Quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women with endometriosis: the moderator role of symptom severity

João Alfredo Martins, Gabriela Ferreira, Margarida Vilaça, Hélder Ferreira, Filipa Osório, Cristina Nogueira‐Silva, M. Graça Pereira
In: Psychology & Sexuality · 2021 · vol. 13(4) , pp. 952–964 · doi:10.1080/19419899.2021.1943501 · W3167034142
article OA: green CC0 ⤵ 5 in-corpus citations
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⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-08 ⓘ

Absence from work and psychological morbidity negatively impacted quality of life, while sexual activity and marital satisfaction improved sexual satisfaction in women with endometriosis, with symptom severity moderating pelvic pain's effect on quality of life.

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⚙ AI-generated deep summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-09 ⓘ

The paper studied how symptom severity moderates relationships between quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women with endometriosis, using participant-reported measures of symptom severity alongside assessments of quality of life and sexual satisfaction. It found that the association between quality of life and sexual satisfaction depends on how severe symptoms are, indicating symptom severity alters the strength or direction of that relationship. The main limitation is that the work is based on observational, self-report data, which restricts causal interpretation and may be sensitive to reporting biases. This paper is centrally about endometriosis — it examines how symptom severity moderates links between quality of life and sexual satisfaction in women with endometriosis.

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Abstract

Endometriosis is a chronic female disease affecting the quality of life (QoL) and sexual satisfaction (SS) of approximately 176 million women of reproductive age worldwide. This study analysed the variables that contributed to QoL and SS, and whether symptom severity moderated the relationship between symptom intensity and QoL/ SS. This cross-sectional study included 124 women diagnosed with clinical endometriosis. Participants answered the Endometriosis Health Profile-30, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Couple Satisfaction Index, and the Global Measure of Sexual Satisfaction. Results showed that absence from work and psychological morbidity contributed to worse QoL; frequency of sexual activity and marital satisfaction contributed to higher SS; and the perception of symptom severity moderated the relationship between the intensity of chronic pelvic pain and QoL. Multidisciplinary interventions focused on the reduction of psychological symptomatology, sexual and relational difficulties, as well as illness representations, particularly regarding symptom severity, are warranted.

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Outcome instruments

EHP-30

Condition tags

endometriosischronic_pelvic_pain

Citation neighborhood

Papers in the corpus that this work cites (lower rings, blue) and that cite this one (upper rings, green). Dot size scales with the paper's in-corpus citation count — bigger dot = more influential within the endo/adeno field. Click a dot to open that paper. [ expand to 2 hops ] — adds papers reached through this work's immediate citers/citees. Heavier; up to 60 extra dots.

References (40)

Cited by (5)

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