Abstract

Background: Sexual dysfunction of postmenopausal women is an important health issue and calls for an effective treatment option. One of the most effective treatments is implementation of educational and counseling programs. The aim of this study is "to perform a meta-analysis examining the efficacy of counseling and educational interventions on sexual functioning of postmenopausal women". Methods: Google Scholar, PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, Springer, Cochrane Library, SID, Science direct, Ovid and Web of Science databases were searched from March to June 2017 to retrieve articles published between 2003 and 2017. Clinical trials that examined counseling and education interventions among women with natural menopause and assessed their sexual function as primary or secondary outcomes were included. Point and pooled estimates of outcomes were estimated within a 95% confidence interval. Results: Of 1858 potentially relevant studies identified, twelve studies were meta-analyzed. The studies were different both in terms of intervention and outcome assessment tools, the subgroup analysis was performed. Based on the type of intervention, total mean difference between groups was estimated as of −0.66 (−1.05, −0.27), and −0.11 (−0.28, 0.06), in before and after comparison in the intervention group, −0.09 (−0.53, 0.35), in post-comparisons between the intervention and control groups for counseling intervention. As well as, −1.05 (−1.51, −0.59) in before and after comparison in the intervention group and −1.30 (−1.87, −0.74) in post-comparisons between the intervention and control groups was estimated with 95% confidence intervals for educational intervention. Conclusions: Our meta-analysis shows that counseling was ineffective and education was effective in improving sexual functioning in menopause women.