Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) affects 50-89% of people with Multiple Sclerosis. Symptoms may include stress or urge urinary incontinence, urinary urgency and frequency, and overactive bladder. While these symptoms are often attributed to the disease process, often times they are reversible. Pelvic floor physiotherapy including pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) with or without electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) has been shown to improve both LUTS, and quality of life in people with MS.
Bruker et al. demonstrated that some of the main barriers to patients with MS seeking treatment for LUTS are Doctor never referred and Doctor never asked. If you have MS and are experiencing LUTS please consider calling a pelvic floor physiotherapist directly. You don’t need to wait for a referral and most extended health insurance companies do not require your doctors’s prescription. Each patient is unique; however, good results are typically expected.
