Self-management of vaginal pessaries for prolapse: the TOPSY trial key findings

Abstract

Women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse are offered a choice of conservative and surgical treatment options. Two thirds of women choose a vaginal pessary, a support device inserted in the vagina. This article reports the finding of a randomized controlled trial published in 2023 evaluating the cost-effectiveness of self-management of pessary compared to clinic-based care. Women were recruited in 21 centres across the UK and 340 women were randomized to pessary self-management or clinic-based care. The primary outcome measure was prolapse-specific quality of life and secondary outcomes were generic quality of life, pelvic floor symptoms, sexual function, self-efficacy, pessary complications, pessary use and pessary confidence. Participants’ health care resource use was measured. The trial showed that at 18 month follow-up self-management was not associated with better or worse quality of life than clinic-based care. Women in the self-management group reported fewer pessary complications and lower healthcare resource use.