Body Image and Sexual Dysfunction in Women: A Systematic Review
Keywords:
Imagen corporal, disfunción sexual, identidad corporal, apreciación del cuerpoAbstract
Introduction. Body image involves a person's perceptions, thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, emotions, and feelings about their body. The lack of acceptance of body image generates low self-esteem, anxiety, body dissatisfaction and shame in women, which affects sexual functioning and interferes with desire, arousal and orgasm, causing sexual dysfunction. Objective. To analyze the best available evidence on the relationship between body image and sexual dysfunction in women. Method. A literature search was performed in Ovid, Springers, Science Direct, Pubmed, and academic Google databases to identify articles published between January 2010 and January 2021. Results. Studies have shown that negative self-perception of body image is capable of affecting sexual functioning, since it interferes with sexual responses and experiences during sexual activity. Negative body image is a predisposing factor for the development of female sexual dysfunction. Discussion and conclusions. Body image is associated with female sexuality and is capable of interfering with the sexual response cycle. Studies have shown that negative body image causes problems with domains of sexual functioning: desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction, and pain.
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