ReviewEuropean journal of sport science2024
Up for the tackle? The pelvic floor and rugby. A review.
Review in European journal of sport science, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07757633 (Pelvic Floor Muscle Training and Neuromuscular Performance in Women's Rugby), which is not on this map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Pelvic Floor Muscle Training and Neuromuscular Performance in Women's Rugby
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Urinary Incontinence in Women Athletes: Umbrella Review and Meta-analysis of Sport-Related Factors.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Pooled it
- Kicking Off Motherhood: Considering Return to Play Postpartum in the Footballer.Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.) · 2026Review
- Creation and Validation of a Comprehensive Instrument to Assess UI in Female Athletes and Active Women.International urogynecology journal · 2026Article
- Pelvic floor myoelectric excitation and force output across menstrual-cycle phases.BMC women's health · 2026Observational
- Female Saudi athletes' awareness of the importance of pelvic floor muscle exercises to prevent pelvic floor dysfunction: a cross-sectional online survey.BMC women's health · 2026Article
- Article
- Optimizing women's health: pelvic floor considerations in sports and physical activity.Frontiers in sports and active living · 2026Article
- The Hidden Challenge: Pelvic Floor Symptoms and Their Impact on Performance and Well-Being in Elite Female Rugby Players.European journal of sport science · 2025Observational
- Nearly half of 325 athletes reported pelvic floor symptoms: a cross-sectional study at the Lima 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships.BMJ open sport & exercise medicine · 2025Article
- Is your system fit for purpose? Female athlete health considerations for rugby injury and illness surveillance systems.European journal of sport science · 2024Review
- Prioritise safety, optimise success! Return to rugby postpartum.European journal of sport science · 2024Review
- Women's rugby as a catalyst for advancing female-specific science and safety in sport.European journal of sport science · 2024Article
- Cytokine modulation in pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence: from molecular insights to therapeutic targets.Molecular medicine (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The pelvic floor and its associated disorders are a unique and often overlooked aspect of women's rugby. This review discusses relevant biopsychosocial considerations specific to the pelvic floor and rugby. Pelvic floor disorders can present at any time across the female lifespan but are more prevalent during pregnancy and postpartum. This is due to the substantial physiological and anatomical changes experienced during pregnancy and vaginal childbirth. Consequently, pelvic floor disorders can impact a player's ability to perform, maintain engagement with, or return to, rugby due to symptoms. Players need to be informed, supported, and guided through focused pelvic floor muscle training to condition the muscles and 'ready' them for the varied demands of rugby. Health and fitness professionals should understand the risk of pelvic floor disorders across the female lifespan and screen players for symptoms when supporting them to maintain or return to rugby. Rugby players who are symptomatic of pelvic floor disorders should be signposted to specialist services and/or resources to manage their symptoms. Once engaging in rugby training, ongoing evaluation of player load tolerance and implementation of individualized strategies to support managing rugby-related loads to the pelvic floor should be considered. Finally, surveillance and research focusing specifically on rugby players and pelvic floor function are needed.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.