Sexual Quality of Life in Women With and Without Urinary Incontinence: A Cross-Sectional Study

The purpose of this study was to compare the sexual quality of life in women with and without urinary incontinence (UI) and the association between sexual quality of life and select sociodemographic and UI characteristics.

Cross-sectional/observational.

A total of 167 women, 84 with UI and 83 without UI, were included in the study.

Data were collected through an online survey system between November 2020 and April 2021. The online questionnaire included a "Personal Information Form," the "International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-SF)," and the "Sexual Quality of Life Scale-Female (SQL)." Scores form the SQL were compared using the independent sample t test for 2 groups and 1-way ANOVA for more than 2 groups.

The mean SQL score of the women in the UI group (27.8, SD = 22.9) was significantly lower than that of the women reporting no UI (78.7, SD = 21.0; P < .001). The mean SQL scores of the women reporting typically leaking small amounts of urine during incontinent episodes (39.8, SD = 27.9) were significantly higher than those of women who typically leaked a moderate amount of urine (25.2, SD = 21.0; P = .02). The mean SQL score of the women who did not report coital incontinence (46.6, SD = 19.5) was significantly higher than that of women with coital incontinence (25.8, SD = 22.5; P = .01). There was no significant relationship between UI types and mean SQL scores of the women (P = .16).

Urinary incontinence had a negative effect on the quality of women's sexual life. Typically, leaking larger volumes of UI and experiencing incontinence during coitus were associated with worse sexual quality of life.