Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center examined data from the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, which tracked sexually active, postmenopausal women ages 50 to 79 for eight to 12 years. Based on responses to a baseline survey, subjects were classified as sexually satisfied or dissatisfied.

Lead author Dr. Jennifer McCall-Hosenfeld of the Boston Medical Center said that in the study, decreased sexual satisfaction was used as a proxy measure for sexual dysfunction, and controlled for lifestyle issues and other factors that might impact sexual satisfaction.

"We did not find that sexual satisfaction predicted cardiovascular disease in the future," McCall-Hosenfeld said in a statement.

"Our study of sexually active, postmenopausal women found dissatisfaction with sexual activity was not predictive of incident cardiovascular disease, which may be due to physiological differences in sexual functioning between men and women, or to difficulty measuring sexual dysfunction in women."

The researchers said, however, erectile dysfunction in men is clearly linked to the development of cardiovascular disease.

The findings were presented in The American Journal of Medicine.