The association between depression and anxiety with female sexual function in young women with polycystic ovary syndrome

J Sex Med. 2025 Mar 31:qdaf050. doi: 10.1093/jsxmed/qdaf050. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: PCOS and its associated symptoms might be related to anxiety and depressive symptoms which may influence sexual function.

AIM: To investigate the association between depression and anxiety with female sexual function among women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) during reproductive age.

METHODS: The study group included 268 women with PCOS and 158 women without PCOS between the ages of 18 and 35 years. Serum testosterone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrostenedione sulfate (DHEA-S), fasting glucose, sex-hormone binding globulin, and fasting insulin levels were analyzed. The McCoy Female Sexual Questionnaire (MFSQ), and Beck Anxiety and Depression Inventories (BAI and BDI) were distributed to women with PCOS and controls.

OUTCOMES: MFSQ, BDI, and BAI scores were compared between women with PCOS and controls.

RESULTS: There was a significant difference between the PCOS and non-PCOS groups when BDI (18.92 ± 11.09 vs 10.20 ± 8.66, p = 0.001) and BAI (12.45 ± 9.67 vs 8.08 ± 8.90, p = 0.001) subgroups were compared. A weak negative correlation was present between McCoy’s sexuality domain (r = -0.304), McCoy’s Sexual partner domain (r = -0.215), and BAI score among PCOS women. A moderate negative correlation between McCoy’s sexuality domain (r = -0.515), and a weak correlation between McCoy’s Sexual partner domain (r = -0.271) and BDI score among PCOS women were found.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Women with PCOS report more severe depression, anxiety, and sexual dysfunction than non-PCOS women.

STRENGTHS & LIMITATIONS: Socio-cultural identity, awareness, perceptions of body image, and interpersonal relations were not investigated in the current study. These play a role in the interactions between sexual dysfunction and mood disorder. The strength of our study was that the prevalence of PCOS features was different between the various depression and anxiety subgroups.

CONCLUSION: The women with PCOS were more likely to have moderate-severe anxiety and moderate-severe depression while their mean total scores of the two domains of MFSQ were lower when compared to non-PCOS women.

PMID:40163669 | DOI:10.1093/jsxmed/qdaf050