Intravaginal electrical stimulation increases voluntarily pelvic floor muscle contractions in women who are unable to voluntarily contract their pelvic floor muscles: a randomised trial.

Question: In women who are unable to contract their pelvic floor muscles voluntarily, what is the effect of an intravaginal electrical stimulation regimen on their ability to contract the pelvic floor muscles and on self-reported urinary incontinence?

Design: Randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation, blinded assessors and intention-to-treat analysis.

Participants: Sixty-four women with pelvic floor muscle function assessed by bi-digital palpation to be grade 0 or 1 on the Modified Oxford Scale.

Intervention: For 8 weeks, participants randomised to the experimental group received weekly 20-minute sessions of intravaginal electrical stimulation with instructions to attempt pelvic floor muscle contractions during the bursts of electrical stimulation in the final 10 minutes of each session.

Perioperative pelvic floor muscle training did not improve outcomes in women undergoing pelvic organ prolapse surgery: a randomised trial.

Question: In women undergoing surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP), what is the average effect of the addition of perioperative pelvic floor muscle training on pelvic organ prolapse symptoms, pelvic floor muscle strength, quality of life, sexual function and perceived improvement after surgery?

Design: Randomised controlled trial with concealed allocation, blinded assessors, and intention-to-treat analysis.

Participants: Ninety-six women with an indication for POP surgery.

Intervention: The experimental group received a 9-week pelvic floor muscle training protocol with four sessions before the surgery and seven sessions after the surgery.

Do women have an accurate perception of their pelvic floor muscle contraction? A cross-sectional study.

Aims: To assess women's self-perception of their pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contraction and its agreement with an assessed PFM contraction. Further, to assess a possible correlation between women's self-perception and reports of urinary incontinence (UI) and between PFM contraction and severity of UI.

Methods: A cross-sectional observational study including 82 women.