AIMS AND OBJECTIVES To gain an in-depth understanding of women's experiences of performing pelvic floor muscle exercises for urinary incontinence and the impact on their sexuality. BACKGROUND Urinary incontinence is not a life-threatening disorder; however, it has been shown to have detrimental effects on quality of life in terms of psychological, social and sexual dysfunction. Pelvic floor m...

Episiotomy is obstetric procedure during which the incision extends the vestibule of the vagina during the second stage of labor. Episiotomy was extensively spread with gradual increase of rates in the first half of the 20th century and was performed medio-laterally in all nulliparous women with the idea to protect fetal head from trauma and pelvic floor from injuries. However, reports claiming...

Pelvic floor failure is a common disorder that can seriously jeopardize a woman's quality of life by causing urinary and fecal incontinence, difficult defecation, and pelvic pain. Multiple congenital and acquired risk factors are associated with pelvic floor failure, including altered collagen metabolism, female sex, vaginal delivery, menopause, and advanced age. A complex variety of fascial an...

1. Risk Factors for Pelvic Floor Defects: Pelvic floor defects are common and are seen in 50% of parous women, especially over the age of 50 [1-2]. Risk factors include: pregnancy, childbirth, hysterectomy, congenital or acquired connective tissue abnormalities, white race, denervation or weakness of the pelvic floor, advancing age, estrogen deficiency, obesity, smoking and other factors associ...

PURPOSE Existing data supports a relationship between pelvic floor dysfunction and lower urinary tract symptoms. We developed a survival model of pelvic floor dysfunction in the rabbit and evaluated cystometric (CMG), electromyographic (EMG) and ambulatory voiding behavior. MATERIALS AND METHODS Twelve female adult virgin rabbits were housed in metabolic cages to record voiding and defecation...

INTRODUCTION The relationship between sexual abuse and urinary tract symptoms, sexual abuse and gastrointestinal symptoms, or sexual abuse and sexual dysfunction has been described before. A correlation between all these symptoms and sexual abuse has not yet been reported. AIMS The first aim of this study was to document the prevalence rates of reported sexual abuse in a large sample of femal...