| Experimental Group |
Pelvic Floor Muscle Training |
ten long and ten short squeezes (contraction) done three times per day |
Fifteen weeks |
Among women diagnosed to have symptomatic stage I-III pelvic organ prolapse, 136 will be assigned to the interventional and control groups based on their pre-assigned enumeration area (cluster). Those assigned to intervention will receive pelvic floor muscle training and prolapse lifestyle advice focusing on constipation, chronic coughing, heavy lifting, and other medical conditions. The control group will receive only lifestyle modification but not trained on pelvic floor muscle exercise. Detailed counseling will be provided using a translated Sidaamu Afoo version of a leaflet (Annex-IV) (87).
In the interventional group, at the initial visit, women will be informed about their stage of POP, type of prolapse (anterior, posterior, or central), the advantage of pelvic floor muscle exercise, and how it works. The detail of exercise and follow-up schedule will be explained in detail in a private room for 30-40 minutes. They will be trained to sit or lie comfortably, train pelvic muscles with 10 times 10-second maximum holds, and 10 fast contractions. This will be repeated at least three times per day (morning, afternoon, and night) (42, 87). They will be invited to attend five visits (at weeks 0, 2, 6, 10, and 15) at a nearby health facility. Five visits are preferred because 15 weeks intensive training is recommended to get adequate muscle strength) (162).
At the initial visit, they will be given a diary where they record (tally) the duration and frequency of exercise they practiced. In case they cannot make a tally, a different color and size of buttons will be provided (larger black buttons represent the number of days per week they perform the training, medium red buttons represent the frequency of training performed per day and the white small buttons represent the number of contractions performed). They will put buttons in a given box each day they perform the training and this will be checked on each visit. To ensure participants' follow-up, the respective |
68 |
|
| Control Group |
Life style Modification |
|
Fifteen weeks |
Pelvic organ prolapse is not a life-threatening disorder, and not all prolapses deteriorate; in fact, some may improve. If you have been told you have a pelvic organ prolapse, you might want to consider the following options:
• Do nothing and wait for your symptoms to improve.
• Develop healthy bladder and bowel habits
• Change your lifestyle to lessen downward pressures in your pelvis, especially if any of your current activities aggravate your symptoms, such as weight reduction or avoiding or reducing the amount of lifting you do. |
68 |
Active-Treatment of Control Group |