The American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ASCRS) is establishing a Pelvic Floor Consortium (PFC) for the purpose of providing a collaborative forum of representatives of disciplines involved in the management of people with diseases of the pelvic floor. People with an interest in the management of diseases of the pelvic floor are welcome and invited to attend the Pelvic Floor Consortium’s inaugural meeting, Sunday, May 20, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee, during the ASCRS Annual Scientific Meeting.

Pelvic Floor Consortium Inaugural Meeting
Sunday, May 20, 2018
10:00am – 12:00pm 
Nashville Music City Convention Center
Nashville, TN

The Consortium’s objectives include:

• Providing a forum for discussion and exchange of ideas to develop a cohesive, interdisciplinary strategy for treatment of people with pelvic floor diseases.
• Facilitating an exchange of ideas to set standards/guidelines that reflect the surgical and non-surgical management of diseases comprising all compartments of the pelvic floor.
• Promoting collaborative research projects and mechanisms for funding some of the standards/guidelines.

For more information regarding the consortium, please visit www.fascrs.org/pelvic-floor-disorders-consortium

The IUGA Terminology and Standardization Committee and the ICS Standardisation Steering Committee are pleased to announce that a joint report on the terminology for assessment of sexual health of women with pelvic floor dysfunction is now available for online ahead of print in both the International Urogynecology Journal and the Neurourology & Urodynamics Journal.

The document presents recommended terms and definitions for the assessment (including history and physical examination and investigations), diagnosis, and treatment of female sexual dysfunction. This terminology document builds on previous terminology documents in female pelvic floor dysfunction and aligns with current terminology documents addressing related aspects of pelvic floor (dys)function.

Rogers R, Pauls RN, Thakar R, Morin M, Kuhn A, Petri E, Fatton B, Whitmore K, Kingsberg S, Lee J. An International Urogynecological Association (IUGA) – International Continence Society (ICS) joint report on the terminology for the assessment of sexual health of women with pelvic floor dysfunction.

International Urogynecology Journal

Neurourology and Urodynamics

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IUGA is now accepting applications for Basic Science and Clinical Research Grants to fund original research by an IUGA member or trainee. One $10,000 USD grant is awarded in each category. The research grants are designed to fund development of the proposed research project including all materials and testing, statistical analyses, and services required to complete the research.

The deadline to submit applications is Tuesday, May 1, 2018.

Learn More

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Click here to read the first of three Newsletters of 2018, published by IUGA's Publication Committee (or click here to download the PDF version).

In this issue you will find our members' debate regarding the "preferred" way for delivery (Vaginal vs Caesarean delivery). In addition, we have an interesting synopsis of the effect of exercise and sport on the pelvic floor written by an exercise physiologist, and two Expert Opinion pieces on the results of the 2017 British National Maternity and Perinatal Audit and the experience of creating a multidisciplinary clinic with Colorectal Surgery.

You will also find a preview of the exciting events at the upcoming Annual Meeting in June, including opportunities to join a cycling tour from Munich to Vienna, or the Annual Fun Walk/Run, and raise money for FIUGA while doing it. We hope to see you in Vienna!

Warm regards,


Debby Karp, MD
Chair, IUGA Publication Committee

The IUGA Terminology and Standardization Committee is pleased to announce the development of a terminology document on the Surgical Treatment of SUI in Women, which will be prepared jointly with the American Urogynecologic Society (AUGS). IUGA is seeking 3 individuals to serve on the joint writing group. For more information, please review the Scoping Document.

Participation in terminology projects requires a fair amount of time and dedication from all involved in the joint writing group, but by contributing you will have helped clarify understanding and standardize communication in our important field. We therefore look forward to receiving your application!

The IUGA Terminology and Standardization Committee is chaired by Dr. Joseph Lee.

Deadline for Applications: *Thursday, March 8, 2018 (11:59pm EST)

Submission of Applications: If you are interested, please send a short CV (no more than 3 pages) with a cover letter explaining your interest of This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Deadline: March 1, 2018

Submit your oral, poster, eposter, or video abstract to IUGA's 43rd Annual Meeting.

IUGA welcomes submissions of abstracts that have already been presented at a local/regional meeting. Acceptance will allow to present your work to an International audience.

The deadline to submit abstracts is March 1, 2018. Abstracts will be selected for either oral, poster, eposter or video presentation. While you may indicate a preferred presentation method during the submission process, it is not guaranteed. The IUGA Scientific Committee is responsible for managing the peer review process, selecting the highest scoring abstracts, and designating them to the appropriate session based on topic area and/or category.

Submit your Abstract

We’ve launched our new patient website and we’re excited to introduce you to our new look. 

