Risk of Pelvic Floor Disorders Varied by Child Delivery Mode

The risk of pelvic floor disorders for women years after childbirth varied depending on mode of delivery, researchers found. Women with cesarean delivery had a lower hazard of stress urinary incontinence, overactive bladder, and pelvic organ prolapses compared with women with spontaneous vaginal deliveries, reported Joan L. Blomquist, MD, of Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Maryland, and colleagues. By contrast, women with operative vaginal delivery were associated with a higher hazard of anal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, they wrote in JAMA. Read more.

Source: MedPage Today, December 18, 2018

Low Estrogen May Contribute to Incontinence in Women

Significantly lower levels of oestrogen in peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women could increase their risk of stress urinary incontinence, according to Austrian researchers. They noted that sex steroid levels changed markedly during menopause, and oestrogen deficiency after menopause caused changes within the urogenital tract. Their study included 47 women with stress urinary incontinence who were matched with 47 controls. The findings suggested that low levels of circulating sex steroids might have a negative impact on the function of the lower urinary tract and on mechanisms involved with continence. Read more.

Nursing Times, June 8, 2017

Body Composition May Affect Older Women’s Risk of Urinary Incontinence

In a study of older women, the prevalence of stress- and urgency urinary incontinence (SUI and UUI) was at least two-fold higher among women in the highest category of body mass index (BMI) or fat mass compared with women in the lowest category. Also, women who lost at least 5% of their BMI or fat mass were less likely to experience new or persistent SUI over 3 years than women with less weight loss. Read more.

Source: EurekAlert, December 6, 2016