Objective: to investigate the prevalence and possible risk factors that may cause FSD in Upper Egypt women and to study their attitude towards their sexual dysfunction.  Study design: a cross sectional hospital based study setting: Assiut University Hospital, Assiut, Egypt.  Materials and methods: We included consecutive healthy sexually active Egyptian women aged between 18 and 55 years who had visited the hospital for routine check-up, women accompanying other patients and non medical female hospital staff. We used the Arabic version of the Female Sexual Function Index (Ar-FSFI) in the interview to evaluate the sexual functions or problems during the last month. The cut-off score used to indicate sexual dysfunction was 28.1.  Results: a total of 583 healthy sexually active married females were approached, of whom 500 (85.8%) accepted to participate in the study. About 339 women (67.8%) had sexual dysfunction. The total mean FSFI score for women with sexual dysfunction was 16.73±7.50 compared to 31.31±1.43 for women without sexual dysfunction (p<0.001). FSD was significantly more common in older (p=0.000), less educated women (p=0.000), house wives (p=0.000) and women who live in rural communities (p=0.009). Logistic regression using the risk factors for the presence of FSD was performed. Age, residence, level of education, menopause, number of children, duration of marriage and the use of contraception were statistically significant risk factors that may predict the presence of FSD in participating women.
Conclusions: The reported high prevalence of FSD indicates that sexual dysfunction is an important public health problem in Upper Egypt that has not been investigated. It highlights the need to establish sexual disorders clinics in our environment and to improve physicians' awareness and competency in FSD