Gynecological symptoms in somatization disorder

Abstract

Background

Medically unexplained symptoms are common in ambulatory medical patients. Such disorders are consistently more prevalent in women than in men and occurs up to 10 times more frequently in women.

Main objective

To review published literature about gynecological symptoms related to somatic disorder and which percentage of these patients diagnosed as Somatoform Disorder are referred from gynecologist consultations.

Methods

We present the case of a 31-year-old woman diagnosed of a somatic symptom disorder whose first consultation was gynecological. She is referred to Mental Health Unit from Primary Care Center because of having been referred to five different specialists and been diagnosed as “functional somatic syndromes” in all cases. She started a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, and attended a relaxation group during two months with good recovery afterwards.

She is asymptomatic nowadays and has not been visited by any other specialist.

Conclusions

Women report more intense, numerous, frequent bodily symptoms than men. This difference appears in samples of medical patients and in community samples, whether or not gynecologic and reproductive symptoms are excluded, and whether all bodily symptoms or only those, which are medically unexplained are examined.

Women may be more aware of and more attentive to weak or diffuse bodily stimuli, which men do not perceive, and some studies suggest that women have greater bodily vigilance and awareness.

This could result from the experiences of menstruation, menopause, pregnancy, and lactation which all serve to repeatedly call women's attention to their anatomy and physiology and to sensitize them to bodily changes.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.