Ensuring high post-donation quality of life among living kidney donors (LKDs) is a critical component of making living donation worthwhile for both recipients and donors. Impaired sexual function has been previously shown to occur in patients undergoing nephrectomy for treatment of renal diseases and has likewise been associated with a lesser quality of life. However, the prevalence of sexual dysfunction and its relationship to quality of life among LKDs is unknown.

METHODS: We prospectively surveyed adult LKDs at two academic transplant centers at least two years post-donation. LKDs were asked whether they had sexual activity, problems becoming sexually aroused, or problems enjoying sex within the past four weeks. Fisher's exact and rank-sum tests were used to compare LKDs who reported any sexual dysfunction with those who did not. Logistic regression adjusting for age, sex, race, and depression was used to examine factors associated with reported sexual dysfunction.

RESULTS: Of 280 LKDs surveyed to date, 53.6% reported sexual activity within the past four weeks. 187 of 280 LKDs (66.8%) responded to sexual-health questions with 19.8% reporting dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction was associated with self-reported anxiety (p=0.01), uncontrollable worry (p<0.01), depression (p=0.03), general loss of interest (p<0.01), and lower willingness to donate again if given the chance (p=0.04) (Table 1). Compared to LKDs working full-time, LKDs were more likely to report dysfunction if they worked part-time (aOR _2.27.1_22.5, p=0.001) (Table 2).

CONCLUSIONS: Sexual dysfunction among LKDs was quite common and was associated with part-time work and adverse psychosocial outcomes. More evidence and comparison to the non-donor population is required.

CITATION INFORMATION: Halpern S, Thomas A, Holscher C, Massie A, Henderson M, Anjum S, Locke J, Segev D. Sexual Dysfunction Among Living Kidney Donors. Am J Transplant. 2017;17 (suppl 3).

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