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Can Women Correctly Contract Their Pelvic Floor Muscles After to Receive Verbal Instructions and Vaginal Palpation?

NCT03325543 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 176

Last updated 2025-07-30

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

The pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) is a conservative treatment, currently considered as first line for women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI). However, in practice, about 30 to 50% of women are unable to perform the correct contraction of the pelvic floor muscles (PFMs). When requested to perform the muscle contraction, the contraction of the gluteal muscles, hip adductors, or abdominal muscles is observed initially, rather of contraction of the levator anus muscle. Some factors make it difficult to perform the contraction of the PFM, such as its location on the pelvic floor, and its small size, followed by a lack of knowledge of the pelvic region, as well as its functions. Associated with these factors is the use of the muscles adjacent to the PFM, as previously mentioned. In order for women to benefit from a PFMT program for the treatment of SUI, the awareness phase of PFM can't be omitted, since the literature is unanimous in stating that pelvic exercises improve the recruitment capacity of the musculature, its tone and reflex coordination during the effort activities.

Conditions

  • Urinary Incontinence
  • Urinary Incontinence, Stress
  • Urination Disorders
  • Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms

Interventions

OTHER

Visual observation

Verbal instructions about the anatomy, function and how to perform the pelvic floor muscle contraction

OTHER

Vaginal palpation (bidigital touch)

The physiotherapist touched the patients' perineal region (vulva, tendinous centre of the perineum and external region of the anal canal) with a spatula and asked them to identify the pointed region; and with the digital palpation, the physiotherapist touched the tendinous centre of the perineum, pressing it in the cranial direction, and instructed the patients to contract the pelvic floor muscle

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Federal University of São Paulo

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Letícia A Ferreira · Federal University of São Paulo

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
FEMALE
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2017-12-20
Primary Completion
2022-11-27
Completion
2023-07-31

Countries

  • Brazil

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT03325543 on ClinicalTrials.gov