Early postpartum biofeedback assisted pelvic floor muscle training in primiparous women with second degree perineal laceration: Effect on sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the short-term effect of routine early postpartum electromyographic biofeedback assisted pelvic floor muscle training on sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms.


MATERIALS AND METHODS
From December 2016 to November 2017, primiparous women with vaginal delivery, who experienced non-extended second-degree perineal laceration were invited to participate. Seventy-five participants were assigned into a pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) group or control group. Women in the PFMT group received supervised biofeedback-assisted pelvic floor muscle training at the 1st week and 4th week postpartum. Exercises were performed at home with the same protocol until 6 weeks postpartum. The Pelvic Organ Prolapse Urinary Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire (PISQ-12) and the Urinary Distress Inventory short form questionnaire (UDI-6) were used to evaluate sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms respectively at immediate postpartum, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postpartum.


RESULTS
Forty-five women (23 in PFMT group,22 in control group) completed all questionnaires at 6 months postpartum. For overall sexual function and the three sexual functional domains, no statistically significant difference was found in PISQ scores from baseline to 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postpartum between the PFMT and control groups. For postpartum lower urinary tract symptoms, all symptoms gradually improved over time for both groups without a statistically significant difference between groups.


CONCLUSION
Our study showed that supervised biofeedback-assisted pelvic floor muscle training started routinely at one week postpartum did not provide additional improvement in postpartum sexual function and lower urinary tract symptoms.
['Wu|Ting-Feng|TF|', 'Huang|Li-Hua|LH|', 'Lai|Yu-Fen|YF|', 'Chen|Gin-Den|GD|', 'Ng|Soo-Cheen|SC|']
D000328:Adult D005260:Female D006801:Humans D059411:Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms D058765:Neurofeedback D007744:Obstetric Labor Complications D010298:Parity D017773:Pelvic Floor D010502:Perineum D049590:Postpartum Period D011247:Pregnancy D012735:Sexual Dysfunction, Physiological D016896:Treatment Outcome
Primiparous Sexual function Second-degree perineal laceration Early intervention Supervised pelvic floor muscle training