FRIDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) -- Women who have sexual dysfunction are more likely to be hypertensive, and getting blood pressure under control may reduce sexual dysfunction, according to a study presented Friday at the 21st Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension in New York.

Michael Doumas, M.D., from the University of Athens, Greece, and colleagues collected data on 417 women. They found that 42 percent of the hypertensive women had sexual dysfunction, compared with 19 percent of normotensive women. In addition, 51.8 percent of the women who had uncontrolled high blood pressure also had sexual dysfunction, compared with 27 percent of the women whose high blood pressure was controlled.

Overall, 15.7 percent of women who were hypertensive for more than three years had sexual dysfunction. Among those who were hypertensive for three to six years, 32.9 percent reported the problem, and for those who were hypertensive for more than six years, 78.6 had sexual dysfunction.

"These findings are significant because although hypertension affects more than 20 percent of the general population, and is a known risk factor for male sexual dysfunction, there have been no definite data on a relation between sexual dysfunction and hypertension in women," said Doumas in a statement.

Abstract