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The influence of partnership quality and breastfeeding on postpartum female sexual function

  • Maternal-Fetal Medicine
  • Published:
Archives of Gynecology and Obstetrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Introduction

Female sexual dysfunction is known to have a huge impact on quality of life and is highly prevalent during the peripartum period. Several influencing variables were found to be associated with impaired sexual function postpartum, among them breastfeeding and partnership quality. However, little is known about the predictive value of these variables. Therefore, this longitudinal cohort study aimed to examine prospectively the influence of the two variables on sexual function 4-month postpartum.

Materials and methods

Questionnaires were administered to 330 women prenatally (TI, third trimester) and postpartum (TII, 1 week; TIII, 4 months). Medical data were collected from the respondents’ hospital records. The Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used to determine overall sexual function, desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain perinatally.

Results

At all timepoints, mean FSFI scores were below the critical FSFI-score of 26.55. Partnership quality, breastfeeding, high maternal education, and maternal depressive symptoms correlated significantly with FSFI scores postpartum. Further analyses confirmed antenatal partnership quality and breastfeeding behavior as strong predictors of sexual function 4-month postpartum, explaining 24.3% of variance. Women who stopped breastfeeding or never breastfed at all showed the highest FSFI scores.

Conclusion

Our findings indicate that exclusively breastfeeding women and those who report low partnership quality have an increased likelihood of sexual functioning problems 4-month postpartum. Health-care providers need to be encouraged to counsel on postpartum sexuality and influencing factors during prenatal classes to de-pathologize those changes and to foster a positive approach to peripartum sexuality.

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Funding

This study was funded by the German Society of Psychosomatic Gynecology and Obstetrics (Forschungsstipendium).

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Author notes

  1. Mitho Müller and Stephanie Wallwiener equal contributors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Universitätsfrauenklinik Heidelberg, University of Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 440, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany

    Lina Maria Matthies, Markus Wallwiener, Christof Sohn & Stephanie Wallwiener

  2. Department of Psychology, Ludwig Maximilian University, Leopoldstr. 13, 80802, Munich, Germany

    Corinna Reck & Mitho Müller

Authors
  1. Lina Maria Matthies
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  2. Markus Wallwiener
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  3. Christof Sohn
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  4. Corinna Reck
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  5. Mitho Müller
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  6. Stephanie Wallwiener
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Contributions

LMM: data collection and manuscript writing. MW: protocol development. CR: protocol development, data management, and manuscript editing. CS: protocol development and manuscript editing. MM: data collection and management, data analysis, and manuscript writing. SW: protocol development, data collection and management, data analysis, and manuscript writing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephanie Wallwiener.

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We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Matthies, L.M., Wallwiener, M., Sohn, C. et al. The influence of partnership quality and breastfeeding on postpartum female sexual function. Arch Gynecol Obstet 299, 69–77 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4925-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00404-018-4925-z

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