Abstract
Objectives
The relationship between pelvic organ prolapse (POP) treatment and subjective pelvic-floor
related quality of life (QoL) was examined.
Study design
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.
Results
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).
Conclusion
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.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: February 23, 2021
Accepted:
February 18,
2021
Received in revised form:
January 29,
2021
Received:
September 16,
2020
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
