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The impact of pelvic floor surgery on female sexual function: a mixed quantitative and qualitative study
Author(s) -
Roos AM,
Thakar R,
Sultan AH,
Leeuw JW,
Paulus ATG
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
bjog: an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.157
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1471-0528
pISSN - 1470-0328
DOI - 10.1111/1471-0528.12412
Subject(s) - sexual function , medicine , urinary incontinence , pelvic floor , qualitative research , sexual dysfunction , gynecology , population , prospective cohort study , physical therapy , surgery , social science , environmental health , sociology
Objective To assess whether the current condition‐specific sexual function questionnaire provides full insight into sexual function following pelvic floor surgery. Design Prospective, mixed quantitative and qualitative study. Setting Urogynaecology clinic in a large university hospital. Population Thirty‐seven women undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse ( POP ) and/or stress urinary incontinence ( SUI ). Methods Women were seen before surgery and 3 months postoperatively. At both visits the P elvic O rgan P rolapse/ U rinary I ncontinence S exual F unction Q uestionnaire ( PISQ ) was completed and a qualitative face‐to‐face semi‐structured interview was conducted. PISQ total and domain scores, as well as the change in the preoperative and postoperative score, were calculated and analysed using W ilcoxon signed rank test and one‐sample t ‐test. The qualitative data were systematically analysed using data‐matrices. Main outcome measures The impact of pelvic floor surgery on female sexual function. Results Significant improvement was seen for PISQ total score ( P = 0.003) as well as P hysical ( P < 0.001) and Partner‐related ( P = 0.002) domains, but not for the B ehavioural/ E motive domain ( P = 0.220). Analysis of qualitative data showed that improvement in sexual function was a result of cure of POP and SUI symptoms. Deterioration of sexual function was due to dyspareunia, fear of causing damage to the surgical result, new symptoms and a disappointing result of surgery. Conclusions Our qualitative data show that PISQ is limited in the assessment of sexual function after pelvic floor surgery as it does not assess most surgery‐specific negative effects on sexual function.