الفهرس 
Introduction and RationaleOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The skin is the organ we first see when we look at each other; thus it is an organ of communication and we use it to impress others. Its health is a requirement for achieving one’s potential or ’love at first sight.’
Skin diseases specially that cause disfigurement make the patients concerned about their appearance and about what other people think and react about them .
The attitude of our community that considers the patients with any skin diseases infectious and with bad hygiene, and avoids to deal with them due to the high prevalence of illiteracy and ignorance in the community.
Women specially are affected because the women appearance is of a great importance in the society and serious part of its feminity and sexual attraction.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the sexual function in a sample of Egyptian women suffering from disfiguring skin diseases.
Our study included 180 married women divided into 2 groups
1-The control group: included 30 healthy married women without any disfiguring conditions.
2- The patients group: included 150 married women suffering from skin disease that caused disfigurement (vitiligo, psoriasis, pemphigus vulgaris, DLE, alopecia totalis &universalis and acne scars).
The 2 groups were age and educational level matched.
In this study, we used a self-filling questionnaire translated into Arabic. Questionnaire consisted of 25 items that covered relations between disfiguring skin diseases and sexuality.
The Questionnaire Included the Following domains:
• Epidemiological data: Age, educational level, residence and the type of skin diseases in the patients group.
• Assessment of female sexual functions regarding the frequency of intercourse, desire to have sex, arousal, lubrication, orgasm, satisfaction with their sexual life and pain during penetration.
• The social difficulties because of the disease (embarrassment with wearing exposing clothes and being skin conscious).
• The marital difficulties because of the skin disease.
• Development of sexual problem after having the disease.
The results of this study showed that:
• More than half of the participants had an education level of a secondary school or higher.
• The frequency of intercourse was less in patients with no significant difference between the 2 groups.
• All domains of the sexual function (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm and satisfaction from sex) showed significant decline in the patients group compared with controls.
• The pain during penetration didn’t show any significant difference between the 2 groups.
• Regarding self-esteem 75.33% of patients feel embarrassed with wearing exposing clothes and 66.67% of the patients feel a lot skin conscious.
• Fifty percent of the patients developed their sexual problems after having the skin diseases.
Conclusion
This study had shown that skin diseases specially that cause disfigurement such as vitiligo ,psoriasis, DLE, pemphigus vulgaris, acne scars and alopecia totalis and universalis , have negative effects on patients’ quality of lives, because they affect self-perception and social relationships. And have negative impact on sexual life; especially among females as they affect (desire, arousal, lubrication, orgasm and satisfaction from sex) domains of sexual function and also about half the patients stated the decline in their sexual function after having the disease.
Since sexual function is an important part of life and quality of life, sexual dysfunction should be investigated and treated in patients with skin diseases, the sexual lives of these patients should also be evaluated, and if necessary, patients should receive psychiatric support.