Effectiveness of Assessment and Educational Intervention on Motor Control of the Pelvic Floor Muscle in Women

The goal of the present study is to evaluate the short and long term effectiveness of a tailored assessment and educational intervention on motor control of the pelvic floor muscle in menopausal and non-menopausal women.

Menopausal transition has been related to stress urinary incontinence. The transition from the reproductive to the non-reproductive period is induced by a decrease in sex hormone production in the ovaries. Climacteric-stage oestrogen deficiency produces genital and urinary tract atrophy, which may be related to symptoms such as urinary frequency, urinary urgency, nocturia incontinence, and recurrent urinary tract infection. Urinary incontinence seems to appear due to a combination of factors such as pelvic floor weakness and tearing, denervation and fascial tears as well as both loss of motor units and altered activation patterns. However, physiotherapy can treat weakness and altered motor control in order to compensate for other factors. In fact, physiotherapy is considered the treatment of first choice. Besides evidence defending physiotherapy as first line conservative therapy in incontinence due to influence of strength and motor control in this pathology and its prevalence in perimenopause women, little is known about its effects in this population. Hence, the aim of this study is to evaluate the short and long term effectiveness of a tailored assessment and educational intervention on motor control of the pelvic floor muscle in menopausal and peri-menopausal women.