Ediary and Female Sexual Distress Scale[C] in Evaluating Distress in Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD)‪.‬

Female sexual dysfunction (FSD) refers to a group of sexual disorders in women that includes disorders of sexual desire, arousal, ability to achieve orgasm, and pain associated with sexual intercourse (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2000). FSD is prevalent, affecting both premenopausal and postmenopausal women (Hayes et al., 2007; Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994; Shifren, Monz, Russo, Segreti, & Johannes, 2008). It can have a considerable impact on mood, self-esteem, and quality of life, as well as contributing to emotional distress and relationship problems (Laumann et al., 1994). This last point is emphasized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV-TR]; APA, 2000), which defines sexual dysfunctions as "disturbances in sexual desire and in the psychophysiological changes that characterize the sexual response cycle and cause marked distress or interpersonal difficulty" (p. 493). Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), classified as a disorder of low sexual desire within the DSM-IV-TR classification, is believed to be the most common form of FSD (Paik & Laumann, 2006; Shifren et al., 2008). Studies suggest that 5% to 22% of women have problems with low sexual desire; however, the exact prevalence of HSDD is unclear (Paik & Laumann, 2006). Estimating the true prevalence of HSDD has been handicapped by a scarcity of clinical experts in FSD, a lack of validated and easy-to-use diagnostic tools, and sporadic use of the distress criterion in epidemiologic studies (Hayes, 2008).