A new US study of over 4,000 women aged 25 to 84 has found that one in three American females suffers a pelvic floor disorder.

The symptoms of pelvic floor disorders include a frequent urge to urinate, incontinence and dropped pelvic organs.

Of the 4,000 women studied (80 per cent of whom had given birth), 25 per cent reported suffering anal incontinence, 15 per cent stress urinary incontinence, 13 per cent from overactive bladder and six per cent from pelvic organ prolapse. Previous research by the same team found that women who had given birth vaginally had double the rate of pelvic floor disorders compared to those who had had caesareans or who had not yet given birth.

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