Does preoperative locally applied estrogen treatment facilitate prolapse-associated symptoms in postmenopausal women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse? A randomised controlled double-masked, placebo-controlled, multicentre study.

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate whether locally applied vaginal estrogen affects prolapse‐associated complaints compared with placebo treatment in postmenopausal women prior to surgical prolapse repair.DesignRandomised, double‐masked, placebo‐controlled, multicentre study.SettingUrogynaecology unit at the Medical University of Vienna and University Hospital of Tulln.PopulationPostmenopausal women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse and planned surgical prolapse repair.MethodsWomen were randomly assigned local estrogen cream or placebo cream 6 weeks preoperatively.Main outcome measuresThe primary outcome was differences in subjective prolapse‐associated complaints after 6 weeks of treatment prior to surgery, assessed with the comprehensive German pelvic floor questionnaire. Secondary outcomes included differences in other pelvic floor‐associated complaints (bladder, bowel or sexual function).ResultsOut of 120 women randomised, 103 (86%) remained for the final analysis. After 6 weeks of treatment the prolapse domain score did not differ between the estrogen and the placebo groups (4.4 ± 0.19 versus 4.6 ± 0.19; mean difference, −0.21; 95% CI −0.74 to 0.33; P = 0.445). Multivariate analysis, including only women receiving the intervention, showed that none of the confounding factors modified the response to estradiol.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate that preoperative locally applied estrogen does not ameliorate prolapse‐associated symptoms in postmenopausal women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse.Tweetable abstractPreoperative local estrogen does not ameliorate prolapse‐associated symptoms in postmenopausal women with pelvic organ prolapse.