Does urinary incontinence subtype affect sexual function?

Objective: Urinary incontinence (UI) may affect a woman's physical and psychological well-being in different aspects. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of urinary stress incontinence (USI), detrusor overactivity (DO) and mixed urinary incontinence (MUI) on sexual function. Study design: One-hundred and seventy urinary incontinent, sexually active women were included in this cross-sectional study. After urodynamic evaluation, participants were divided into three subgroups as USI (n = 61), DO (n = 55) and MUI (n = 54). Patients were matched according to age, parity and body mass index (BMI), rendering the sample size to 41 patients in each group. Turkish version short form of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Incontinence Sexual Function Questionnaire (PISQ-12) was filled out by each of the participants. Totally, 52 patients were excluded from the study (47 could not be matched and 5 incomplete questionnaire). Demographic characteristics of the participants, total and three domain scores of PISQ-12 were compared among three UI subgroups. Results: The study group was consisted of 38 (32.2%) DO, 41(34.7%) USI and 39(33.1%) MUI patients. Demographic characteristics of the patients were similar in three subgroups. Patients with a diagnosis of MUI had significantly lower mean PISQ-12 scores than the ones with USI and DO whereas patients with USI had lower mean PISQ-12 scores than patients with DO. Conclusion: Although urinary stress incontinence effects sexual function more than detrusor overactivity in terms of PISQ-12 scores, mixed urinary incontinence has the greatest impact on sexual function when compared with urinary stress incontinence and detrusor overactivity. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.