Publication:

Assessment of physical and sexual quality of life in women undergoing planned hysterectomy in tertiary care hospital

Background The objective of the study was physical and sexual quality of life (SQOL) in women undergoing elective hysterectomy following six months after surgery.

Methods This was a prospective observational study in which all women undergoing elective hysterectomies in the department and fulfilling inclusion criteria through any routes and benign indication were recruited after taking informed written consent. Women with endometriosis, previous pelvic surgery and emergency hysterectomies were excluded from study. Each woman was subjected quality QOL questionnaires-SF-36 and SQOL-F prior and six months after surgery. Questionnaires used were in their own language, validated and already tested in pilot study. The required sample size was 65 (taking 20% lost to follow up) by using Epi-info software, total 78 eligible women taken in the present study. All data was recorded on excel spread sheet and analysis done by SPSS-21.0 and Wilcoxon-test as appropriate.

Results All aspects of physical and sexual quality of life was found to have improved following hysterectomy. However, only emotional wellbeing worsened.

Conclusions Hysterectomy improves physical and sexual quality of life post-surgery but sexual quality of life improves more in abdominal route than vaginal route.