The Effects of Vaginal Tampon Training Added to Pelvic Floor Muscle Training in Stress Urinary Incontinence

Pelvic floor muscle training consist of fast (2 second) and slow contractions (5-s contraction, 10-s hold, 5-s relaxation, totally 20-s). One set of exercises includes ten fast and ten slow voluntary PFM contractions (VPFMCs). During week 1 and 2, participants will be instructed to perform two sets of exercises per day (20 fast and 20 slow contractions per day), which was progressively increased by two sets: four sets per day at week 3 and 4 (40 fast and 40 slow contractions per day); six sets per day at week 5 and 6 (60 fast and 60 slow contractions per day); eight sets per day at week 7 and 8 (80 fast and 80 slow contractions per day); ten sets per day from week 9 to week 12 (100 fast and 100 slow contractions per day).

Vaginal tampon training will be applied for 5 days a week for 12 weeks. Exercises with tampons will be performed two days a week by physiotherapist (first author) and three days a week by patients. One set of tampon exercises consist 15 contractions. During vaginal tampon training, from week 1 to week 12, patients were instructed to perform two sets of exercises for five days a week (two days by physiotherapist, three days by themselves).