The following is the summary of “Conservative non-pharmacological interventions in women with pelvic floor dysfunction: a systematic review of qualitative studies” published in the December 2022 issue of Women’s health by Fernandes, et al.

Although women’s compliance is crucial to the success of physiotherapeutic techniques for treating pelvic floor dysfunction, these aspects are rarely considered when designing new treatments. The purpose of this research is to gain an understanding of women’s perspectives on conservative, non-pharmacological approaches to treating pelvic floor dysfunction. Analyzing qualitative research systematically. MEDLINE/PubMed, CINAHL, Lilacs, SCOPUS, and Web of Science databases were searched electronically. Studies using qualitative methodologies have primarily focused on women’s perspectives on conservative non-pharmacological therapies for the pelvic floor, such as pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) with or without biofeedback, perineal massage, vaginal dilators, and others. A meta-aggregation was executed.

About 22 papers were analyzed for this study. There were seven studies on vaginal device use, two on manual intervention, and 14 on women’s experiences with pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT). Following is a summary of the results: external factors influencing PFMT performance; women’s perception of their own personal factors influencing PFMT performance, PFMT characteristics influencing performance. In addition, women’s experience of manual interventions; women’s experience using vaginal devices changes according to health professional attitudes; women’s experience using vaginal devices varied depending on their pelvic floor dysfunction; reported side effects due to the use of vaginal devices.

Conservative non-pharmacological treatment options for women’s pelvic floors are multifaceted, including much more than just the individual woman. This is a meta-analysis of qualitative research submitted to the PROSPERO database (CRD42018080244).

Source: bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-022-02097-y