness, regardless of partnered sexual activity. For women not using hormone therapy, higher concurrent levels of endogenous estradiol were inversely associated (multivariable-adjusted hazard ratio: 0.94 per 0.5 standard deviation increase, 95% confidence interval: 0.91–0.98). Concurrent testosterone levels, concurrent dihydroepiandrosterone-sulfate levels, and longitudinal change in any reproductive hormone were not associated with developing vaginal dryness. Both vaginal dryness and lubricant use were associated with subsequent reporting of pain during intercourse, but not with a decline in intercourse frequency.
Conclusion
In these longitudinal analyses, our data support many clinical observations about the relationship between vaginal dryness, menopause, and pain during intercourse, and suggest that reporting of vaginal dryness is not related to androgen level or sexual intercourse frequency.
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Pubmed ID:29916947
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Pubmed Central ID:PMC6136974
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Funding:
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Volume:25
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Issue:10
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