**8. Prevention**

The prevention of anorectal dysfunction, but also of descensus and urinary incontinence, begins at the latest after a woman has given birth. Training the pelvic floor muscles, weight optimization, avoiding constipation, learning a pelvic floor-friendly carrying technique and nicotine abstinence can reduce the risk for developing pelvic floor disorders. Postmenopausal, local vaginal application of estriol has proliferating effects on the vaginal, urethral and bladder epithelia and improves blood flow in the urethral area. Hereby, descensus can also be prevented or delayed [8].

## **Author details**

Isabell Link\* and Christian Fünfgeld Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Clinic Tettnang, Germany

\*Address all correspondence to: isabell.link@gmx.de

© 2021 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
