Stress Incontinence and Sexual Life: Occult Problems of the Female Asthmatics

Authors: A. Fuat KALYONCU, Gül KISACIK, Lütfü ÇÖPLÜ, A. Altay ŞAHİN, Y. İzzettin BARIŞ

Abstract: We have enrolled 60 female patients suffering from asthma and 36 females of the cleaning staff of our hospital as the control group. We filled in a questionnaire for each woman in the control group and for each female patient who referred to our out-patient clinic with asthmatic symptoms for the first time, consecutively. Patients were treated according to the last asthma consensus and reevaluated after a month for their stress incontinence symptoms. Mean ages were 36.2 (8.4) and 37.2 (8.8) for the patient and the control group respectively. Stress incontinence was noted in 37 of the patients and 9 of the controls. After treatment, stress incontinence was noted to disappear in 25, improved in 10 and not changed in 2 of the patients. It took 9.4 (3.2) days for cessation of urinary symptoms. Among the patients, 40 reported their sexual lives to be affected to some degree. Of the afflicted cases, 30 reported mild-moderate and 10 severe problems. In conclusion, inappropriately treated female asthmatics recorded considerable degrees of stress incontinence and sexual problems while stress incontinence improved shortly after the appropriate treatment.

Keywords: Female; Bronchial asthma; Stress Incontinence; Sexual Problem