(131) Sexual Activity After Pelvic Surgery

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Around 50%-70% of all women, at any moment of their lives, will undergo pelvic surgery such as abdominal and vaginal hysterectomies, laparoscopic or robotic-assisted hysterectomies, and exploratory laparotomies for multiple reasons. These reasons include; endometriosis, chronic pelvic pain, pelvic adhesions secondary to pelvic inflammatory disease, infected or perforated IUDs, previous surgeries, abscesses or cysts, peritonitis, and genital prolapses such as cystoceles, rectoceles, uterine prolapse or vaginal prolapse in patients with previous hysterectomies, urinary and fecal incontinence, and total procidentia. The general public knowledge, distorted sexual education curriculum, and the influence of this inappropriate sexual education (produced by religions and cultures) affect the medical practice and investigations at scientific levels. These influences have expanded the beliefs that sexual activity is deteriorated for all of these kinds of procedures. Few American publications and many Asian publications report the frank deterioration of the sexual response in women who have had pelvic surgeries. Objective To show how a very high percentage of women, that have had pelvic surgeries, have an improvement in their sexual activity after these kinds of procedures. Methods This investigation analyzed the postoperative sexual function of hundreds of patients at our two centers in which all the procedures previously named were practiced. Results We found an improvement in sexual activity, not only in the women but also in the couples in more than 95% of the cases. The pre and post-procedure evaluations were done. Conclusions Contradictory to what several studies have shown regarding how pelvic surgeries produced deterioration in sexual activity, we have demonstrated the opposite. We found that in more than 95% of the cases, sexual activity was improved. These procedures included repairing total procidentia, cystocele, rectocele, urinary incontinence or rectal incontinence, fibroid uterus, or chronic pelvic pain. Disclosure No