While dialysis has already been linked to sexual dysfunction in men, researchers didn't know much about the sex lives of women on dialysis - until now.

A recent study reveals that a large majority of women receiving hemodialysis treatment for kidney disease experience some form of sexual dysfunction or sexual dissatisfaction.

Led by Giovanni Strippoli, MD, of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Epidemiology at Consorzio Mario Negri Sud in Italy, researchers investigated how women's sex lives are affected if they are undergoing hemodialysis for advanced kidney disease.

They recruited 1,472 women with end stage renal disease, a condition in which a person's kidneys stop working properly and require either a transplant or treatment with dialysis.

Kidney failure from renal disease is permanent and most commonly occurs because of diabetes or high blood pressure.

The women, recruited from multiple countries in Europe and South America, were all receiving hemodialysis treatment for their condition.

They were asked to answer questions based on a standard assessment of female sexual dysfunction that considers six areas: desire, arousal, (self) lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction and pain.

A little less than half of them, 659 women, completed the questionnaire. Of these women, 55 percent lived with a partner and 35 percent reported being sexually active.

A total of 84 percent of the women overall reported and 55 percent of the women who were sexually active reported some form of sexual dysfunction.

Women living with partners were less likely to report sexual dysfunction than those without regular partners: 78 percent of women with partners were having sexual problems compared to 92 percent of women without partners.

The researchers also gathered information on each woman's age, symptoms of depression, education level, diabetes status, menopause status and use of diuretic therapy. Diuretic therapy, or "water pills," help a person's body get rid of excess water and salt.

The women more likely to have signs of sexual dysfunction were older and less educated women. Also, women with depression or diabetes and women past menopause were at a higher risk for sexual dysfunction.

This data corresponds to the data from other studies showing that men on hemodialysis commonly have sexual dysfunction issues, such as erectile dysfunction, as well.

Other negative symptoms reported by dialysis patients from previous research include pain, depression, difficulty sleeping well and fatigue.

"The highly frequent condition of female sexual dysfunction in women on dialysis deserves attention and further study since specific interventions are not yet available to address it," Dr. Strippoli said.

"Clinicians should not overlook the importance of problems such sexual dysfunction in people who receive hemodialysis for renal replacement therapy," he added.

The study appeared online April 5 in the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology. The research was funded by a grant from Amgen Inc., and one of the study authors received fellowship funding from Amgen.
 

Chronic kidney disease affects over 26 million people in the United States, with more being affected by instances of acute kidney disease. Kidney disease results when the kidneys gradually lose their ability to filter out waste products from the blood and maintain the proper balance of water, salts and proteins in the blood.

Chronic kidney failure can be caused by a multitude of reasons, but is commonly seen in patients with high blood pressure and diabetes, as well as patients with autoimmune diseases. Acute kidney failure is similar to chronic kidney failure in that the kidneys fail to do their jobs, but it happens at a more rapid pace, usually due to loss of blood flow, toxic drugs, or obstruction of urine flow.

Symptoms of kidney failure include feeling tired, muscle cramps, trouble sleeping, swollen feet and puffy eyes, and an increased need to urinate. Eventually many patients need replacement of the hormones erythropoietin and calcitriol, and sometimes dialysis and kidney transplantation.

Treatment includes medications like ACE inhibitors (Lotensin, Capoten, Vasotec) and ARBs (Cozaar, Diovan, Benicar) although they are not curative.. Diagnosis is made by measuring substances in the blood and urine.

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