Beneficial effects of pelvic floor muscle exercises on sexual function among postmenopausal women: a randomised clinical trial

Abstract

The adverse effects of menopause on sexual function could be mitigated by pelvic floor muscle (PFM) training. This study aimed to investigate the effects of PFM exercises on sexual function in postmenopausal women. A randomised clinical trial was conducted among 97 Iranian postmenopausal women, aged 40 to 60 years. The participants' baseline sexual functions were assessed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI) questionnaire. They were then randomly designated to two groups: (1) the intervention group, which received specific instructions on PFM exercises and was followed up on a weekly basis; and (2) the control group, which received general information on menopause. After 12 weeks, the sexual functions of the participants were reassessed. No significant difference was initially observed between the two groups in terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and total scores of FSFI. After the intervention, however, the scores of arousal, orgasm and satisfaction were significantly higher in the intervention group (3.10, 4.36, and 4.84 vs 2.75, 3.89, and 4.36 respectively; P<0.05). PFM exercises have the potential to improve the sexual function of postmenopausal women and are thus suggested to be included in healthcare packages designed for postmenopausal women.

Effects of Physical Exercise on Sexual Function and Quality of Sexual Life Related to Menopausal Symptoms in Peri- and Postmenopausal Women: A Systematic Review

“…Both of these systematic reviews concluded that caution must be exercised in the interpretation of their results given the methodological limitations of studies dealing with this matter. The results of the studies included in our review indicate that four out of six interventions involving PFMT reported improvements in sexual function, two of those with PFM exercises alone [20,21] and involving healthy subjects, and the other two in combination with other treatments and performed on a population of women with genitourinary syndrome of menopause [30] and dyspareunia [25].…”

“…The risk of bias assessment is shown in Table 1. Out of the eight randomized controlled trials (RCTs) included in this systematic review [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27], only six articles [20][21][22][23][24][25] described the exclusions and losses to follow-up.…”

“…The findings and full descriptive details of the studies included in this review are presented in Table A1 (see Appendix A). With a total number of eleven articles under analysis, five out of the eight RCTs were two-armed trials [20,22,23,26], two were three-armed [21,24] and one had four arms [27]. Four RCTs were conducted in Asia (two in Iran, one in China, and one in Thailand) [20][21][22][23], four in America (two in the USA, two in Brazil, and one in Canada) [24,25,[28][29][30] and two in Europe (both in the Netherlands) [25,27].…”

“…All studies involved healthy women except four cases in which subjects suffered from primary breast cancer and treatment-induced menopause [27]; genitourinary syndrome of menopause and stress or mixed urinary incontinence [30]; pelvic organ prolapse [26]; and dyspareunia [25]. Pelvic floor muscle (PFM) exercises, either alone [20,21,25] or combined with resistance exercises [28] or physiotherapy treatment [25,30] were the most widely used type of activity. Other studies employed aerobic exercises alone [23,24] or together with resistance exercises [29] or cognitive-behavioral treatment including relaxation exercises.…”

“…Between-group comparisons: EXP1: improvements in lubrication and pain FSFI subscales and total score, as well as in menopause and health Cervantes subscale. Nazarpour et al [20] Chalous and Noshahr, Iran.…”