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. 2022 Oct 24;19(21):13818.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113818.

How Urinary Incontinence Affects Sexual Activity in Polish Women: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study

Bartlomiej Burzynski  1 , Piotr Gibala  2 , Zuzanna Soltysiak-Gibala  2 , Tomasz Jurys  3 , Piotr Przymuszala  4 , Pawel Rzymski  5 , Rafal Stojko  2
Affiliations

How Urinary Incontinence Affects Sexual Activity in Polish Women: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study

Bartlomiej Burzynski et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Urinary incontinence (UI) in women can cause a number of sexual dysfunctions and reduce their quality of life. Sexual health is essential to the self-esteem, emotional state, and overall quality of life. We aimed to assess the quality of sexual life of women with UI. The study included a group of 145 sexually active women diagnosed with UI. The research was conducted using the diagnostic survey method with authorial and validated questionnaires. As many as 49.1% of the respondents reported a deterioration of sexual relations in comparison with the time before the onset of UI symptoms. According to the FSDS-R results, 83.45% of respondents were dissatisfied with their sex life. The higher the result obtained by respondents in the FSDS-R scale, the lower was their quality of life in the IIQ-7 scale (p ≤ 0.002, R = 0.53). The greatest impact was observed in the domains of emotional health and physical activity. The more incontinence symptoms reported by the respondent in the UDI-6 scale, the worse was her sexual satisfaction in the FSDS-R (p = 0.003, R = 0.39). UI in women contributes to the development of sexual dysfunctions, including decreased interest in sexual life, limited intercourse, and dissatisfaction with sexual life.

Keywords: quality of life; sexual function; sexual health; urinary incontinence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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