Grant: Project Grant

Difficulties with sexual function affect up to 1/3 of women of all ages, regardless of their menopausal status, culture, and health. The World Health Organization recognizes sexual health as being a core aspect of general health and quality of life. Our past research shows psychological treatments to be effective for treating sexual dysfunction in women. However, a significant limitation in these face-to-face programs is that women who live far from our treatment centre may not have access. Moreover, women from certain communities may face additional barriers in accessing treatment, and these include women of colour, Indigenous women, and women living in small communities. Our goals for this 3-year project are to: 1.Test two online treatment programs for female sexual dysfunction: one based on Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and one based on Mindfulness meditation 2.Show that both of these online treatments are more effective than a control group 3.Determine how satisfied participants are and how much they engage with the online treatments A total of 75 women will be randomly assigned to the cognitive behavioural group, the mindfulness group, or the control group. Treatment will last 8-12 weeks and be administered totally online. Each participant will be able to speak with a navigator each week via webcam to help identify any website issues. We expect that the findings will allow us to develop a larger randomized trial with the goal of increasing our knowledge of which treatments work best for women with sexual dysfunction, and just how effective these treatments are when done via a website. Our long-term goal is to make online treatments much more accessible to women, especially those facing barriers to accessing care.