News Release: Press Association Jan 18, 2010: New research just published in the British Journal of Urology proposes improvements to the UK NHS recommended treatment of stress incontinence.
This is welcome news for millions of women who can expect quicker relief from their distressing symptoms and for NHS bosses who can deal with this major health problem more effectively and with much reduced demands on scarce NHS resources.
The author of the article, Professor Marcus Drake of the Bristol Urology Institute, highlights fundamental weaknesses in the current pelvic floor muscle exercise treatment recommended by NICE and suggests that improvements and greater success rates can be achieved if women are offered the PelvicToner™ to encourage a more effective and sustained exercise regime.
The PelvicToner ™ works by strengthening the walls of the pelvic floor through mild resistance training which tightens the muscles around the neck of the bladder and prevents urine leaking out when you cough, sneeze, laugh or make a sudden movement.
While the technique itself isn’t new, the device – which is designed to be used at home – is said to be considerably more effective than other pelvic trainers on the market.
In a recent clinical trial, 86 per cent of participants who used the PelvicToner reported a ”significant” improvement in their condition.
Researchers at the Bristol Urological Institute (BUI) said it was ”easy to use” and proved ”particularly helpful” in the majority of cases.
Their findings were published last week in the British Journal of Urology International.
The BJUI article includes a comprehensive discussion of Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercise (PFME). The research author, Professor Marcus Drake, highlights the weaknesses often associated with PFME which leads to many women failing to derive the full benefits from the treatment.
The research concludes that the use of the PelvicToner can help overcome poor training, lack of patient confidence and poor compliance with the exercise recommendations.
Key points noted by the research are that:
- the PelvicToner gives “confidence to women that they were correctly contracting their pelvic floor, and this may be helpful encouragement when a woman is starting out on a regime of PFME.”
- the biofeedback given by the PelvicToner “may be particularly helpful to demonstrate to the woman that she is carrying out the PFME appropriately.”
- the PelvicToner is particularly relevant to those women “who do not consult their physician and wish to maintain confidentiality regarding their SUI symptom.”
The research concludes that even when used in its weakest settings, the PelvicToner is not inferior to PFME and confers significant other benefits when used as an adjunct to PFME.
In order to simplify the study and to enable direct comparison and analysis with PFME, the PelvicToner was only tested at its weakest resistance setting and at the same level of activity as recommended by the NHS guidelines. Users of the PelvicToner consistently report rapid and dramatic improvements in their symptoms when using the PelvicToner as recommended – with the number of repetitions and the amount of resistance being increased in line with ability.
This confirms the superiority of the PelvicToner compared to other ‘pelvic toning’ devices on the market. The discussion notes that previously published research has concluded that other methods offered as adjuncts and widely marketed to the public, such as electro stimulation, vaginal cones and biofeedback, are inferior to PFME and lack robust evidence of their efficacy.
