SOCIAL-ADJUSTMENT AND SPOUSE RELATIONSHIPS AMONG WOMEN WITH STRESS-INCONTINENCE BEFORE AND AFTER SURGICAL-TREATMENT

Forty-five women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and their part ners have been interviewed three months before and one year after surg ical treatment to investigate the social consequences of their impairm ent. One year after surgery 76% of the women reported that they were c ured (group A, n=34) and 24% that they were improved (group B, n=11). The cured women were significantly younger than the improved women. Th e duration of urinary leakage before the operation was significantly s horter in group A than in group B. One year post surgery group A repor ted a significantly decrease in impediments to exert certain tasks due to urine leakage. As concerns leisure time, group A reported a higher level of overall activities before surgery than group B, whereas post surgery both groups obtained about the same level of activities. Regar ding social support, no differences between the groups occurred as con cerns attachment. Furthermore, group A women showed a significantly hi gher degree of adequacy of social integration compared with group B. T he majority of the couples could openly discuss sexual matters with th eir partners and were satisfied with their sexual life. More than half of the interviewed men reported an increase in sexual desire one year after their partners operation. Whereas about every third woman in bo th groups reported an increase in sexual desire. However, the frequenc y of intercourse did not change in any groups. In conclusion, this stu dy underlines the importance of social factors in the assessment of th e consequences of stress urinary incontinence and its treatment. (C) 1 996 Elsevier Science Ltd