Impact of breast feeding on female sexual functions

Objectives The current study aimed to evaluate the impact of breastfeeding on female sexual functions. Background Female sexual health is an important part of her quality of life. Several influencing variables are associated to impair female sexual functions, one among them is breastfeeding. Breastfeeding creates a great potential for change of female's sexuality due to hormonal, physical, and psychological affections. Patients and methods This study was cross-sectional study. It was conducted in the period between October 2021 and January 2022. It included 400 postpartum married women in the childbearing period. The study tool was a self-report questionnaire that was designed according to the female sexual function index (FSFI) questionnaire with addition of some questions that suit the current study under supervision of this study supervisor. The questionnaire consisted of 34 questions written in English and translated into Arabic. Results Out of 400 female participants, 53% started breastfeeding from less than 6 months. About 237 (60%) women used exclusive breastfeeding and 163 (40%) used partial breastfeeding. The FSFI score less than or equal to 26.5 is the cutoff point for women with sexual dysfunction. Mean total FSFI score was 19.0 ± 5.28 in this study. The female sexual functions were greatly affected postpartum especially after 2 months. In all, 88.3% (more than three-quarters) of the participating lactating females were at high risk for sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction was higher in women who practiced exclusive breastfeeding (61.75%) than partial feeding (38.25%). Conclusion Exclusive breastfeeding had a negative impact on female sexual function. They had much lower desire, orgasm, lubrication, satisfaction, and overall scale score.