Fecal incontinence, also called accidental bowel leakage, can happen to anyone — but women often have a higher risk. Childbirth can put stress on pelvic floor muscles, which can lead to fecal incontinence later.
At Penn Medicine, the specialists in our Women's Accidental Bowel Leakage Program can help. With experience treating women’s pelvic floor disorders, we offer expert care to meet the unique needs of women with fecal incontinence.
Women's Accidental Bowel Leakage: The Penn Medicine Advantage
Our program provides specialized care for women who have fecal incontinence. People come to us from across the region because we offer:
- Expertise in women’s pelvic health: With years of experience, our urogynecologist focuses on treating women who have fecal incontinence. She has specialized fellowship training in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery to treat all types of pelvic floor disorders.
- Access to clinical trials: Our team has funding from the National Institutes of Health and others to conduct clinical research for fecal incontinence treatments. Through clinical trials, eligible patients have access to promising new diagnostic technologies, nonsurgical therapies and surgical techniques before they’re available to the public. For example, Penn Medicine is the first program in the country exploring fecal microbial transplantation to treat fecal incontinence in a clinical trial.
- Multidisciplinary care: Our program offers access to care providers for nonsurgical treatment, physical therapy and surgical procedures. If you need treatment for other conditions, we coordinate your care with doctors in every specialty available at Penn Medicine. Meet our women's accidental bowel leakage program team.
Services and Treatments We Offer for Accidental Bowel Leakage
We offer comprehensive care to treat fecal incontinence and its underlying causes to prevent accidents. Our goal is to lower your risks for bowel leakage and stop the condition completely.
Our services include:
- Advanced treatments available only through clinical trials, such as fecal microbial transplantation to treat fecal incontinence
- Detailed evaluation and advanced testing to find underlying causes for fecal incontinence
- Nonsurgical therapies including medications and vaginal devices to prevent bowel leaks
- Self-care and behavioral techniques such as dietary changes and bowel training
- Specialized pelvic floor outpatient physical rehabilitation with biofeedback, from therapists who have advanced training in pelvic floor disorders
- Surgery and minimally invasive procedures to treat fecal incontinence and related conditions, such as pelvic organ prolapse
Conditions We Treat
Our focus is on bowel leakage, but to successfully cure fecal incontinence, we also treat underlying causes and related conditions. Some common conditions we treat include:
Penn Medicine Women's Accidental Bowel Leakage Program
The Women's Accidental Bowel Leakage Program is part of the Urogynecology Program at Penn Medicine. Our experienced team provides comprehensive care for women with all types of pelvic floor disorders. Learn more about the Women's Accidental Bowel Leakage Program.
Request an Appointment
To request an appointment, please call 800-789-7366 or complete our online form.
In This Section
View a list of providers that specialize in the treatment of accidental bowel leakage and related conditions in women.