The relationship between age and pelvic organ prolapse bother

A variety of factors affect the amount of bother experienced by different women with equivalent pelvic organ prolapse (POP). The goal of this study was to describe the relationship between age and bother experienced from objectively equivalent stages of POP.

Records of all patients presenting to a pelvic floor subspecialty clinic between January 2014 and March 2015 were reviewed. Women with POP stage ≥ 2 were included. The level of bother experienced from prolapse symptoms was defined as the score on the validated Pelvic Organ Prolapse Distress Inventory (POPDI). Multiple linear regression was performed to examine the relationship between age and the POPDI score. A sample size of 150 patients was determined to have 80 % power to detect an effect of age equivalent to an increase in R2 of 0.05.

A total of 229 charts were reviewed and 165 patients were included in the final analysis. The effect of age on prolapse bother in the entire population was quadratic (p = 0.0497). Women at both ends of the spectrum were less bothered by prolapse, whereas women in the 6th and 7th decades of life demonstrated the highest level of bother, irrespective of stage. This same quadratic relationship remained in women with stage 2 prolapse (p = 0.019).

Women in the 6th and 7th decades of life experience higher levels of bother from POP than older or younger women with the same stage of prolapse. This suggests that women in these decades of life might be at a higher risk for impairment of quality of life from POP.