Objective: The prevalence of urinary symptoms, their impact on quality of life and sexuality and the man's attitude in relation to these problem were studied by a self-administered questionnaire (including I-PSS, 6 questions of DAN-PSS-1, BPHQL9 and IIEF).
Material and methods: This questionnaire was sent by mail to a national representative sample of 3,500 French men aged 50 to 80 years. Of the 2,372 men who returned an interpretable questionnaire, 21%, 33% and 42% belonged to the severe or moderate category for symptoms, tolerance of symptoms, and alteration of quality of life, respectively.
Results: 81% of men reported sexual activity during the last 4 weeks. 8.3% of men were treated with "antiprostate" medical treatments, and 8% had been operated (16% of them were treated medically after the operation). Only 29% and 17% of men had talked about their sexual and urinary problems, respectively.
Conclusion: Alteration of functional and perceived sexuality was correlated with age and the severity of symptoms in non-operated patients, but the poor correlations between scales evaluating sexuality and symptoms indicate that sexuality is a difficult aspect to investigate.