The effect of urethroplasty surgery on erectile and orgasmic functions: a prospective study

Objectives: To examine the effects of urethroplasty surgery on sexual functions by taking into account age, location of stenosis, length of stenosis and surgical technique parameters.

Materials and methods: The prospective study was conducted between January 2015 and August 2017 with 60 cases. Patients were categorized according to age groups (19-65 / 65-75 years), surgery technique and stricture localization and length. Before the urethroplasty operation and postoperative 6th month follow-up, the international index of erectile function (IIEF) form (15 questions), was filled, the relevant domains of sexual function; erectile function (Q1,2,3,4,5,15), orgasmic function (Q9,10) and overall satisfaction (Q13,14) were assessed.

Results: The mean age of the cases is 54 ± 13. However, preoperative IIEF, sexual satisfaction and orgasmic function averages of patients with a stenosis segment length of 1-3 cm was found to be significantly higher than that of patients with a stenosis segment length of 4-7 cm. Between stenosis segment length groups, there was no statistical difference in terms of preoperative and postoperative sexual functions. And also, there was no statistically significant change in patients' preoperative and postoperative sexual function scores in terms of localization of stricture and surgery techniques. However, there were statistically significant change in the postoperative IIEF and sexual satisfaction averages according to preoperative averages.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that urethroplasty surgery itself does not significantly affect erectile function, orgasmic function, and general sexual satisfaction regardless of the type of surgery, localization and length of stenosis. Besides, there was a significant decrease in erectile function in senior adults.