ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Minerva Ginecologica 2015 August;67(4):315-20

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Evaluation of recovery and quality of sexual activity in women during postpartum in relation to the different mode of delivery: a retrospective analysis

Laganà A. S. ¹, Burgio M. A. ², Ciancimino L. ¹, Sicilia A. ², Pizzo A. ¹, Magno C. ³, Butticè S. ³, Triolo O. ¹ ✉

¹ Department of Pediatric, Gynecological, Microbiological and Biomedical Sciences, AOU “G. Martino”, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ² School of Midwifery, AOU “G. Martino”, University of Messina, Messina, Italy; ³ Department of Urology, AOU “G. Martino”, University of Messina, Messina, Italy

AIM: Aim of the study was to assess the recovery and quality of sexual activity of women during postpartum, in relation to delivery.
METHODS: We recruited 200 women at 8 weeks after delivery. For each patient we recorded mode of delivery, age, body mass index (BMI), parity and test Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) score.
RESULTS: Sixty-four women (32%) had spontaneous deliveries without episiotomy, 48 (24%) had it with episiotomy, 88 (44%) had caesarean sections. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed no significant differences among the 3 groups for age, BMI, parity. The test FSFI evidenced 68 cases (34%) of Regular Female Sexual Function (RFSF) and 132 (66%) of Female Sexual Dysfunction (FSD). The ANOVA test showed significant differences among the 3 groups in RFSF (F [2, 14]=8.075, P=0.005), but not in FSD (F [2, 30]=2.646, P=0.087). In RFSF, FSFI score was higher in women who had vaginal delivery with episiotomy compared with the other two groups. Conversely, in FSD (both with or without resumed sexual activity at 8 weeks postpartum) we evidenced that patients who had vaginal delivery with episiotomy showed lower FSFI score than the other two groups, with a decrease in lubrication, orgasm and satisfaction scores. Furthermore, we observed that most of the RFSF patients had a job and breastfed.
CONCLUSION: Our results did not evidence a direct and significant correlation between mode of delivery and onset of female postpartum sexual dysfunction, even if FSD patients who underwent episiotomy during delivery markedly showed low FSFI scores.