Past research has shown that eating and sexual disorders are more prevalent among women than men. Moreover, eating and sexual disorders have been shown to co-occur in individuals. This means that a person can have both conditions at the same time. (If two or more diseases occur simultaneously in an individual, they are called comorbidities.)
Although a growing body of empirical evidence supports the link between eating and sexual disorders, less is known about how often and how/why these two conditions co-occur.
One leading theory as to why eating and sexual disorders co-occur has to do with body image. The idea that poor body image can lead to eating disorders through body dissatisfaction and the urge to be thin and/or sexual dysfunction through sexual self-consciousness makes intuitive sense. Nonetheless, the relationship between body image and the co-occurrence of eating and sexual disorders has not been thoroughly studied. Therefore, experts caution against drawing conclusions about what role it may play in the comorbidity of these two disorders.
Recent Author Journal of Sexual Medicine The publication explored body image and the co-occurrence of eating and sexual disorders in an anonymous survey of 985 Israeli women published online between December 2019 and February 2020. Unlike many previous studies on this topic, which typically looked at clinical samples, the authors intentionally sought out a large nonclinical sample of women.
For the purposes of this study, sexual dysfunction was assessed through the Arizona Sexual Experiences Scale (ASEX), a five-item instrument that assesses key components of sexual function, including sexual desire, arousal, vaginal lubrication, and ability to orgasm. Eating disorders were measured through the Eating Disorders Inventory 2 (EDI-2), which explores attitudes and behaviors associated with anorexia and bulimia through three subscales: “desire to be thin,” “bulimia,” and “body dissatisfaction.” and quantify it. Finally, body image was assessed through the Body Image Self-Consciousness Scale (BISC), a 15-item questionnaire that probes women's concerns about their body image during sexual activity by stating: It becomes flat and appears larger than it is. Rate from 1 (never) to 6 (always).”
Ultimately, based on the respective criteria for sexual and eating disorders from ASEX and EDI-2, survey participants were classified into one of four groups: ‘no disorder’ (54.6%) and ‘eating disorder’ (29.7%). , “comorbidity” (11.4%) and “sexual disorder” (4.3%).
More than one in 10 women in the study identified with comorbidity, meaning they had symptoms of both sexual and eating disorders. Interestingly, the authors found that women in the “common disease” group experienced significantly more body image self-consciousness during sexual encounters than women in the other groups. This finding may support the hypothesis that poor body image may contribute to both eating and sexual disorders. This is potentially because individuals cannot be fully present during sexual experiences when they are preoccupied with concerns about their body or appearance.
Another interesting finding of the study was that although women with eating disorder symptoms did not always have a sexual disorder, the majority of women with sexual disorders also had eating disorder symptoms. This finding may be important for patients seeking support for sexual disorders if they may benefit from seeking support for eating disorder symptoms.
resource:
Gewirtz-Meydan, A., & Spivak-Lavi, Z. (2021). Profiles of sexual and eating disorder symptoms: Associations with body image. Journal of Sexual Medicine, 18(8), 1364-1373. https://www.jsm.jsexmed.org/article/S1743-6095(21)00528-2/fulltext.