Coevorden Study

Pelvic floor symptoms (PFS), such as micturition problems (e.g. urinary incontinence), defecation problems (e.g. fecal incontinence and constipation), pelvic organ prolapse, sexual problems (e.g. erectile dysfunction, ejaculation problems and dyspareunia) and genito-pelvic pain may substantially impair quality of life in both females and males. As research on PFS is predominantly performed among females, the male pelvic floor is a relative ‘terra incognita’. Furthermore, the contribution of the pelvic floor (muscles) in those symptoms is largely unknown. Therefore, optimal diagnosis and treatment of PFS is difficult. To contribute to an integrated sex-specific approach to PFS in primary care, we performed the Coevorden Study, with special focus on clinically relevant clusters of PFS, factors that are associated with the development of PFS and with the course of PFS, and on health seeking behaviour, including barriers and facilitators, among both females and males. Therefore, we followed a group of community-dwelling females and males -with and without PFS- for at least two years, and we extracted data from medical files from the GPs. A part of those participants was invited for participation in the physical examination sub-study (for assessing the relation between the pelvic floor muscles and PFS) and the interview (assessing the barriers and facilitators for seeking help for PFS).