A methodology study to validate a structured diagnostic method used to diagnose female sexual dysfunction and its subtypes in postmenopausal women

The currently accepted gold standard for diagnosis of female sexual dysfunction (FSD) is a nonstandardized interview by a clinician whose field of expertise is FSD. However, the limited number of experts in the field has implications for running efficient large-scale clinical trials. Therefore, we developed a structured diagnostic method (SDM) to enable diagnosis of FSD in postmenopausal women by health care professionals who are not FSD experts. Our study objectives were to evaluate both convergent validity and intrarater reliability of the SDM. The results showed that the method had good convergent validity and excellent intrarater reliability. Thus, we conclude that the SDM can reliably diagnose FSD status and FSD subtypes in postmenopausal women.