Exploring Body Image, Eating Disorders, and Sexual Dysfunction

Previous analysis has indicated that consuming issues and sexual issues are extra prevalent in ladies than in males. Furthermore, consuming issues and sexual issues have been proven to co-occur in people, which means that an individual can have each situations on the identical time. (When two or extra medical situations happen in a person on the identical time, they’re referred to as comorbid situations).

Though rising empirical proof helps the affiliation between consuming issues and sexual issues, much less is thought about how typically these two situations co-occur and the way/why they co-occur.

One predominant principle as to why consuming issues and sexual issues co-occur has to do with physique picture. The concept that poor physique picture may result in creating an consuming dysfunction by way of physique dissatisfaction and a drive for thinness and/or result in a sexual dysfunction by way of sexual self-consciousness is smart intuitively. Nonetheless, the connection between physique picture and the co-occurrence of consuming issues and sexual issues has not been completely researched. As such, specialists are cautious not to attract conclusions about its doable function within the comorbidity of those two situations.

The authors of a latest Journal of Sexual Medication publication explored physique picture and the co-occurrence of consuming issues and sexual issues in an nameless survey of 985 ladies in Israel, which was obtainable on-line between the dates of December 2019 – February 2020. In distinction to most of the earlier research on the subject which usually checked out scientific samples, the authors deliberately sought a big non-clinical pattern of girls.

For the needs of this examine, sexual issues had been assessed by way of the Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX), which is a 5-item instrument that evaluates key elements of sexual operate together with intercourse drive, arousal, vaginal lubrication, and talent to orgasm. Consuming issues had been measured by way of the Consuming Problems Stock 2 (EDI-2), which explores and quantifies attitudes and behaviors associated to anorexia and bulimia by way of the three subscales of “drive for thinness,” “bulimia,” and “physique dissatisfaction.” Lastly, physique picture was evaluated by way of the Physique Picture Self-Consciousness Scale (BISC), a 15-item questionnaire that investigates ladies’s physique picture considerations throughout sexual exercise with statements reminiscent of: “Whereas having intercourse, I’m involved that my hips and thighs will flatten out and seem bigger than they really are. Price from 1 (by no means) to six (at all times).”

In the long run, primarily based on the ASEX and EDI-2’s respective cut-offs for sexual issues and consuming issues, the survey contributors fell into considered one of 4 teams: “no dysfunction” (54.6%), “consuming issues” (29.7%), “comorbidity” (11.4%), and “sexual issues” (4.3%).

Simply over one in ten ladies within the examine had been recognized as comorbid, which means that they’d signs of each sexual issues and consuming issues. Apparently, the authors discovered that the ladies within the “comorbidity” group skilled considerably extra physique picture self-consciousness throughout sexual encounters than the ladies within the different teams did. This discovering might lend assist to the speculation that poor physique picture may contribute to each consuming issues and sexual issues, probably as a result of an individual can’t be absolutely current throughout a sexual expertise when she is fixated on considerations about her personal physique or look.

One other fascinating results of the examine was that whereas the ladies who demonstrated consuming dysfunction signs didn’t at all times have sexual issues, many of the ladies with sexual issues had consuming dysfunction signs. This discovering may very well be vital for sufferers who’re looking for assist for sexual issues, in case they might profit from looking for assist for consuming dysfunction signs as properly.

Assets:

Gewirtz-Meydan, A., & Spivak-Lavi, Z. (2021). Profiles of Sexual Problems and Consuming Dysfunction Signs: Associations With Physique Picture. The Journal of Sexual Medication, 18(8), 1364-1373. https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(21)00528-2/fulltext.