Photobiomodulation added to pelvic floor training improved sexual function in menopausal women

A three-arm randomized controlled trial enrolled women aged 45–65 with genitourinary syndrome of menopause to compare pelvic floor muscle training alone, training with sham light therapy, and training with active photobiomodulation over eight weeks. Adding active photobiomodulation to the exercise program was associated with significantly better sexual function scores compared with sham light, though most other measured outcomes did not reach statistical significance between groups.

What the study found

The trial did not find statistically significant differences between groups on its primary measure of pelvic floor muscle pressure as assessed by manometry, though the group receiving active photobiomodulation alongside exercise showed numerically greater improvement than the other two groups.

On the Female Sexual Function Index, women in the combined active-photobiomodulation-plus-exercise group scored meaningfully higher than those in the sham-light-plus-exercise group, with a mean difference of roughly 4.5 points and a large effect size. The orgasm subdomain specifically also favored the active-treatment group over the sham group.

Urinary symptom burden, measured with a validated short-form questionnaire, showed a clinically meaningful reduction of approximately three points in the active-photobiomodulation group relative to the sham group, though the authors characterize the broader pattern of urinary and quality-of-life outcomes as showing greater but non-significant improvement rather than a clear statistical effect.

Overall, the authors conclude that combining photobiomodulation with pelvic floor training produced a selective benefit — statistically detectable for sexual function, but not for muscle pressure, urinary outcomes, or quality of life as a whole — leaving the full picture of the intervention's value uncertain.

Limits worth knowing

The sample was limited to naturally postmenopausal women aged 45–65, so findings may not extend to other menopausal transitions or age ranges. The eight-week follow-up captures only short-term effects, and no longer-term assessment was conducted. The number of participants per arm is not specified in available information, raising questions about statistical power, particularly for outcomes that trended but did not reach significance. Funding sources are not disclosed in the available abstract. The study was conducted at a single site, and blinding integrity for the sham condition was not described, which is relevant given that participant expectations could influence self-reported sexual function scores.

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