Autoimmune bullous diseases have negative effects on sexual QOL

Patients with autoimmune bullous diseases often experience negative impacts on their sexual quality of life, according to a poster presented at the American Academy of Dermatology virtual meeting.

A cross-sectional survey asked 25 adult patients with a history of autoimmune bullous diseases (AIBD) to evaluate the impact of their disease manifestations on psychosocial well-being and their desire and ability to participate in sexual activity.

“[The] relationship between dermatologic disease and sexual QoL (SQOL) has been evaluated for other dermatologic conditions, but never for the AIBD patient population,” the study authors wrote.

A negative impact on sexual quality of health was reported in 23 patients (92%). Desire to engage in sexual activity in the preceding 30 days was reported by 22 patients (88%), while 12 patients (48%) reported engaging in sexual activity during that time.

Fatigue was reported to affect sexual activity the most at 72%, followed by stress (60%), pain (40%), feeling unattractive (36%), sadness (32%) and medication effects (12%).

The study’s limitations included its small sample size and selection bias due to voluntary participation, as well as the inability to determine baseline sexual dysfunction.

“Future studies with age-matched controls without AIBD could address this and allow for more definitive conclusions related to causation of SQOL impairment from AIBD,” the authors wrote.