Abstract

Objectives: The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in Behçet patients, patients' practices toward sexual problems, pre-disease sexual life and distribution of postdisease sexual problems were evaluated.

Patients and Methods: Sexually active 96 patients were included to the study. The data were collected with the “Sexual Problems in Behçet Patients Data Collection Form” and “Arizona Sexual Experience Scale (ASES)”. The scale's score interval is 5-30; 11-above scores indicate sexual dysfunction.

Results: Of the patients, 51 (53.1%) were 40-yearold and above, 49 (51%) were women; the most frequent symptoms were oral aphtosis (58.3%), genital ulcers (31.2%), and erythema nodosum (28.1%). Mean ASES score was 14.2±5.8 66 patients (68.7%) had sexual dysfunction. The most prevalent problems were decreased frequency of intercourse (n=32, 86.5%), painful sexual relation (n=18, 48.6%) and unwillingness (n=9, 24.3%). Most of the patients (n=15, 40.5%) who expressed sexual problems were not using any practice for the solution. None of the patients received any information about sexual problem and the most preferenced source of information would be the doctors (n=83, 86.4%) in case having this opportunity. Female gender and the belief about the impact of Behçet's disease on sexual life determined ASES score (43%).

Conclusion: Sexual dysfunction in Behçet's disease was seen in a significant proportion.