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

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether locally applied vaginal estrogen affects prolapse‐associated complaints compared with placebo treatment in postmenopausal women prior to surgical prolapse repair. DESIGN: Randomised, double‐masked, placebo‐controlled, multicentre study. SETTING: Urogynaecology unit at the Medical University of Vienna and University Hospital of Tulln. POPULATION: Postmenopausal women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse and planned surgical prolapse repair. METHODS: Women were randomly assigned local estrogen cream or placebo cream 6 weeks preoperatively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The 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). RESULTS: Out 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. CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate that preoperative locally applied estrogen does not ameliorate prolapse‐associated symptoms in postmenopausal women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse. TWEETABLE ABSTRACT: Preoperative local estrogen does not ameliorate prolapse‐associated symptoms in postmenopausal women with pelvic organ prolapse.