Women of all ages are affected by urinary incontinence. A common treatment is pelvic floor muscle exercises (also called pelvic floor muscle training) where the pelvic floor muscles are squeezed and lifted then relaxed several times in a row, up to three times a day. The exercises can help strengthen the muscles, improve muscle endurance (so the muscle tires less easily), and improve coordination (so the muscle squeezes hardest when the risk of leaking is greatest, e.g. with a cough or sneeze).
Contracting the right muscles, and doing enough of the exercises are important for successful treatment. Feedback or biofeedback are used as ways to teach women to contract the correct muscles, learn when and how to contract the muscle to prevent leakage, assess whether the muscle contraction is improving over time, and can be used as a 'trainer' for repetitive exercising. A common method of feedback is for the health professional to feel the pelvic floor muscles during a vaginal examination and describe how well the muscles squeeze and lift when the woman contracts them. Biofeedback uses a vaginal or anal device to measure the muscle squeeze pressure or the electrical activity in the muscle. The device gives this information back to the woman using the device as a sound (for example, the sound gets louder as the squeeze increases) or a visual display (for example, more lights meaning a stronger squeeze).
Contracting the right muscles at the right time, and doing enough of the exercises, are important for successful treatment. There was some evidence that adding biofeedback was beneficial. However, it was not clear whether this was the effect of the biofeedback device itself. It is possible that the benefit came from spending more time in clinic with the doctor, nurse or physiotherapist.