Sexual and social life of men operated in childhood for hypospadias and phimosis - A comparative study

Objective: Hypospadiacs have been reported to be sexually less active, make their sexual debut later, have more negative genital appraisal and have le ss qualified professions than other men. We studied whether the reported di fferences are due to circumcised-like penile appearance. Methods: We compared the social and sexual life of hypospadias patients to circumcised patients. A detailed questionnaire was mailed to 64 patients op erated for hypospadias and to 64 age-matched patients circumcised for phimo sis 18-31 years ago. Results: Fortysix (75.0%) hypospadiacs and 43 controls (67.2%) returned the questionnaire. Sexual life and success in life in general among hypospadia cs did not differ from those of circumcised patients. Hypospadiacs were mar kedly more dissatisfied with the result of the operation (33 vs. 5%). Ten h ypospadiacs and one control were dissatisfied with the appearance of their penis (p<0.01). Thirty-seven hypospadiacs (80.4%) had voiding problems comp ared to 20 contros (46.5%) (p<0.01). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that even patients with a less than pe rfect technical result are able to live a satisfactory sexual life and to s ucceed in life in general. Minor differences observed in sexual life betwee n men operated for hypospadias and other men seem not to be due to the circ umcised appearance of the penis even in cultures where circumcision is unco mmon. Copyright (C) 2000 S. Karger AG. Basel.