The journal of sexual medicine
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Sexuality is a key aspect of women's physical and psychological health. Research shows both patients and physicians face barriers to communication about sexuality. Given their expertise and training in addressing conditions of the female genital tract across the female life course, obstetrician/gynecologists (ob/gyns) are well positioned among all physicians to address sexuality issues with female patients. New practice guidelines for management of female sexual dysfunction and the importance of female sexual behavior and function to virtually all aspects of ob/gyn care, and to women's health more broadly, warrant up-to-date information regarding ob/gyns' sexual-history-taking routine. ⋯ The majority of U.S. ob/gyns report routinely asking patients about their sexual activities, but most other areas of patients' sexuality are not routinely discussed.
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Provoked vestibulodynia (PVD) is the most common cause of dyspareunia in young women. The etiology is unclear, and there is little knowledge of how to predict treatment outcome. ⋯ A successful treatment outcome was more likely in PVD patients with fewer other concomitant pain conditions. The number of other bodily pain conditions was also associated to the intensity of the coital pain. Additionally, the results indicate higher incomplete response rates to treatment in women with primary PVD compared with secondary PVD.
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The Sexual Desire Relationship Distress Scale (SDRDS) was developed to address the need for a patient-reported outcome (PRO) measure of sexual distress associated with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD). The SDRDS is a 17-item PRO that includes items related to personal distress and distress related to relationship with partner. ⋯ The SDRDS provides a comprehensive and reliable assessment of distress due to decreased sexual desire in women with HSDD and may be a useful measure of treatment effects in clinical trials in women with this condition.
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Ejaculation is a complex reflex mediated by a spinal ejaculation generator located in the lumbosacral spinal cord and consisting of a population of lumbar spinothalamic (LSt) neurons. LSt neurons and their intraspinal axonal projections contain several neuropeptides, including gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP). ⋯ These data support a critical role for GRP for control of the emission and expulsion phases of ejaculation in male rats by acting in LSt target areas in the lumbosacral spinal cord.