Sexual rehabilitation after myocardial infarction and coronary bypass surgery: why do we not perform our job?

BACKGROUND/AIM There is a perception that in patients with heart diseases in Serbia sexual rehabilitation does not exist. Why do we not perform our job? A kind of resistance to sexual rehabilitation is common for heart disease patients. Prejudices regarding patients' sexuality, fear and limited knowledge are not rare among the members of medical staff. The aim of this study was to assess knowledge on sexual rehabilitation, inner sense during conversation on sexual rehabilitation and quality of sexual life in patients with myocardial infarction (MI) and bypass surgery (BPS). Also, we wanted to assess an opinion of the medical staff members about that. METHODS We performed a prospective nonrandomized clinical study, which involved 40 participants: ten patients, six partners and twenty four medical staff members. All participants were tested by the self-created questionnaires. The main issues of observation were: knowledge about sexual rehabilitation, quality of sexual life and inner sense during conversation on sexual rehabilitation. The data were analyzed by the Shapiro-Wilk test, Kolmogorov Smirnov test, Mann Whitney Exact test and Fishers Exact test. Statistical significance was set up to p < 0.05. RESULTS There was a statistically significant difference among the participants regarding an attitude when sexual activity should be resumed after MI or BPS. The members of medical staff had a significantly different opinion about the most important team members responsible for sexual rehabilitation performance. There was a statistically significant difference (p = 0.01) in quality of patient's sexual life after MI or BPS (score: 14.2 +/- 5.5) in relation to conditions before them (score: 21.3 +/- 3.1). The members of medical staff had significantly (P = 0.05) worse inner sense (score: 3.8 +/- 0.7) during and after fulfilling the questionnaires than the patients (score: 4.6 +/- 0.5). CONCLUSION Ignorance and prejudices are reasons why we do not perform our job.