Sexual dysfunction in women with interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome: A case-control study.

Interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic debilitating illness characterized by urinary frequency, urgency, and pelvic pain. IC/BPS adversely affects the sexual well-being of the patients. We used the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) to compare sexual dysfunction (FSD) in women with IC/BPS versus controls in an Indian cohort where such data is lacking.

This case-control study was designed to compare the FSDs in patients with IC/BPS to that of asymptomatic controls. Pelvic Pain and Urgency/Frequency (PUF) Questionnaire scores and FSFI scores were used as tools for this study.

Thirty-two patients were recruited in each group. Patients with IC/BPS had a significantly higher PUF score as compared to the control group (7.843 vs. 3.656). These patients also scored worse on the total adjusted FSFI score (18.678 ± 4.531 vs. 28.05 ± 4.318; P < 0.05) and individually in all domains of sexual function. Twenty-nine (90.62%) patients of the IC/BPS group had FSD as compared to 12 (37.5%) of patients in the control group. Pain was the most common presenting complaint and was seen in 65.25% of patients in the IC/BPS group as compared to only 31.25% of patients in the control group.

The results of our study show that women with IC/BPS have more pain and sexual dysfunction than controls.

Indian journal of urology : IJU : journal of the Urological Society of India. 2020 Jul 01 [Epub]

Amit Agrawal, Susanta Tripathy, Deepak Kumar

Department of Urology, Command Hospital (Western Command), Panchkula, Haryana, India., Department of Urology, Command Hospital (Eastern Command), Kolkata, West Bengal, India., Department of Urology, Command Hospital (Southern Command), Pune, Maharashtra, India.