Although we often talk about the lack of awareness of urinary incontinence and it's high prevalence, we rarely mention the prevalence of faecal incontinence.

However new research shows that faecal incontinence also has a high prevalence amongst women, especially those in older age groups, those who have had numerous babies, women whose deliveries were assisted by forceps or vacuum devices, and those who have had a hysterectomy.

Many women in the study who had fecal incontinence also had another medical condition, such as diabetes, and often experienced urinary incontinence as well. The findings are reported in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

"Increased attention should be paid to this debilitating condition, especially considering the aging of our population and the available treatments for faecal incontinence," said Dee E. Fenner, M.D., Senior Author of the study and Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Director of Gynecology, at the University of Michigan Medical School.

The study, led by the University of Washington, was a postal survey of 6,000 women ages 30-90 (only women were involved in the study). Of the 64% of respondents, 7.2% reported experiencing faecal incontinence, with the prevalence increasing with age.