Sexual function in immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: A biopsychosocial systematic review

Carmen Heredia Coca, Laura Lorena Castiblanco Orozco, Lorena Orozco, Cristian Aragón‐Benedí, Silberio Sáez Sesma, Leticia León
In: Journal of Health Psychology · 2025 · vol. 31(2) , pp. 485–506 · doi:10.1177/13591053251349270 · PMID:40662325 · W4412421763
review OA: closed CC0
Full text JSON View on OpenAlex View on PubMed View at publisher
⚙ AI-generated summary by claude@2026-06, 2026-06-13 ⓘ

This systematic review of 42 studies found that immune-mediated inflammatory diseases significantly impair sexual function and quality of life, with women and those with higher disease severity, pain, depression, or anxiety being particularly vulnerable.

One-sentence paraphrase of the abstract; not a substitute for reading it. No clinical advice. How this works

Abstract

This systematic review evaluates the impact of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) on sexual function and health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) in both men and women, from a biopsychosocial perspective. Diseases assessed include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, and ulcerative colitis. A total of 42 studies were included following a systematic search in PubMed/MEDLINE. The review adhered to PRISMA guidelines and was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024518043). Results highlight a high prevalence of sexual dysfunction in IMID patients, significantly impairing quality of life. Assessments were primarily conducted using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) and the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). Women, particularly those with rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease, exhibited higher vulnerability, with risk factors being disease severity, pain, depression, and anxiety. These findings underscore the necessity of a multidisciplinary and biopsychosocial approach involving rheumatologists, gastroenterologists, psychologists, and sexologists. Regular assessments and tailored interventions targeting sexual health are essential to optimize outcomes and to address this often overlooked dimension of patient care.
Full text 2,195 characters · extracted from oa-doi-fallback · 3 sections · click to expand

Abstract

Get full access to this article View all access and purchase options for this article. Data availability statement

References

Supplementary Material Please find the following supplemental material available below. For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with. For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article. Cite Cite Cite Download to reference manager If you have citation software installed, you can download citation data to the citation manager of your choice Information, rights and permissions Information Published In

Keywords

Data availability statement Article versions Authors Author contributions Metrics and citations Metrics Journals metrics This article was published in Journal of Health Psychology. View All Journal MetricsPublication usage* Total views and downloads: 168 *Publication usage tracking started in December 2016 Altmetric See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score. Learn more about the Altmetric Scores Publications citing this one Receive email alerts when this publication is cited Web of Science: 1 view articles Opens in new tab Crossref: 1 - The potential link between inflammatory bowel disease and male erectile dysfunction: mechanistic insights and novel therapeutic perspectives Figures and tables Figures & Media Tables View Options Access options If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below: loading institutional access options Alternatively, view purchase options below: Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content. Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.

Text is read by the "Ask this paper" AI Q&A widget below. Extraction quality varies by source — PMC NXML preserves structure cleanly, OA-HTML may include some navigation residue, and OA-PDF can have broken hyphenation. The publisher copy (via DOI) is the canonical version.

My notes (saved in your browser only)

⚙ Ask this paper AI returns verbatim quotes from the full text · source: oa-doi-fallback ⓘ

Answers must be backed by verbatim quotes from this paper's full text. Hallucinated quotes are dropped automatically; if no verbatim passage answers the question, we say so. How this works

Citation neighborhood (sparse)

Too few in-corpus citations on either side for a chart; here are the lists.

Cites (4)

References (54)

Source provenance

openalex
last seen: 2026-06-10T17:14:06.276822+00:00
License: CC0 · commercial use OK