Sexual desire in Brazilian women: an integrative review of scientific literature

Abstract

Abstract Women’s sexual desire is a recurring subject in gynecology and psychotherapy offices where a relevant and frequent complaint is the lack of sexual desire. This study aimed to carry out an integrative review of the scientific literature published between 2008 and 2018, on the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior, Scientific Eletronic Library Online, Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde platforms on the subject of sexual desire in Brazilian women. Three groups of descriptors were taken into consideration for the searches; the first included “sexual desire” the second, “woman” and the third, “Brazil”. Among the 35 articles selected, data regarding the type of research carried out; the cut-out criterion selected for sample and perspective that were used to comprehend desire were collected. The conclusion is that most articles maintain a biological perspective for understanding desire and point out a gap to be filled by psychology on this matter.