The Most Common Functional Disorders and Factors Affecting Female Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor (PF) is made of muscles, ligaments, and fascia, which ensure organ statics, maintain muscle tone, and are involved in contractions. This review describes the myofascial relationships of PF with other parts of the body that determine the proper functions of PF, and also provides insight into PF disorders and the factors contributing to them. PF plays an important role in continence, pelvic support, micturition, defecation, sexual function, childbirth, and locomotion, as well as in stabilizing body posture and breathing, and cooperates with the diaphragm and postural muscles. In addition, PF associates with distant parts of the body, such as the feet and neck, through myofascial connections. Due to tissue continuity, functional disorders of muscles, ligaments, and fascia, even in the areas that are distant from PF, will lead to PF disorders, including urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, prolapse, sexual dysfunction, and pain. Dysfunctions of PF will also affect the rest of the body.

Female Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Continues to Negatively Impact Quality-of-Life during the COVID-19 Lockdown

The COVID-19 pandemic led to dramatical changes in elective medical care. We analysed its impact on patients with female pelvic floor dysfunction during the 6 weeks of lockdown in Austria. A cross-sectional study was conducted: All 99 women who presented at the urogynaecologic outpatient clinic of the Medical University of Vienna with pelvic organ prolapse (POP) or urinary incontinence (UI) from December 2019 up to the lockdown in March 2020 were included and contacted. 97% of these women (96 participants) agreed to participate in the survey conducted to asses pelvic floor related quality of life (QoL) through telephone- interrogation. The mean age was 59 ± 14.8 years, the POP group consisted of 42 women while the UI group included 54 women. Most participants (83% of POP and 81% of UI cases) stated that their female pelvic floor dysfunction had remained equally relevant or had become even more significant during the lockdown. Associated symptoms and psychological strain also maintained their relevance during the lockdown (UI: p = 0.229; POP: p = 0.234). Furthermore, 97% of all interviewed women indicated to be strongly willing to continue their treatment. A generalised linear model regression revealed no clinical or demographic risk factors for psychological strain during the lockdown (p > 0.05). Our results demonstrate that women’s QoL remains significantly impaired by their pelvic-floor disorders even during a worldwide crisis such as COVID-19. Therefore, elective disciplines such as urogynaecology urgently require novel and innovative strategies for continued patient care even in times of a lockdown.