Prolonged course of COVID-19 may lead to impaired sexual function in women - study

From work to school to socializing, COVID-19 affects nearly every area of our lives, and now a Boston University study has found that intimate life is affected as well.

The study, which involved more than 2,000 women, found that coronavirus infection can impair sexual function, with long-term COVID having a particularly damaging effect.

Researchers said this is the first study to highlight the effects of long-term COVID exposure on women's sexual health. The results of the study were recently published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

To find out how COVID affects intimacy, researchers conducted an online survey. About half of the women who participated said they had never experienced COVID, while the rest said they had been diagnosed with coronavirus. Participants were interviewed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), a common tool that measures factors such as arousal and satisfaction. Only women who had sex in the previous month were included in the results.

Among those who had undergone COVID, levels of desire and arousal were lower than those who had not. Researchers also found that women with long-term COVID had markedly worse arousal scores.