Late post-partum dyspareunia: does delivery play a role?

OBJECTIVE To study whether post-partum dyspareunia one year after a delivery is associated with characteristics of delivery: perineal trauma, obstetric interventions and women's experience. METHODS A self-administered questionnaire on post-partum sexual function was mailed in May 2002 to all consecutive women who gave birth to a live-born term infant in a maternity unit, between January 2001 and June 2001. Obstetric data were abstracted from the hospital computerized medical database. Late dyspareunia was defined as pain during intercourse, one year after delivery. Multiple logistic regression modeling was used to select independent predictors of late post-partum dyspareunia. RESULTS Seventy (27.6%) of the 254 women studied experienced late dyspareunia. There was no relation between late post-partum dyspareunia and neither the mode of delivery nor state of the perineum, including perineal laceration or episiotomy. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that late post-partum dyspareunia was associated with dyspareunia before pregnancy, low satisfaction with delivery, and employment status. CONCLUSIONS Late post-partum dyspareunia seemed to be linked more with the mother's experience of childbirth than with perineal trauma. This hypothesis should be investigated further.