Background: Several studies report that sexuality is often affected by inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). The aim of this meta-analysis was to investigate the association between IBD and sexual function.
Methods: A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases (up to September 1, 2020). Scores of sexual functions with a standard deviation and odds ratio (OR) or relative risk (RR) with a 95% CI were used to analysis the association between IBD and sexual function.
Results: Eleven studies with 7,018 male IBD cases and 1,803 female IBD cases were included in the meta-analysis. In male individuals, the pooled results revealed that IBD was significantly associated with impaired erectile function and poor sexual satisfaction (RR for erectile function =1.50, 95% CI: 1.22 to 1.84, P<0.0001; standard mean difference for sexual satisfaction =-0.24, 95% CI: -0.33 to -0.15, P<0.0001). And among female individuals, IBD had impact on most sub-domains of sexual function, except pains.
Conclusions: IBD is associated with worse sexual function. It has significant impact on erectile function and satisfaction for male individuals and has impact on most sub-domains of sexual function for female individuals.
Keywords: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD); erectile function; satisfaction in sexual; sexual function; systematic review and meta-analysis.
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