Creative Education, 2014, 5, 1363-1376
Published Online August 2014 in SciRes. http://www.scirp.org/journal/ce
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2014.515155
How to cite this paper: da Silva Câmara, C. N., Corrêa, H. V. V., Silva, S. C. B., da Silva, C. S. A., Silva Jr., M., & Brito, R. S.
(2014). Life Cycle Comparative Analysis of Sexual Function in Women with Normal and Overweight Body Mass Index. Crea-
tive Education, 5, 1363-1376. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ce.2014.515155
Life Cycle Comparative Analysis of Sexual
Function in Women with Normal and
Overweight Body Mass Index
Cibele Nazaré da Silva Câmara
*
, Hellen Vivianni Veloso Corrêa,
Susanne Cristine Brito e Silva, Caio Santos Alves da Silva, Mauro Silva Junior,
Regina S. Brito
Post-Graduation Program in Theory and Behavior Research, Federal University of Para, Belém, Brazil
Email:
*
cibelecamara@hotmail.com
Received 26 May 2014; revised 30 June 2014; accepted 10 July 2014
Copyright © 2014 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Abstract
Sexual health is considered of fundamental importance in people’s lives. Since it is determined by
physiological, psychological and social factors, the investigations of these aspects are relevant to
full comprehension of this phenomenon. Endocrinological conditions, as overweighed and normal
body mass indexes were addressed as the main factors in women’ sexual function, which can affect
level of sexual hormones; and as a consequence, lead to sexual dysfunction. Body mass index of
370 women were analyzed to indentify the implications in their sexual life, using the Female Sex-
ual Function Index (FSFI) inventory, with six domains that assess different aspects of women’ sex-
ual activity and satisfaction. The main results show no statistical differences between normal and
overweighed body mass index. However, there were significant differences between different
phases of life as Reproductive, Perimenopause, and Postmenopause women, in which the young-
sters showed better FSFI scores, better sexual function, than the older ones. Also, significant dif-
ferences were found when time of marriage was taken into account, the longer the relationship,
the worse the sexual function. We concluded that not only endocrinological variables may explain
the sexual function in women, but also psychosocial variables as age, and time and quality of their
relationships.
Keywords
Sexual Function, Overweight, Relationship
*
Corresponding author.