Access IUGA’s Patient Information Leaflets on more than 30 topics on IUGA’s patient website.

Access Now

IUGA wishes to congratulate the following IUGA members who have been newly appointed to IUGA committees. Their terms begin January 1, 2018.

Education Committee

• Howard Goldman (USA), E-learning Subcommittee Chair

Fellows & Trainees Committee

• Abdelmageed Abdelrahman (UK)
• Harpreet Arora (Australia)
• Zhuoran Chen (Australia)
• Nicola Dykes (New Zealand
• Dina El-Hamamsy (UK)
• Gemma Nightingale (UK)

Membership Committee

• Hassan Mohamed Elbiss (UAE)
• Mohan Regmi (Nepal)

Public Relations Committee

• Janelle Evans (USA)
• Sarita Narang (India)
• Clara Ong (Singapore)
• Dimos Sioutis (Greece)
• Ambereen Sleemi (USA)

Publications Committee

• Abdelmageed Abdelrahman (UK)
• Amos Adelowo (USA)
• Laura Didomizio (Canada)
• Catherine Hudson (USA)

Research & Development Committee

• May Alarab (Canada)
• Barbara Bodner-Adler (Austria)
• Vatche Minassian (USA)
• Suneetha Rachaneni (UK)

Terminology & Standardization Committee

• Alfa Meutia (Indonesia)
• Lan (Julie) Zhu (China)

Dear IUGA members,

As this year comes to an end, it is a good time to take a moment and reflect on the events that happened over the last 12 months.

Our major annual event touched down in Vancouver, Canada in June this year where many of you attended the 2017 edition of the IUGA Annual Meeting. The positive feedback we received from the meeting attendees encourages us to continue to offer the best possible experience for all of you. Many thanks go out to Geoff Cundiff and the local organizing committee for being such tremendous hosts.

Throughout the year, the IUGA continued to further expand its member benefits. For those who couldn’t attend the Vancouver meeting, the IUGA Academy is the place to go as it offers you unlimited access to the main IUGA 2017 presentations including videos of the presenter and slides. New materials are added on a regular basis to the Academy, maintained by Alex Digesu and his team in collaboration with the Education Committee chaired by Catherine Matthews and the eLearning subcommittee, now chaired by Howard Goldman who recently took over from Barry O'Reilly. They are working hard to develop accredited (CME) educational content that will soon be exclusively available on the platform to all our members. We are very grateful to all the time and devotion they put in to make this the leading eLearning platform in our field.

Our range of educational programs brought us to Algeria this year where an IUGA Exchange Program took place. Regional Symposia were organized in Nicaragua and Japan, and many IUGA representatives were invited to give lectures around the whole world. As the leading international body specialized in female pelvic health we will continue our outreach and education efforts throughout all continents.

The IUGA surgical database user group is fast expanding as over 100 members have begun using the database. In 2018 I hope we are joined by many of our Spanish speaking members as the database will also be available in Spanish. I encourage all of you to utilize this great IUGA benefit, it is becoming increasingly important to know your own surgical outcomes. We thank Paul Moran for his huge dedication towards this project.

Thanks to Albert De Decker, the IUGA now also has their own podcast channel. The podcasts are freely available and accessible through our website and through the dedicated podcast platforms on SoundCloud and now also on Apple’s iTunes. Initiatives to expand to foreign language podcasts are being considered and we invite those who are interested in participating to contact the IUGA office.

And 2018 will start with a blast as you will experience several very refreshing visible changes. Over the holiday season, the IUGA will migrate its current website to a completely new and fresh website, which also incorporates many changes to our communications and to our back-office structure. With this change, we are also launching a completely new dedicated IUGA Patient Website that will have patient information available in both English and Spanish with links to all our other foreign language patient information leaflets. We are thankful for the support of Phil Toozs-Hobson and his team and the development team at Status Plus to make this a reality. We will soon reach out to our members for feedback and suggestions, so we can further build on improving our online presence in the months to come.

The coming year we’ll be back in Europe with our Annual Meeting and we truly look forward to meeting all of you again in Vienna, Austria, from the 27th to the 30th of June. Registration will open in January, so keep an eye on your inbox, don’t miss your opportunity to register for the early bird discounted member rates!

To conclude, I would sincerely like to thank all of you for your support and dedication to IUGA. On a personal note, I would like to thank Status Plus for the truly outstanding job they are doing, David Casalod, Tessa Benitez and the team have worked tremendously hard this year and I know members can already see and feel the benefits.

On behalf of the board, I wish you and your loved ones every success and happiness in 2018 and I look forward to seeing you all in the new year for another big year for the IUGA!

Lynsey Hayward
IUGA President