title: Sexuality in German urogynecological patients and healthy controls: is there a difference with respect to the diagnosis?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate sexual function among German urogynecological patients compared to a control group without urogynecological symptoms, using the validated German version of the Australian pelvic floor questionnaire.
  
  
  METHODS
  Retrospective study including 313 women divided into five subgroups: women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI), overactive bladder (OAB), mixed incontinence (MI), pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and healthy controls. The self-administered questionnaire is divided into three domains: bladder, pelvic organ prolapse, and sexual function. It also includes severity, bothersomeness and condition-specific quality of life. Only completely filled out questionnaires were included. The Mann-Whitney U-test was used as a non-parametric test to calculate significances for ordinal data. A p-value <.05 was taken as significant.
  
  
  RESULTS
  16/59 (27.1%) women in the control group were not sexually active compared to 19/60 (31.7%) in the SUI group, 51/98 (52.0%) in the mixed-incontinence group, 19/43 (44.2%) in the OAB group, and 24/53 (45.3%) in the prolapse group. Coital incontinence was present significantly more often in women with SUI (15/41, 36.6%) or mixed incontinence (20/44, 45.5%) than among the controls (1/49, 2.1%). Hence, concerning sexuality, women with urogynecological symptoms were all significantly more affected than the healthy controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The German version of the Australian pelvic floor questionnaire is a feasible tool to evaluate not only symptoms of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse but also sexual dysfunction. A substantial proportion of our urogynecological patients suffer immensely from problems with their sexuality, and it is therefore our responsibility as physicians to provide assistance and improve our education in this field.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Maistrasse, Germany.
authors.forename: Mirjam
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schoenfeld
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Fuermetz
authors.forename: Maren
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Muenster
authors.forename: Stefanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ennemoser
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: von Bodungen
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Friese
authors.forename: Katharina
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jundt
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D052776:Female Urogenital Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019529:Sexuality
keywords: German version of the Australian pelvic floor questionnaire; Sexuality; Urogynecological patients