Introduction and Objectives: A growing body of evidence highlighted the paradigm of interdependence between male and female sexual function as a disorder of the couple. We prospectively evaluated the effect of Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) on sexual function of female patients and their respective partners.
Methods: Female patients with SUI who attended the outpatient urology clinics, and their respective partners were asked to participate in the study. A control group which included continent women and their partners were also invited. They were recruited from visitors who were not seeking treatment in the hospital. Eligible couples completed the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (GRISS). A high score suggests a higher degree of sexual problem being measured.
Results: 66 of the 134 couples with female SUI (response rate 49.3%) and 95 of the 176 healthy couples (response rate 54.0%) agreed to participate. There were no differences in the demographic data between females with SUI and healthy controls, or between their respective partners. There was a trend towards increasing overall GRISS scores with advancing age (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, r = 0.548, p < 0.001 in female, r = 0.545, p < 0.001 in male).
Females with SUI had significantly higher mean overall scores compared to healthy controls (38.52 ± 10.07 versus 33.74 ± 10.26, p < 0.001). Furthermore, females with SUI reported less frequency in sexual intercourse (p < 0.001), had more sexual dissatisfaction (p < 0.001) and avoidance behavior (p = 0.03). Partners of females with SUI showed significantly higher scores with regards to impotence (p = 0.027), sexual dissatisfaction (p = 0.006) and infrequency of sexual intercourse (p < 0.001). However, there was no significant difference in the overall sexual function as denoted by the total GRISS score (p = 0.093).
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that SUI negatively affects the sexual function of both patients and their partners.
