Pelvic Floor Questionnaire
If you answer ‘Yes’ to any of the following questions, you are strongly advised to make sure that you know how to do pelvic floor muscle exercises and that you are doing them regularly to avoid developing problems in the future or to manage existing problems better.
| Question |
Facts |
Yes |
No
|
Do you suffer from problems with your waterworks?
Do you leak urine:
- when you cough, sneeze or on exercise (ie stress urinary incontinence), or
- when you get a desperate urge and can’t make it to the toilet on time (ie urge incontinence?)
|
- Up to 1 in 3 women will leak urine during their lifetime.
- Women under the age of 50-55 tend to suffer from stress urinary incontinence.
- Post-menopausal women tend to report more urge incontinence.
- Some women suffer from both (ie mixed urinary incontinence).
- Up to 1 in 10 men will suffer from urinary incontinence.
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Do you have a pelvic organ prolapse?
Either:
- a bladder prolapse: ’cystocele’
- a uterine prolapse (of the womb)
- of the bowel : ‘rectocele’, or
- a combination of these
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- 1 in 2 women will develop a pelvic organ prolapse.
- Women with a prolapse are 3 times more likely to develop a problem with urinary incontinence.
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| Have you had a normal vaginal delivery? |
- 10% of women will have damage to their pelvic floor muscles after a vaginal delivery.
- Women who have a normal vaginal delivery are at double the risk of developing a prolapse. This risk increases if your baby weighed over 4.5 kg (or over 4 kg if you are short).
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Did you have an instrumental delivery:
- Was your baby delivered by ventouse (ie vacuum extraction)?
- Was your baby delivered by forceps?
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- 25% of women whose babies are delivered by ventouse will sustain pelvic floor damage.
- The risk increases to 65% if your baby is delivered by forceps.
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| Did you have a prolonged second stage of labour? |
This is also associated with neuromuscular damage to the pelvic floor. |
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| If you are a man, have you had prostate surgery? |
There is an increased risk of urinary incontinence after prostate surgery. |
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