Vaginal pessary in advanced pelvic organ prolapse: impact on quality of life

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a highly prevalent dysfunction of the pelvic floor affecting up to 40% of women. The symptoms of POP have a major impact on quality of life. Pessary treatment is a therapy option associated with high levels of satisfaction and few complications.

The objective was to assess the impact and efficacy of vaginal pessary use on the quality of life of women with advanced POP stages III and IV.

A multicenter, longitudinal, prospective observational study was conducted at the Urogynecology Sector of the Hospital Ipiranga and the Hospital Central of the Irmandade da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de São Paulo. A sociodemographic questionnaire was employed and two scales validated in Portuguese (ICIQVS and SF 12) were applied before and 6 months after pessary use. Student´s t test, Mann-Whitney test and Fisher´s exact test were applied, adopting a significance level of 0.05.

The median age of participants was 71.5 (65-76) years and the median number of pregnancies was 4 (3-5). Deliveries were predominantly vaginal (82.5%). Women sexually active (16.49%) showed improvement in sexual function (78.6%). The participants showed improvement in vaginal symptoms (91.8%) and quality of life (92.8%) (p < 0.01) post-treatment. Of the total 97 women, the sample drop-out rate was 9.3% and 88 participants completed the two stages of the study.

Vaginal pessary use had 90.7% efficacy, a high level of treatment satisfaction (75.3%), and a positive impact on the improvement of vaginal and sexual symptoms, quality of life, and mental health.