Women Who Suffer from Eating and Mental Disorders Suffer More Sex Problems

Filed in archive Sexual Health on December 5, 2007

According to the International Journal of Eating Disorders, childbirth, anorexia, and even depression can alter a woman's sex life. Researchers found that women who suffer from one or more of those disorders reported more problems in their sex life. The study also stated that those same women ironically had more sex than new mothers.

The study results are based on questionnaire responses from 76 women who had taken part in three previous, separate studies and included 10 women with anorexia; 24 women with Major Depression; and 42 women who'd given birth within the past two months. All of the women were married or in stable relationships.

Overall, Carter's team found that 80 percent and 79 percent of women with anorexia or depression, respectively, said they'd had sex in the past two weeks, compared with only half of the new mothers.

On the other hand, none of the women in the postnatal group said they had any problems during sex, while roughly one third of those with anorexia or depression said they did.

The fact that new mothers had sex less often is not surprising, according to Carter and his colleagues. However, the reported lack of any sexual difficulties is "more optimistic" than the results obtained from other studies, which "suggested that sexual difficulties were the norm."

The researchers add that their findings should be considered preliminary, in part because the study group was so small, particularly the number of women with anorexia.