MONDAY, Nov. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Sexual satisfaction is associated with better psychological well-being in women, underscoring the importance of sexual function to women's overall health, according to a study in the October issue of the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Sonia Louise Davison, Ph.D., of Monash University in Victoria, Australia, and colleagues conducted a study of 421 women aged 18 to 65 years, of whom 349 were included in the analysis to assess the relationship between self-reported sexual satisfaction and well-being.

Based on a psychological well-being index and a daily sexual function diary, sexually dissatisfied women had lower scores than their satisfied counterparts for positive well-being and vitality, the researchers found. There was no impact on well-being from menopause, the investigators note.

"Despite the controversies surrounding the issue of female sexual dysfunction, a key directive for intervention studies in this area includes the achievement of clinically significant changes in the number of successful and satisfactory sexual events or encounters over time, as determined by the female participant rather than her partner," the authors write. "Establishing this in the context of well-being, and hence quality of life, is a fundamental step in the evaluation of the global impact of the treatment of hypoactive sexual desire disorder and other forms of female sexual dysfunction."

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