Carlin Greta L, Morgenbesser Raffaela, Kimberger Oliver, Umek Wolfgang, Bodner Klaus, Bodner-Adler Barbara
Department of General Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria.
Department of Anesthesiology, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Outcomes Research Consortium, Cleveland, OH, USA.
Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2021 Apr;259:161-166. doi: 10.1016/j.ejogrb.2021.02.018. Epub 2021 Feb 23.
The relationship between pelvic organ prolapse (POP) treatment and subjective pelvic-floor related quality of life (QoL) was examined.
130 postmenopausal women with symptomatic POP were included: 45 % (59/130) were treated conservatively with pessary and 55 % (71/130) underwent pelvic floor surgery. All participants answered the validated German pelvic floor questionnaire at the time of baseline examination, as well as three months later.
Our results demonstrated a significant improvement regarding mean score in the domains "prolapse" (p = 0.001) and "sexual function" (p = 0.001) three months after prolapse surgery, whereas in the pessary group only the score in the "prolapse" domain improved (p < 0.001). When comparing the two treatment arms after three months, patients reported a significant advancement regarding their "sexual function" domain in the surgery group (p < 0.0001). Furthermore, univariate analysis revealed a significant positive correlation between "prolapse" domain score (correlation coefficient = 0.0001) as well as "bladder" domain score (correlation coefficient <0.001) and POP-Q stage. Additionally, a significant negative correlation between "sexual function" domain score and POP-Q stage was found (correlation coefficient = 0.0001).
Our results revealed that three months after prolapse surgery, pelvic-floor related QoL showed significant improvement in the domain "sexual function" compared to three months pessary treatment. Besides, advanced prolapse stage correlated with higher symptom burden and worse sexual function.
