Beyond weight loss, bariatric surgery may also improve sex life: JAMA

New Delhi: Bariatric or weight loss surgery may also bring about an improvement in your sex life in addition to giving you a slim body, reveals a recently published study.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Surgery, found that approximately half of the people (both men and women) who had an unsatisfactory sexual life before bariatric surgery experienced improvements in satisfaction in 5 years of follow up.

Some previous studies have thrown light on the association between bariatric surgery and an improvement in sexual functioning. But, little is known about the durability of these improvements.

Kristine J. Steffen, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North Dakota, and colleagues conducted the study to determine the percentage of individuals with an impaired sexual function who will experience durable improvements in their sexual functioning after bariatric surgery and to identify the factors associated with improvements.

This multicenter study involved more than 2000 men and women who had an impaired sexual function before the bariatric surgery. Of 2215 participants eligible for sexual function follow-up, 2036 (91.9%) completed 1 or more follow-up assessment (1431 [64.6%] at year 5), of whom 1607 (78.9%) were women and 429 men. The participants were then made to undergo bariatric surgery and the questions were asked again one year and five years post-surgery. Questions included their before and after surgery experiences of sexual satisfaction, desire, and activity and physical health limitations to sexual activity.

Key findings of the study include:

• Among the participants who were dissatisfied, 56 percent of women and 49.2 percent of men experienced meaningful improvements at one year.


• Specifically, men were 1.57 times more likely than they were before the surgery to experience improvements in the frequency of feeling sexual desire, 1.53 times more likely to experience improvements in the frequency of sexual activity, 3.97 times more likely to experience fewer physical limitations to having sex and 2.37 times more likely to experience improvements in satisfaction with their sex lives.


• Women were 1.5 times more likely a year post-surgery than before their operations to experience improvements in the frequency of feeling sexual desire, 1.53 times more likely to experience improvements in the frequency of sexual activity, 3.7 times more likely to experience fewer physical limitations to having sex and 2.11 times more likely to experience improvements in satisfaction with their sex lives.


• Many of these improvements lasted for a full five years. For those who had improvements at year one in physical limitations, for instance, three-quarters of the women and more than two-thirds of the men continued to report improvement at year five.


• There were significantly fewer women who had improvements in frequency of desire, frequency of activity and degree to which physical health limits sexual activity at year five post-surgery compared with year one post-surgery.


• In women, early improvement in satisfaction with sexual life was maintained by year five. In men dissatisfied before surgery, early improvements were maintained by year five in all domains except the degree to which physical health limits sexual activity.

“Approximately half of women and men who were not satisfied with their sexual life prior to bariatric surgery experienced improvements in satisfaction in five years of follow-up,” concluded the authors.

To read the complete study log on to doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2018.1162