Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4J1, Canada.
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec H3T 1J4, Canada.
J Sex Med. 2024 Oct 31;21(11):1020-1029. doi: 10.1093/jsxmed/qdae121.
Sexual interest/arousal disorder (SIAD) is one of the most common sexual problems for women. In clinical research, there are often misalignments between the research priorities of patients and researchers, which can negatively impact care, and gender-diverse individuals are often excluded from research. Inclusion of patient perspectives when establishing research priorities may help to reduce these gaps; however, the research priorities of couples coping with SIAD remain unclear.
Identify the research priorities of women and gender-diverse individuals with SIAD and their partners.
In an online survey, couples coping with SIAD provided consent and responded to an open-ended question asking them to list the top 3 things they think are important for researchers to focus on related to couples coping with low sexual desire. A team-based content analysis was conducted to identify themes and their frequency of endorsement.
An author-developed open-ended question.
Analysis of 1279 responses (n = 667 from women and gender-diverse individuals with SIAD, n = 612 from partners) resulted in our identification of 6 main themes: general causes, general treatment and coping, biophysiological, relationship, psychological, and environmental/contextual. Additionally, we identified 4 sub-themes within each of the latter 4 main themes: general, cause, treatment, and impact. For women and gender-diverse individuals with SIAD, their partners, and specifically gender-diverse participants, the 3 most endorsed themes were psychological general factors (24.3%, 21.2%, 24.3%; eg, stress and the link between SIAD and anxiety), relationship general factors (15.7%, 13.2%, 18.6%; eg, relationship length and communication on sexual desire), and biophysiological general factors (12.3%, 12.4%, 14.3%; eg, research on medications and hormones).
Clinical researchers should consider the research priorities of couples coping with SIAD to ensure their work aligns with the needs of the affected population.
This study is the first to identify the research priorities of both women and gender-diverse individuals with SIAD and their partners. Most participants identified as heterosexual, North American, and of middle to high socioeconomic status; results may not generalize. Responses were sometimes brief and/or vague; interpretation of these responses was therefore limited and may have required more contextual information.
Findings suggest that women and gender-diverse individuals with SIAD, their partners, and gender-diverse participants have similar research priorities that are consistent with a biopsychosocial approach to research. Heterogeneity of responses across themes supports a multidisciplinary, patient-oriented approach to SIAD research.
性兴趣/唤起障碍（SIAD）是女性最常见的性问题之一。在临床研究中，患者和研究人员的研究重点往往存在错位，这可能会对护理产生负面影响，而且跨性别者经常被排除在研究之外。在确定研究重点时纳入患者的观点可能有助于缩小这些差距；然而，应对 SIAD 的夫妇的研究重点仍不清楚。
确定应对 SIAD 的女性和跨性别者及其伴侣的研究重点。
在一项在线调查中，应对 SIAD 的夫妇表示同意并回答了一个开放式问题，要求他们列出他们认为研究人员关注与低性欲夫妇相关的前 3 件最重要的事情。采用基于团队的内容分析法来确定主题及其被认可的频率。
作者制定的开放式问题。
对 1279 份回复（应对 SIAD 的女性和跨性别者 667 份，伴侣 612 份）进行分析后，我们确定了 6 个主要主题：一般原因、一般治疗和应对、生物生理、关系、心理和环境/背景。此外，我们在后 4 个主要主题的每个主题中都确定了 4 个子主题：一般、原因、治疗和影响。对于应对 SIAD 的女性和跨性别者及其伴侣，特别是跨性别者参与者，被认可最多的 3 个主题是心理一般因素（24.3%、21.2%、24.3%；例如，压力和 SIAD 与焦虑之间的联系）、关系一般因素（15.7%、13.2%、18.6%；例如，关系时长和性欲望沟通）和生物生理一般因素（12.3%、12.4%、14.3%；例如，关于药物和激素的研究）。
临床研究人员应考虑应对 SIAD 的夫妇的研究重点，以确保他们的工作符合受影响人群的需求。
这项研究首次确定了应对 SIAD 的女性和跨性别者及其伴侣的研究重点。大多数参与者自认为是异性恋、北美和中高社会经济地位；结果可能不具有普遍性。回复有时简短且/或模糊；因此，对这些回复的解释受到限制，可能需要更多的上下文信息。
研究结果表明，应对 SIAD 的女性和跨性别者及其伴侣和跨性别者参与者具有相似的研究重点，这些重点与研究的生物心理社会方法一致。主题之间回复的异质性支持了针对 SIAD 研究的多学科、以患者为导向的方法。
