OC use and painful orgasm

Research presented at the American Urological Association (AUA) annual meeting in San Diego, California, has linked the use of oral contraception (OC) and chronic pelvic pain symptoms (CPPS) and pain during sexual climax. 

The researchers compared CPSS in young women who were current OC users with CPSS in non-users. They used an anonymous, Internet-based survey of women aged 18−39 within 2 large university populations. Women were excluded if they were pregnant or if they had a history of endometriosis or pelvic pain.

Of the 932 women studied, 605 women were non-OCP users and 327 were OC users (169 low-dose and 171 normal dose). The researchers found significant differences in the incidence of individual pelvic pain symptoms between OC users and non-users and further differences with low-dose use. Overall low-dose OC users were more likely to report pelvic pain symptoms and more likely to have CPPS than non-users (27.1% vs 17.5%, P=0.045). Conversely, normal-dose OC users were less likely to have pelvic pain symptoms overall than were non-OC users.

Low-dose OCP users were found to have almost twice the incidence of pain or discomfort during or after sexual climax compared to controls (25.2% vs 12.3%, P=0.002). There was no difference between normal-dose OC users and controls. There was a trend towards low-dose OCP users having more perineal pain (15% vs 8.9%, P=0.054) and more pain during urination (14.3% vs 9.0%, P=0.096) than controls. Forty-four percent of respondents reported onset of pain after beginning OC use. These respondents were more likely to meet CPPS criteria than those who had symptoms prior to OC use (62% versus 30.3%, P<0.001).

The research was presented as a moderated poster on May 7, 2013, by Margarita Aponte, MD, of New York University, and colleagues.