Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with negatively variable impacts on domains of female sexual function: evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

To systematically review the literature to identify the impact of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on specific female sexual function domains. A meta-analysis was performed and the related literature were searched in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, CBM and Web of Science databases, and in reference lists of articles and systematic reviews. Score of the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) was used as the outcome measurement, and mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Five studies were included, including 346 women with RA and 237 healthy female controls. Each domain of the FSFI score: lubrication (MD, -2.48; 95% CI, -3.69, -1.28), orgasm-1.71 (-2.09, -1.33), sexual desire-1.27 (-1.59, -0.95), satisfaction-1.67 (-2.18, -1.16), arousal-1.83 (-2.85, -0.82), pain-1.57 (-2.43, -0.70) and the total score -8.84 (-11.88, -5.79) were lower in RA women than healthy controls. Furthermore, lubrication dimension was most severely affected especially. This meta-analysis showed that female RA patients scored lower in each dimension of FSFI, mostly in the lubrication domain. It demonstrated that targeted interventions should be done to improve their sexual function. Future well-designed researches with larger sample sizes are necessary to evaluate the potential risk factors which determine female sexual dysfunction.