Female sexual dysfunction is being extensively researched, along with its associations with age, relationship status, and emotional aspects (38). The prevalence of sexual dysfunction in women may manifest with several variations depending on the way it is defined, the population being researched, particularly lifestyle, culture, and age group (39). There are studies that have found sexual dysfunction in 90% of the female population enrolled in American military clinics (40), and other studies have presented clinical populations with 40% to 53.8% of women experiencing sexual dysfunction (41). In Brazil, extensive research involving more than 2,000 women all over the country pointed out that 50.9% of the women in the study experienced sexual dysfunction (42).
In the present study, the sample was homogeneous in relation to age, race, and marital status. However, sedentary university students in this study tended to be affiliated with evangelicalism. The relationship between physical and sports activity and religion has been a topic of concern in recent studies in Brazil (43). One focus of these studies involves relationships among religious belonging, moral principles that guide them (especially in Pentecostal churches), and involvement in physical education classes (44, 45).
Some evangelical churches, such as the Assemblies of God and Christian Congregations (belonging to the first wave of Pentecostalism), present a strict moral attitude towards the female body, and consequently, are concerned about avoiding activities that lead to temptation, which are considered sinful. For this reason, actions that lead to the demonstration of sensuality and vanity are considered immoral. Believers direct their attention to sacred concerns, and consequently, deprive themselves of physical and sporting activities (45).
This study found a prevalence of sexual dysfunction in 39.6% of female university students from several courses, which was higher than that observed in recent research (46) involving a Brazilian university population from the area of health (28.8%). However, when comparing other studies (15) involving female university students, it found a prevalence close to findings in German women (38.7%) and Peruvian female university students (47). Other similar studies (48) involving African students, though, show a higher incidence (47% to 53.3%), followed by Italian women (60.9%) (16). These differences reinforce the hypothesis that cultural aspects may affect sexual behavior. Individuals internalize values that are favored by their social context. This internalized dimension of an individual’s values has a prominent role in the way they live, including their sexual lives (5).
There was no statistically significant relationship between physical activity and the incidence of sexual dysfunction in female university students. In general, research has found a positive effect of physical exercise on sexual function in women, as described by Stanton, Handy e Meston (30). Regular physical exercise probably increases sexual satisfaction indirectly through improving cardiovascular health, which in turn can be an appropriate option to control hypertension, enhancing vaginal blood flow, and avoiding sexual problems caused by medicines and mood. Additionally, positive body image, which is improved by physical exercise, can also increase sexual wellbeing (30).
Despite this, the current research could not confirm the inverse relationship between regular physical exercise and sexual dysfunction. It is necessary to fully comprehend other aspects that may have influenced the results and carry out a detailed investigation on the students’ lifestyle, involving stressors that can affect sexual function and satisfaction. In research concerning a young Chinese population, an association was observed among life stressors, reluctance to engage in sexual relations, anguish, and sexual difficulties (17).
Acute exercise also influences a series of body systems that could somehow affect physiological sexual arousal of women. It has been shown that exercise positively affects a range of hormones such as cortisol, estrogen, prolactin, oxytocin, and testosterone, some of which are more strongly linked to arousal than others. The effect of exercise on hormonal responses in women varies based on the kind of exercise and the current hormonal stage women are in, such as premenopausal and menstrual cycle alterations (30).
Biochemical and physiological research indicates that diffuse discharge of the sympathetic nervous system occurs during the last stage of sexual arousal in women (49), with a huge increase of heartbeat and blood pressure occurring during orgasm (50). Increases in plasma noradrenaline levels, a sensitive catecholamine of activity of the sympathetic nervous system, have also been shown to follow increases in sexual arousal during sexual relations (51). Therefore, literature supports the role of the sympathetic nervous system in increases in sexual arousal after short periods of exercise (52, 53).
In the present study, although a statistically significant difference in the total FSFI score was not found, active students had statistically significantly higher scores in the domain “excitement” than did sedentary students.
A positive aspect of this research is that the sample was composed of university students from several courses, not necessarily related to health. This contrasts with other studies, in which the sample compositions focused on university students from courses related to health (15, 16, 46). The idea of having a broader coverage of the sample was so as to obtain a coherent cut-off of the target population. Another point to be emphasized is that students who used psychoactive medications during data collection that could somehow influence the sexual response obtained by the FSFI were not included in the research. This detail resulted in a more homogeneous sample that was without selection bias, which is important for the reliability of the results and, consequently, the conclusions drawn from them.
In addition, when the population was classified by the IPAQ as well as by physical activity, there was a substantial majority of physically active female university students (n = 180) and a much smaller and non-proportional number of sedentary students (n = 22). It is believed that this occurred because of sociocultural changes, in which physical activity associated with health has become widespread, and sports have become ever more relevant to university life. Additionally, university sports competitions have been highly present and competitive.
Although several studies in the area with different methodologies and populations have been done, we cannot confirm the total effects of physical activity on sexuality. Therefore, it is clear that more research is needed to understand the effect of physical activity on human sexuality.