Smartphone Applications for Pelvic Floor Exercises

Approximately 25-45% of women are affected by leakage of urine with physical activity. Pelvic floor exercises can help treat leaking of urine. Just like working out at the gym, pelvic floor exercises require consistency. Some women may benefit from daily reminders and exercise routines. There are phone applications currently filling that role. We even have research data showing the effects phone applications can have on a patient’s condition. One random control trial using a phone application demonstrated improvement in symptom severity and two-thirds of the application group were satisfied with the treatment outcome. 

You may want to try pelvic floor exercises to help with your pelvic floor issues. I have listed three applications that scored highly, are currently available, and have been used by some of my previous patients. 

• TAT, produced by Umea University in Sweden, is a free phone application that contains six exercise routines. You can also track the number of exercises you perform each day. You are also able to set three reminders per day, which is the recommended number of times per day you should perform pelvic floor exercises.
• Kegel Trainer, produced by Olson apps, is a free phone application and contains a paid upgraded version within the app. It contains ten different routines, daily reminders, achievement levels and the ability to track daily targets. The in-app paid upgrade allows you to make custom exercise sessions, have unlimited reminders, and improve exercise tracking.
• Squeezy is a paid application where one can set exercise plans, track exercises, access visual and audio guides for exercises, and obtain exercise reminders.

Ultimately, there is no perfect application for every single person. You may want to try one of the free downloads first. If you notice a pelvic floor exercise phone application has been helpful, but would like more options or better tracking, you can easily upgrade. 

References

• Ebbesen MH et al. Prevalence, Incidence and Remission of Urinary Incontinence in Women: Longitudinal Data from the Norwegian HUNT Study (EPINCONT). BMC Urol. 2013; 13: 27.
• Asklund I et al. Mobile App for Treatment of Stress Urinary Incontinence: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Neurourology and Urodynamics. 2017; 36:1369-76. 
• TAT app
• Kegel Trainer app
• Squeezy app