The prevalence of dyspareunia.
A questionnaire regarding sexual experience and dyspareunia was sent to 428 women, of whom 324 (75.7%) responded. Ten refused to participate and one had never had heterosexual intercourse, leaving 313 evaluable responders. One hundred twenty-two (39.0%) had never had dyspareunia and 86 (27.5%) had had dyspareunia at some point in their lives which resolved, either spontaneously or with specific treatment. One hundred five women (33.5%) still had dyspareunia at the time of the survey, 51 of whom had had dyspareunia for their entire active sexual lives. Twenty-two (21%) rarely had dyspareunia, 58 (55.2%) occasionally had discomfort, and 25 (23.8%) had dyspareunia frequently or virtually all the time. Frequency of intercourse was not different among any of the groups analyzed, although 49 (48.0%) of the women reported a decrease in sexual frequency and 35 (33.7%) reported an important adverse effect on their relationships as a result of dyspareunia. Most of the women had not discussed their dyspareunia with a health care professional and were unaware of the cause of their problem.