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Updated: Jan 9, 2026
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Published on: August 14, 2019
Sexual Function in a Randomized Trial of Pelvic Yoga for Urinary Incontinence
Nancy Yang1, Leslee L Subak2, Abigail Shatkin-Margolis3
1School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
Importance:
Urinary incontinence (UI) can negatively affect sexual function in women. Although many women with UI seek complementary strategies such as pelvic floor yoga techniques to improve sexual functioning, evidence of their efficacy is limited.
Objective:
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of a pelvic floor yoga program versus a general physical conditioning program on multidimensional sexual function in women with UI.
Study Design:
Ambulatory women aged 45 and older with daily UI were enrolled in a multicenter randomized trial in 2019-2022. Participants were randomized to a 12-week program of group instruction and self-practice of Hatha yoga techniques tailored to pelvic floor function (pelvic yoga) or a time-equivalent program of general skeletal muscle exercises (physical conditioning). Intervention effects on sexual function, a prespecified secondary trial outcome, were examined using linear mixed models of change in Pelvic Organ Prolapse/Incontinence Sexual Questionnaire, IUGA-Revised (PISQ-IR) scores over 6 and 12 weeks of intervention instruction.
Results:
Among 240 participants (121 pelvic yoga, 119 physical conditioning; ages 45-90 years), UI frequency averaged 3.4±2.2 episodes/day, and 129 (54.7%) participants were sexually active at baseline. Compared with physical conditioning, pelvic yoga did not result in significantly greater improvements in any PISQ-IR domain over 6 and 12 weeks. Within-group analyses showed that sexually active participants in the yoga group had a 3.7 (95% CI: 1.4-6.1) point improvement in condition-specific impact on sexual activity.
Conclusions:
Among midlife and older women with daily UI, a 12-week pelvic yoga intervention did not result in meaningfully greater improvements in sexual function compared with nonspecific physical conditioning exercise.
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