Women Suffer from Sex-related Problems a Year after Childbirth

About one third of women have painful sexual intercourse a year after childbirth and more than half of them suffer from a sex-related health problem, according to a survey published in the March issue of Journal of Clinical Nursing.

The research involved 482 women who attended maternity units in Birmingham UK and who had given birth to their last child at least a year before they took part in the research.

84 percent of women who took part in the questionnaire complained of at least one sex-related health problem, according to Midwife Amanda Williams.

15 percent of women involved in the research were Asians. Asian women turned out to be more likely to have health problems than their white peers.

Most important findings

55 percent of women after childbirth reported sex-related health issues, 54 percent complained of stress urinary incontinence, whereas 37 percent of women suffer from urge urinary incontinence.

Painful sexual intercourse was reported by 19 percent of women who had undergone сaesarian operation, 34 percent of women who gave birth to their children without surgical intervention and 36 percent of women who had had a forceps delivery or some other kind of instrument-assisted birth

Women who had had an instrument assisted birth turned out to be most likely to have sex-related health problems with the lowest sex-related problems (51 percent) rate among those who had had caesarean births. Among women who had had normal births this figure comprises 64 percent.

Forceps delivery is associated with longer period for resuming sexual intercourse and higher levels of stress, urge and continual incontinence.

Asian women turned out to be more likely to have health problems than white women. Among Asian women perineal pain was more than twice higher (64 percent versus 28 percent). Also Asian women experienced higher levels of continual urinary incontinence (35 vs 20 percent).

The women who took part in the research were aged 16 and over. All of them had had a childbirth at least a year before the research began. All of them had a healthy baby without any congenital abnormalities.

Conclusions

The research raised a number of issues. For instance, the study highlighted concerns about long-term health problems that result from instrument-assisted deivery and variations in bad health between white and Asian women. These areas require further research.

Also researchers point out that though women who had had undergone caesareans reported fewer health problems, this delivery method is still associated with other problems that affect women's quality of life.

The study points to the need for health professionals to provide support for women who have given birth, focusing on issues like perineal problems and sensitive health problems.