Objective  To explore the expectations and goals of women undergoing surgery for urogenital prolapse using both a quantitative quality of life approach exploring symptom bother and a qualitative interview‐based approach exploring patient goals and expectations.

Design  Prospective observational study.

Setting  Tertiary referral centre for urogynaecology.

Population  Forty‐three women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse were recruited from the waiting list for pelvic floor reconstructive surgery.

Methods  All women were assessed with a structured clinical interview on an individual basis. The data obtained were transcribed verbatim and then analysed thematically based on the grounded theory. Individual codes and subcodes were identified to develop a coding framework. The prolapse quality‐of‐life (pQoL) questionnaire was used to determine the impact of pelvic organ prolapse on the woman’s daily life. We arbitrarily classified ‘bother’ as minimal, mild, moderate and marked if scores ranged from 0 to 25, 25–50, 50–75 and 75–100, respectively. The degree of prolapse was objectively quantified using the pelvic organ prolapse quantification (POP‐Q) system. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS. Ethical approval was obtained from the Kings College Hospital Ethics Committee.

Main outcome measures  Quantitative data from POP‐Q, subjective data from pQoL, qualitative data based on the structured clinical interview.

Results  Forty‐three women were recruited over the first 1 year of the study. Their mean age was 56 years (range 36–78) and mean parity was 2 (range 0–6). The mean ordinal stage of the prolapse was 2 (range stages 1–4). Quantitative analysis of the pQoL data suggested that the main domains affected were prolapse impact on life (mean score 74.71) and personal relationships (mean score 46.66). Qualitative analysis based on the clinical interview suggested that these women were most affected by the actual physical symptoms of prolapse (bulge, pain and bowel problems) as well by the impact prolapse has on their sexual function.

Conclusions  While disease‐specific QoL questionnaires allow broad comparisons to be made assessing patient bother, they may lack the sensitivity to assess individual symptoms. A qualitative approach may individualise patient care and ultimately improve patient satisfaction and overall outcome when treating women complaining of urogenital prolapse.