Guidozzi F, Thomas C, Smith T, Nappi R E
a Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Health Sciences , University of the Witwatersrand , Johannesburg , South Africa.
b Claremont , Cape Town , Western Cape , South Africa.
Climacteric. 2017 Feb;20(1):49-54. doi: 10.1080/13697137.2016.1262838. Epub 2017 Jan 2.
With a paucity of information from sub-Saharan Africa, the impact of postmenopausal vaginal atrophy on women and male partners in South Africa was investigated.
Four hundred individuals in South Africa (200 postmenopausal women who had experienced symptoms of vaginal atrophy, and 200 male partners) completed a structured questionnaire.
Sixty-eight percent of women had avoided intimacy because of vaginal discomfort; 62% of men described observing this behavior in their partners. Consequently, 52% of women and 51% of men reported decreased sexual activity - 20% of women and 18% of men believed vaginal discomfort had 'caused a big problem'. Significantly higher proportions of women than men (p < 0.05) described being 'put off' having sex (27% vs. 14%) and feeling emotionally distant from their partners (21% vs. 11%). Twenty-one percent of women had used local estrogen therapy, reporting benefits including feeling 'happy' that their body was 'working again' (76%) and increased confidence as sexual partners (71%).
For many postmenopausal women and their partners, symptoms of vaginal atrophy adversely affected sex and relationships, physically and emotionally. Substantial improvements were reported by women who received local estrogen therapy, supporting greater efforts to improve awareness and accessibility of such treatment in South Africa.
鉴于撒哈拉以南非洲地区的相关信息匮乏，本研究调查了绝经后阴道萎缩对南非女性及其男性伴侣的影响。
南非的400人（200名有阴道萎缩症状的绝经后女性及其200名男性伴侣）完成了一份结构化问卷。
68%的女性因阴道不适而避免亲密接触；62%的男性表示观察到伴侣有此类行为。因此，52%的女性和51%的男性报告性活动减少——20%的女性和18%的男性认为阴道不适“造成了很大问题”。描述“对做爱感到反感”（27%对14%）以及感觉与伴侣情感疏远（21%对11%）的女性比例显著高于男性（p<0.05）。21%的女性使用过局部雌激素治疗，报告的益处包括对身体“恢复正常运作”感到“开心”（76%）以及作为性伴侣的自信心增强（71%）。
对于许多绝经后女性及其伴侣而言，阴道萎缩症状在生理和情感上对性生活及两性关系产生了不利影响。接受局部雌激素治疗的女性报告有显著改善，这支持在南非加大力度提高对此类治疗的认识并改善其可及性。
