Female Sexual Disorders: Future Trends and Conclusions

Historically, recognition and treatment of the biological basis of female sexual health issues mirrored the recognition and treatment of female urologic disorders [1]. Both were poorly understood, and therefore, under diagnosed and under treated. On a positive note, urologists have been the specialists who recently took the lead in the revolutionary understanding on the biological basis of FSD. The contribution of key urologists, including Raz, McGuire and Kursh, began a new era [2,3]. Women’s anatomy, and specifically the role of the pelvic floor, was reconsidered, with increasing attention to the physiologic role of sexual hormones in the bladder, genitals and in sexual response [4,7]. Research on neurobiological bases of women ' s sexual response added further visibility to the physical basis of their sexual function or disorders, with a multidisciplinary involvement [8-11]. Parallel research on hormonal, vascular, psychosexual and contextual factors is contributing to give meaning to the complexity of women’s sexual function and disorders [4-17]. Urologists deserve as well to be credited for a tremendous educational effort, aimed at involving a larger audience of clinicians in this biologically based medical perspective. The first International Consensus Conference on FSD was convened in October 1998, in Boston, under the auspices and sponsorship of the American Foundation for Urologic Diseases (AFUD) [18]. In 2003, under the same AFUD ’ sponsorship, the Consensus Conference was further updated [19]. Since then, research on the biological pathophysiology of FSD has had a renaissance. Similarities and differences between men’s and women’s sexual function and disorders have undergone intens