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Patients suffering from chronic back pain have improved their sex lives and quality of live as well with surgical treatments for chronic back pain. However, there are still side effects and health risks in surgery as compared with non-surgical treatments.

A study was conducted on several patients with degenerative spinal issues. The objective of the study is to fill the gap of medical researches with regards to the impact of surgical and non-surgical treatments on sex lives in treating chronic back pain.

Doctors often neglect or ignore to consider a patient's pain when it comes to sexual activities. Dr. Shane Burch, the senior author of the study stresses that "sex life function is relevant to patients with spinal pathology" and then adds that these concerns ought to be addressed as reported in Science Daily.

The study used the data and participants of the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), which is specifically designed to address the prevalent controversy on opting surgery to treat back pains. There were a total of 2,500 participants with spinal stenosis and degenerative spondylolisthesis.

SPORT was able to provide important findings to the researchers in the aspect of improved quality of life through better sexual performance. Out of 1,235 participants, 71 percent claims that their lives greatly improved with surgery as reported in Medical Daily.

Meanwhile, the 40 percent of those who complained of experiencing pain during sex was reduced to only 20 percent after opting to have a surgery. The study also looked into the patients five years later and those whose sex lives improved with surgery continued to fare better.

However, Burch said that the research looked into the short-term effects of surgery in sex lives and that a more thorough research is needed to really ascertain the impact of surgery as treatment for chronic back pain. A good number of doctors believe that non-surgical options promote overall health because surgery brings with it side effects and health risks, like adverse anesthetic reaction, bleeding, infection, nerve damage, blood clots and a host of other complications.