Pelvic Floor Muscle Training: Underutilization in the USA

Abstract

Pelvic floor disorders are highly prevalent in women of all ages and can greatly impair quality of life. Pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is a viable treatment option for several pelvic floor conditions including urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. PFMT is a program of therapy initiated by an experienced clinician (e.g., women's health or urology nurse practitioner (NP), physical therapist (PT)) that involves exercises for women with stress urinary incontinence (UI) and exercises combined with behavioral or conservative treatments (lifestyle changes, bladder training with urge suppression) for women with urgency or mixed UI. These exercise programs are more comprehensive than simple Kegel exercises. Despite evidence-based research indicating the efficacy and cost-effectiveness for treatment of urinary incontinence, PFMT is not commonly used as a first-line treatment in clinical practice in the USA (Abrams et al., 2012). This article will review PFMT for the treatment of UI and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and theorize how this conservative therapy can be utilized more effectively in the USA.

Keywords: Pelvic floor muscle training; Pelvic organ prolapse; Urinary incontinence.