The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH) invites you to join the next session of the NIH Women’s Health Research Roundtable, a lecture series focused on issues impacting women’s health.
Women's Health Research Roundtable: Women and Pelvic Floor Disorders May 21, 2026 | 3:00 – 4:00 PM EDT | Virtual Webinar
Free CME credits are available.
Free CME credits are available.
This session will provide a comparative review of current treatment approaches for pelvic floor disorders, examining the strengths and limitations of each option and exploring future research directions. Register to attend and learn how interdisciplinary research through the Pelvic Floor Disorders Network (PFDN) is advancing evidence-based care and informing strategies to optimize outcomes for women.
Bertha Chen and Ngang Huang will present a talk titled “Cellular mechanisms in the vagina of women with recurrent vaginal prolapse after prolapse surgery.”
Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is a debilitating condition characterized by the downward movement of the vaginal and/or the uterus and bladder through the vaginal opening. POP incidence is 40% in women between the ages of 50-79 years. Surgery is the main treatment option, but up to 29% of treated patients experience recurrence of prolapse. Recurrent prolapse is treated with more surgery. Thus, there is a need for new treatment strategies. However, our ability to develop effective, novel treatments is hindered by the lack of understanding of the altered tissue microenvironment and cellular function in the vagina after surgery. Histological and biochemical alterations in the vagina of women with POP have been widely documented, showing decreased smooth muscle cells, altered contractile function, and connective tissue deficiencies. We hypothesize that surgery induces changes in the connective tissue of the prolapsed vagina in conjunction with changes in fibroblast function and smooth muscle cell loss. This leads to deficient vaginal properties that render the vagina susceptible to recurrent prolapse. In this talk, we review the limitations of surgery and discuss our research strategy for investigating the cellular changes in the vagina after surgery.
Dr. Heidi Harvie will present a talk a talk titled “Pelvic Organ Prolapse: Pelvic Floor Disorders Network Trials and Future Research Directions.”
Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) are conditions in women that affect the support and function of the pelvic organs and lower urinary and gastrointestinal tracts, such as pelvic organ prolapse (POP), urinary and fecal incontinence. Historically under-recognized, PFDs are common among women, and significantly affect quality of life, daily activities, and sexual function. POP occurs in up to half of parous women with lifetime risk of POP surgery approaching 20% and up to 30% requiring reoperations for POP. Recognizing the need for rigorous studies on PFDs, the NIH established the Eunice Kennedy Shriver NICHD Pelvic Floor Disorders Network (PFDN) in 2001 to encourage multicenter, multi-disciplinary collaborative research on PFDs to improve care. The PFDN has conducted 18 index studies, enrolling over 5,000 women, resulting in more than 150 publications. POP comparative effectiveness trials have addressed outcomes of native tissue and mesh augmented abdominal and vaginal prolapse repair procedures, including uterine preserving hysteropexy and vaginal obliterative procedures.
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