Mode of delivery and subsequent self-perceived sexual life satisfaction: a population-based cohort study

Abstract

BackgroundThe potential association between mode of obstetric delivery and subsequent gestational parent sexual outcomes remain uncertain and has not been well investigated from a positive sexual life satisfaction perspective. ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate if there was any association between mode of delivery and subsequent gestational parent sexual life satisfaction. A secondary aim was to assess the extent to which this association changed when stratified by time elapsed since delivery. Study designThe study matched participants in the Stockholm Public Health Cohort with deliveries recorded in the Swedish Medical Birth Registry. Any delivery recorded in the registry, before the participation in the Stockholm Public Health Cohort, were included (n=46 078). The length of time from delivery to outcome assessment varied from 1 month to 41 years (mean 18 years, ±10.8). Mode of delivery was retrieved from the same registry, whereas self-perceived sexual life satisfaction was retrieved from the Stockholm Public Health Cohort Questionnaires where participants had assessed their sexual life satisfaction as one out of five mutually exclusive options. Multinomial logistic regression was used to test for any association between mode of delivery (caesarean delivery, instrumental, and spontaneous vaginal delivery) and sexual life satisfaction, both overall and stratified by time elapsed since delivery. ResultsAfter adjusting for covariates, no statistically significant difference between modes of delivery and subsequent gestational parent sexual life satisfaction was identified. Adjusted odds ratios for assessing sexual life satisfaction as the lowest level (“very unsatisfactory”) were 1.11 (95% confidence interval 0.98-1.25) for caesarean deliveries and 1.16 (95% confidence interval 0.99-1.35) for instrumental deliveries, compared to spontaneous vaginal deliveries. The difference in covariate-adjusted prevalence of the lowest level of sexual life satisfaction in the different time since delivery groups was small, for example 4.0% (95% confidence interval 2.4-5.6%) for caesarean deliveries as compared to 2.8% (95% confidence interval 2.1-3.6%) for spontaneous vaginal deliveries 2 years since delivery. ConclusionsThese findings do not support any impact of mode of delivery on the subsequent self-perceived sexual life satisfaction among birthing people, either overall or across time since delivery.