my personal edition > ob/gyn other > news


  E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

DGDispatch

Sexual Dysfunction Prevalent in Hispanic Women With Urinary Incontinence: Presented at AUGS

By Paula Moyer

SAN DIEGO, CA -- August 6, 2004 -- Hispanic women with urinary incontinence are also highly likely to suffer from sexual dysfunction, according to findings presented here July 30th at the 2004 American Urogynecologic Society/Society of Gynecologic Surgeons Joint Scientific Meeting.

"Among nearly 200 Hispanic women with urinary incontinence, one third reported that they were not sexually active," reported principal investigator Begüm Özel, MD. "Among those who were sexually active, nearly 30% reported that they are incontinent with sexual activity, and nearly 40% reported that they seldom or never have orgasm with intercourse." Dr. Özel is a fellow in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California.

The investigative team was concerned about the limited data regarding sexual dysfunction among Hispanic women with either urinary incontinence or prolapse. These conditions are common, and high numbers of women with such problems report that these conditions interfere with their sexual life, ranging from 34% to 68%.

Dr. Özel and her coinvestigators reviewed the charts of all Spanish-speaking, Hispanic women who had been seen as new patients for evaluation of urinary incontinence in their urogynecology department between March and November 2003. The patients had received a self-administered questionnaire, which is a Spanish translation of the short form of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12). The investigators analyzed the data with Student's t test and Fisher's exact test where appropriate.

Of the 199 women in the sample, 60.3% were sexually active and 33.7% reported that they were not. Six percent did not respond to that question, and the remaining 5 women who reported that they were sexually active did not complete the questionnaire.

The investigators documented several differences between the sexually inactive and sexually active women. The women who were not sexually active were an average of 57.5±10.6 years old, compared to the sexually active women, who averaged 46.9±8.4 years old (P <.0001). The sexually inactive women had an average parity of 4.4±2.8 children, compared to an average of 3.7±2.1 children in the sexually active women (P =.05). Among the sexually inactive women, 78.1% were postmenopausal, compared to 30.6% of the sexually active women (P =.0001). Among postmenopausal women, 8.0% of those who were not sexually active were on systemic estrogen replacement therapy, compared to 29.4% of sexually active women (P =.016).

Among the 115 sexually active women who completed the questionnaire, 29.4% reported that they are either always or usually incontinent with sexual activity, and 37.1% said that fear of incontinence always or usually restricts their sexual activity. Regarding pelvic organ prolapse, 29.4% said that they always or usually avoid intercourse due to bulging in the vagina.

Other findings showed that those who were sexually active had additional sexual function problems. Nearly one-half, 43.7%, reported that they seldom or never feel sexual desire and 39.4% reported that they seldom or never climax during intercourse.


[Presentation title: Sexual Function in Hispanic Women With Urinary Incontinence. Abstract 112]

E-Mail this DGDispatch to a colleague

To print, use this version