What Increases Your Risk

The main risk factors for sexual problems are also those that affect a woman's sexual function and satisfaction. These include:²

• A woman's mental and emotional well-being.
• Her sexual relationship.
• Her partner's sexual function.

A woman's physical well-being is also important. Being sexually active with a partner or through masturbation helps maintain vaginal health. And having regular sexual intercourse helps preserve vaginal elasticity and keeps vaginal tissues from shrinking.

Some physical risk factors include a current or long-term history of:

• Exhaustion, often from round-the-clock care of a baby or small children and/or parenting and having a job.
• Normal hormonal changes linked to pregnancy, recovery from pregnancy, menopause, or aging.
• Taking certain medicines that decrease a woman's desire for sex.
• Health problems that cause pain during sex or decrease a woman's ability to engage in and enjoy sexual activity. Such health problems include:
  • Neurologic diseases such as stroke, spinal cord injury, and Parkinson's disease.
  • Surgery that affects a woman's pelvic organs or genitals.
  • Endocrine diseases such as diabetes or liver disease.
  • Peripheral arterial disease.