Women who take contraceptives based on hormones may suffer ill-effects in their sex lives, researchers warned today.
German researchers say they have found a small link between taking contraceptives and bed-room problems.
The findings come from a study of more than 1,000 sexually active women medical students.
The researchers say that in total nearly a third of the women were at risk of developing female sexual dysfunction. The group at least risk was those using non-hormonal contraception. Women who took contraceptive pills and other kinds of hormonal contraception – such as implants – were at greatest risk.
Being a smoker also caused problems, according to the findings, published in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.
Researcher Dr Harald Seeger, of University of Tuebingen, Germany, said the findings should be interpreted "with caution".
He said: "In future research it would be interesting to see if there is a difference between the dosage of oestrogen and the various synthetic progestins used in hormonal contraceptives in terms of an impact on female sexual function.
"We would also urge some caution in interpretation of our present results and would like to highlight that this type of study cannot demonstrate causality but rather association and there might exist a multitude of factors that have an impact on female sexual function."
Fellow researcher Dr Lisa-Maria Wallwiener said: "Female sexual dysfunction is a very common disorder, with an estimated prevalence of about two in five women having at least one sexual dysfunction, and the most common complaint appearing to be low desire."
Wallwiener CW, Wallwiener M, Seeger H, Mueck AO, Bitzer J, and Wallwiener LM; Prevalence of Sexual Dysfunction and Impact of Contraception in Female German Medical Students; Journal of Sexual Medicine; 2010; DOI: 10.1111/j.1743-6109.2010.01742.x
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