Female sexual function after spinal cord injury

Abstract

Over the past 10 years, studies of the impact of spinal cord injuries on female sexuality have expanded from questionnaire studies in small populations with unknown levels and degrees of injury to laboratory-based analyses of women with known injury patterns. These studies have provided detailed information on how specific injury patterns affect specific aspects of the female sexual response. Research findings have supported the hypothesis that the sympathetic nervous system is regulatory for psychogenic genital vasocongestion and that orgasm is a reflex response of the autonomic nervous system. Based on these results, a new system for the classification of sexual function in women with spinal cord injury (SCI) is proposed. Moreover, studies related to the treatment of sexual dysfunction in women with cord injury are reviewed.