ReviewUrology annals
Persistent genital arousal disorder: A systematic review of diagnosis, etiology, and treatment approaches (2015-2025).
Review in Urology annals. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD) is a distressing, often debilitating condition of unwanted genital arousal occurring independent of desire and difficult to relieve, with substantial psychosocial burden. We systematically reviewed peer-reviewed studies (2015-2025) to synthesize the evidence for diagnosis, etiology, and treatment. PubMed, Ovid (MEDLINE/Embase), and CINAHL (English-language, human studies; last searched on August 31, 2025) were searched. Two reviewers independently screened the records and extracted data, with disagreements resolved by the consensus and third-reviewer adjudication. Risk of bias was assessed using ROBINS-I for comparative observational studies and Joanna Briggs Institute tools for case series. The findings were synthesized narratively in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis 2020. The review protocol was registered prospectively in PROSPERO (CRD420251108714). Of 799 records identified, 56 duplicates were removed; 743 titles/abstracts were screened, 197 full texts were assessed, and 14 studies were included. Eligible designs comprised cross-sectional surveys, case-control/cohort studies, case series ≥3 patients, and one clinical review with embedded cases; no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were identified. Owing to clinical and methodological heterogeneity, meta-analysis was not performed. Participants were predominantly women. Diagnostic practice was inconsistent: Most used symptom-based criteria aligned to International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health or Leiblum-Nathan frameworks, variably combined with targeted imaging, neurophysiology, or small-fiber testing. Etiologic signals most often implicated neuropathic/structural mechanisms - sacral radiculopathy, Tarlov cysts, and pudendal or small-fiber neuropathy - alongside central neurobiological and psychosocial contributors. Interventions included pelvic-floor physiotherapy, cognitive-behavioral approaches, pharmacologic agents (e.g., gabapentinoids and benzodiazepines), neuromodulation, and selected surgical decompressions for defined lesions; outcomes were mixed and follow-up/safety reporting limited. Overall, PGAD appears multifactorial and under-standardized in assessment. It should be prioritized to include a consensus, multimodal diagnostic pathway and prospective, comparative studies using validated patient-reported outcomes to inform individualized, evidence-based care.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.