Sexual functioning after ostomy surgery

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Abstract
From the literature on sexual functioning after ostomy it appeared that ostomy in general leads to severe sexual impairment, especially for men operated for rectum carcinoma. It also appeared that the sexual consequences of ostomy for women are far less studied than for men. This latter also holds for the consequences of urostomy. Furthermore it becomes clear from the review that nearly all studies involved show a large amount of methodological and conceptual shortcomings, varying from very small sample sizes to the lack of a definition of sexual functioning. It was therefore concluded that a replication study, based on a more firmer methodological basis and including the population of urostomates, was necessary. A retrospective study was performed in which about 1500 patients gave information about the changes in their sexual life after ostomy. The results of this study confirm that hypotheses that men are more hampered in their sexual capacities after ostomy than women and that colostomy has a stronger negative effect on sexual functioning than ileostomy. New are the results on urostomy which appears to have the most invasive impact on sexual functioning, again especially for men. Although the results of this study give some clear indications for the deleterious effect of ostomy on sexuality it has to be kept in mind that this study is only a retrospective survey and that prospective confirmation is still needed.