About One Quarter of U.S. Women are Affected by Pelvic Floor
Disorders
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Brief Description:
Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are affected with one or more
pelvic floor disorders according to a National Institutes of
Health study.
Transcript:
Akinso: Nearly 24 percent of U.S. women are
affected with one or more pelvic floor disorders according to
a National Institutes of Health study. Dr. Susan Meikle is the
Project Scientist for the NIH Pelvic Floor Disorders Network.
Meikle: Pelvic floor disorders are a group
of disorders that have to do with the supporting muscle and tissue
of the pelvis.
Akinso: Dr. Meikle explains that these muscles
and ligaments form a sling across the opening of a woman's pelvis,
holding the bladder, uterus, bowel, and rectum in place.
Meikle: So when there is a weakness or a tear — say
from a vaginal delivery, a birth — the bladder can kind
of actually fall down, the uterus can fall down, intestines can
fall down through different kinds of spaces between the muscles
and the thick connective tissue.
Akinso: Funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
and the Office of Research on Women's Health, researchers used
data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Dr. Meikle explains what the survey shows.
Meikle: The results were that it is quite common
for women in the United States to have symptoms of at least one
pelvic floor disorder. Overall almost 24 percent of women had
symptoms of at least one pelvic floor disorder. And the most
common was urinary incontinence, followed by fecal incontinence,
and then the least common was the systematic pelvic organ prolapse,
which is feeling the organs in a place that there not suppose
to be.
Akinso: Dr. Meikle highlights the importance
of the findings.
Meikle: What it underscores is that this is
a big public health problem. It really lays the groundwork for
trying to do more research on prevention, because it is actually
common.
Akinso: Treatment for pelvic floor disorders
varies with the severity of symptoms. Dr. Meikle says treatment
may involve behavioral therapies, exercises to strengthen muscles,
vaginal devices to hold up the bladder or other pelvic organs,
medications or surgery. This is Wally Akinso at the National
Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Department of Health
