Epidemiology of Male Sexual Dysfunction (MSD) in Patients Consulting in Some Health Services in the City of Douala, Cameroon

Abstract

Sexual dysfunction is a group of diseases, disorders or difficulties experienced by men or women during any stage of normal sexual activity. In Africa in general and Cameroon in particular, statistical data concerning the prevelance and the main causes of male sexual dysfunction are rare due to socio-cultural and religious burdens and sometimes self-medication. The objective of this work was to determine the prevalences, comorbidities and the risk factors of the main sexual dysfunction in some hospitals in city of Douala. Through a descriptive retrospective study carried out from Novembre 2019 to June 2021, sociodemographic parameter, reasons of consultation, risk factors and type of male sexual dysfunction (erectile dysfunction or erectile dysfunction (ED), ejaculation disorders (EjD), libido disorders (LD) and disorders of sexual activity with pain or painful sexual intercourse (PSI)) were collected in the medical files of patients who have made urological consultation between 2016 and 2020 at the Deido District hospital, Laquintinie Douala Hospital and Douala General hospital respectively. At the end of our data collection, out of a total of 24995 consultations, 2743 (10.98%) patients were suffering from at least one male sexual dysfunction. Moreover, sexual disorders were the 2nd reason of urological consultation (13.69%) after urinary disorders (33.85%). Among sexual disorders, erectile (76%) and ejaculatory (20%) disorders were the predominant pathologies recorded with the prevalences of 9.79 et 2.62% respectively, and were mostly represented in patients from [41 - 50] for erectile dysfunction, and [18 - 30] years old for ejaculative dysfunction. In addition, the number of patients with ejaculatory and erectile dysfunctions was more important in patients from [18 - 30] and [31 - 40] years old respectively. Among patients presenting sexual disorders, several risk factors or pathologies were associated with the dysfunction: benign prostatic hyperplasia and metabolic syndrome (in patients over 50 years old); psychosocial problems, infections, and alcohol (in patients under 50 years old). These findings could be useful in the elaboration of therapeutic strategies for the management of the Cameroonian population suffering from sexual dysfunctions.