Analysis of pelvic floor muscle electromyography parameters in women with or without sexual dysfunction

Chunyan Wang; Yan Che; Yumei Zhang; Tingfeng Guan; Jie Wang; Xinying Du

doi:10.1071/SH24026

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Analysis of pelvic floor muscle electromyography parameters in women with or without sexual dysfunction

Chunyan Wang

^A , Yan Che ^A ^B , Yumei Zhang ^A , Tingfeng Guan ^A , Jie Wang ^A and Xinying Du

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A People’s Hospital of Weifang City, Weifang, Shandong Province, China.

^B NHC Key Lab of Reproduction Regulation, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Reproductive Health Drug and Devices, Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies, Shanghai, China.

^* Correspondence to: duxy2012@126.com

Handling Editor: Heather Armstrong

Sexual Health 21, SH24026 https://doi.org/10.1071/SH24026

Submitted: 2 November 2023 Accepted: 18 April 2024 Published: 14 May 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Background

To investigate the differences in pelvic floor muscle (PFM) electromyography (EMG) parameters between women with or without sexual dysfunction (FSD) and their correlations.

Methods

Women who voluntarily participated in a questionnaire-based survey on sexual function and underwent PFM EMG in Weifang People’s Hospital during the period from March 2021 to December 2021 were retrospectively enrolled. The female sexual (dys)function was measured using the Female Sexual Function Index. Glazer PFM EMG was performed using a Melander instrument (MLD A2 Deluxe). The differences in PFM EMG parameters between women with or without FSD were compared, and the relationships between PFM EMG parameters and FSD were analysed using multiple linear regression models.

Results

A total of 305 women were enrolled, with 163 in the FSD group and 142 in the non-FSD group. Comparisons of PFM EMG parameters between these two groups revealed that the FSD group had significantly higher peak EMG amplitude during the phasic (flick) contractions and shorter recovery latency during the tonic contractions than the non-FSD group (both P < 0.05). Multivariate linear regression suggested that the peak EMG amplitude during the phasic (flick) contractions was 5.39 μV higher in the FSD group than in the non-FSD group, whereas the recovery latency during the tonic contractions was 0.29 s shorter (both P < 0.05).

Conclusions

The results of the pelvic floor EMG in this study suggest that the pelvic floor muscles of women with FSD may be more susceptible to fatigue, and may have poorer coordination of their pelvic floor muscles.

Keywords: dysfunction, female, female sexual function index, pelvic floor, pelvic floor dysfunction, pelvic floor muscle electromyography, sexual, sexual dysfunction.

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