Assessment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Sexual Function in Women with Metabolic Syndrome

Objective To assess lower urinary tract symptoms and sexual function in premenopausal women with metabolic syndrome (MetS). Materials and Methods A total of 34 premenopausal patients over 18 years of age with MetS and who were admitted to our endocrinology clinic between September 2013 and April 2014 were included. Control group was consisted of 30 healthy controls chosen from the staff of the hospital. The sexual function, lower urinary tract symptoms and quality of life of the participants were evaluated by using Index of Female Sexual Function (IFSF), Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6), and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire (IIQ-7), respectively. The scores of the patients were statistically compared with those of controls. Results The mean ages of the patient and control groups were 40.50±5.12 years and 38.17±2.12 years, respectively (p=0.09). The mean IFSF-total and all of the IFSF sub scales (except pain) in the patient group were significantly lower than those of the control group. The mean UDI-6 score of the patients was significantly higher than the controls (p=0.001). The mean IIQ-7 scores of the patients was higher than controls, however this increase was not statistically significant (p=0.11). Conclusion These findings showed that MetS affected adversely the sexual function of premenopausal women due to the fact that IFSF scores were found to be lower in women with MetS as compared to healthy controls. Moreover, IFSF score under the threshold values in patients showed that patients with MetS had sexual function disorder. These lower urinary tract symptoms in the patients with MetS did not affect the quality of life although the severity of lower urinary tract symptoms of patients with MetS was significantly worse than that in control group.