Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Sexual function in women may be affected by their menstrual cycle. Lack of sexual drive is a deficiency or absence of sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity. This study aims at determining the changes in sexual desire during the menstrual cycle and those associated with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and evaluates sexual desire during the menstrual cycle and the associated changes with PMS.

Methods: The sample for this cross-sectional study includes 150 women employed in factories in Tehran. The instruments for data collection were questionnaires and journals of premenstrual experiences.

Results: Analysis of the data showed that the mean age of the subjects was 31 years )standard deviation = 8.46(. The most frequent decrease in sexual desire was during the week prior to the start of menstrual bleeding (27.3%) and the least frequent was from the end of bleeding to one week before the next period of menstrual bleeding (5.3%). In 24.7% of the cases, an increase in sexual desire occurred during the middle of the menstrual cycle and 27.3% during the course of menstrual bleeding. Moreover, 10.7% of the subjects had an increase in sexual desire during the week before bleeding. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between changes in sexual desire and PMS (p<0.001). In addition, a positive correlation was found between changes in sexual desire and breast tenderness, joint and muscle pain.

Conclusions: The sexual desire of women, with or without PMS, changes during the menstrual cycle. The greatest decrease in sexual desire occurs during the first week before menstrual bleeding in women with PMS. Such information can greatly help toward understanding and treatment in sexual therapy for couples.

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Background: Hormonal, physical, and psychological fluctuations occur during the menstrual cycle. Previous studies have shown that hormonal changes during the normal menstrual cycle affect anesthesia and analgesia. The limitation of previous studies are that they did not measure luteal hormone (LH), Follicular stimulating hormone (FSH), estradiol, progesterone and cortisol levels. Our goal was to find more suitable conditions in menstrual periods for intubation of patient. Methods: American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I patients, 16 to 40 years, undergoing general anesthesia for elective surgery were enrolled in this study and conducted at Imam Khomeini Medical Center in 2013. The patients were assigned into two groups according to the phase of their menstrual cycle. Levels of sex hormones and hemodynamic variables were recorded for all the patients and statistical analysis performed. Results: In 77 patients, 38 women were in the luteal phase (49.4%) and 39 women were in the follicular phase (50.6%). All tracheal intubations were successful on the first attempt with a mean duration of 2558±5.07 and 25.84±5.32 seconds in groups F and L, respectively (P=0.489). None of the patients were excluded for long tracheal intubation time. Systolic blood pressure after intubation in the follicular phase (138.4±20 mm Hg) was significantly higher vs. the luteal phase (127.7±18 mm Hg) (P<0.01), as well as the women’s heart rate after intubation in the luteal phase (90.7±12 beats per minute), was significantly higher than in the follicular phase (85.3±11 beats per minute) (P=0.05). Heart rate was higher in the luteal group than the follicular group thus the women’s heart rate after intubation in the luteal phase (90.7±12 bpm) was significantly greater than the follicular phase (85.3±11 bpm) (P=0.05). Conclusion: Reviewing and comparing the results show that elective surgeries are bet-ter to be done in the luteal phase because of stable hemodynamic conditions.