The connection between unhealthy living and erectile dysfunction has long been highlighted by the medical community and the media. However, new research from The Second University of Naples has established that women should be wary too due to a strong link between high cholesterol and female sexual dysfunction.The research found that women who had high cholesterol had not only their general health affected but also their ability to be sexually aroused. High cholesterol, also known as hyperlipidemia, causes arteries to get blocked restricting the flow of blood around the body. As with men, women need an increase in blood flow to their sexual organs in order to achieve good sexual functioning.
During the study the researchers looked at a large group of premenopausal women, some of whom had hyperlipidemia and some of whom did not. The data showed that there was a significantly higher level of sexual satisfaction, orgasms, lubrication and arousal in those women without the condition.
It was found that one third of the women suffering from high cholesterol reported lower than average scores on a sexual function questionnaire. These women would therefore be classified as suffering from female sexual dysfunction, a condition that statistically will only affect nine percent of women with normal, healthy cholesterol levels. Interestingly the levels of sexual desire were the same in both groups of women.
In a related study, a team at the University of Milan found that female sexual dysfunction was also associated with diabetes, obesity and an underactive thyroid gland.
Geoffrey Hackett, a urologist at the Holly Cottage Clinic in Fisherwick said, "These two papers suggest there are strong connections between women's sexual arousal and organic diseases in the same way that men's sexual problems arise."
This research will almost definitely change the way in which female sexual dysfunction is treated and opens the way for the use of statins to treat the condition in the future.