Ob/Gyn Resident - PGY4 Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center - Dept of Obstetrics and Gynecology Lebanon, New Hampshire, United States
Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of dyspareunia in female competitive rowers and whether rowing athletes have higher rates of dyspareunia compared to non-rowers, including other athlete or non-athlete females. Secondary objectives included to determine whether characteristics such as birth control use, history of abuse (sexual, physical), and participation in sports or athletics other than rowing are associated with increased rates of dyspareunia.
Methods: This was a prospective cohort study of females age 18 and over who were currently enrolled in college. Pregnant people and those with a prior diagnosis of vulvovaginal conditions were excluded. Participants were recruited from a local college health clinic, as well as via online survey distribution to local and national college sports teams email lists. Participants completed a 32 question survey distributed via REDCap link/QR code. Questions included: information about biometrics, sexual orientation, menstrual products and birth control use, pain with vaginal penetration or tampon insertion, urinary or bowel incontinence, vulvovaginal skin conditions, history of mood disorder and abuse. Descriptive statistics and preliminary comparisons were performed on data collected between 1/11/2023 and 3/10/2023.
Results: Overall, 33% (9/27) of responders reported having dyspareunia: five rowers (5/16, 31%), and four in the control group (4/11, 36%; Relative risk = 0.86, 95% CI 0.30 to 2.5). Of those who reported a history of dyspareunia, 56% (5/9) also reported a history of sexual assault and 44% (4/9) reported a history of anxiety and/or depression, compared to rates of 22% (14/18) sexual assault and 39% (7/18) anxiety/depression in those who either denied dyspareunia or answered as not applicable. 33% of responders who reported dyspareunia also had pain with tampon insertion (3/9, 33%), compared to a 6% (1/18) rate of pain with tampon insertion among those who did not report dyspareunia. Overall 33% (9/27) of respondents reported a history of sexual abuse/assault, and 41% (11/27) reported a history of anxiety and/or depression. Of those reporting anxiety and/or depression 78% (7/9) reported a history of sexual assault. Four rowers (4/16, 25%) and two controls (2/11, 18%) reported loss of urine with jump, sneeze, cough or laugh. Three (3/4, 75%) of the rowers and both (2/2, 100%) of the non-rowers with loss of urine also reported dyspareunia.
Conclusions: Our early analysis demonstrates a slightly lower prevalence of dyspareunia among rowers compared to non-athletes or athletes of other sports. If borne out by a larger dataset, this would disprove our hypothesis that rowing athletes are greater risk of dyspareunia due to factors inherent to their training. Other factors (eg, birth control, BMI) occurred at similar frequencies in respondents with and without dyspareunia. The small number of respondents thus far limits our ability to detect meaningful differences between groups.
