Perineal Rehabilitation With Probe: What Are The Side Effects?

Have you been prescribed perineal reeducation sessions with a probe? Or has your physiotherapist suggested using a catheter, but you’re apprehensive, particularly about the risk of side effects?

I take stock of rehabilitation for both men and women!

♻️ Last update: August 14, 2025
👩‍⚖️ Declaration of financial interests: none directly related to the subject. My complete declaration of financial interests is in the legal notice section.
Written by Nelly Darbois, physiotherapist and scientific editor

What type of perineal rehabilitation am I talking about?

Rehabilitation of the perineum can take place in a variety of contexts. And in all these contexts, certain physiotherapists sometimes use a probe to carry out this re-education.

These are the rehabilitation contexts.

🤰🏽 Re-educating the perineum post-partum, after childbirth.

➡️ To strengthen perineal muscles weakened during pregnancy and childbirth, prevent or treat bladder weakness, and promote pelvic muscle recovery.

🚽 Perineal rehabilitation forincontinence, urinary or fecal leaks, genital prolapse, in children and adults.

➡️ If you experience occasional bladder weakness on exertion. Or if you find it difficult to hold yourself back from going to the bathroom, in the context of a neurological illness or for no reason at all. Or in the case of organ descent.

😷 Preparing for surgery.

➡️ Some surgeons prescribe physiotherapy sessions prior to prostate or gynaecological surgery. To optimize muscle function and facilitate post-operative recovery.

♨️ Relieve chronic pelvic pain or sexual dysfunction.

➡️ Among other things, to better manage pain, particularly during intercourse.

Perineal probes can be used in all these contexts. In fact, there are different types of probes for these different uses:

• vaginal probes ;
• anal probes for men and women ;
• combined probes (vagina + rectum) ;
• inflatable probes.

There are other types of device that can be introduced into the vagina or rectum (pressers, geisha balls, vaginal cones), but in this article I’m focusing on vaginal and anal probes for perineal rehabilitation.

Finally, these probes can be used in a variety of ways.

• Electrostimulation involves the use of gentle electrical currents to stimulate and strengthen pelvic floor muscles.
• Biofeedback provides real-time information on pelvic floor muscle activity, enabling you to visualize and understand muscle contractions.

Do we have much experience of using probes for perineal rehabilitation?

Yes, we have decades of experience of using probes for perineal rehabilitation. For both vaginal and anal probes.

Here, for example, is an overview of some of the studies that concretely evaluate how people with probe rehabilitation evolve:

This graph shows that the first publications date back to the 1970s. That’s almost 50 years ago at the time of writing!

What’s more, probes are at least class 1 medical devices in France: this means they have to meet certain safety specifications before they can be marketed.

I’m now going to use these scientific publications to trace the undesirable effects described in connection with the use of probes.

What are the side effects of using a catheter?

Here’s a summary of publications listing side effects associated with the use of perineal probes (vaginal or rectal).

Sensor type	Reason for use	Reported side effects	Reference
Vaginal, electrostimulation	Urinary incontinence in women	No more so in the group with probe than in the group without treatment or electrostimulation current:	Han 2021
Intravaginal vibratory stimulation and intravaginal electrical stimulation	Women who cannot voluntarily contract their pelvic floor muscles	One person stopped due to discomfort in the electrical stimulation group	Rodriguez 2019
Exercise VS electrostimulation VS vaginal cone	Women with urinary incontinence	No side effects were reported for the exercises. In the electrical stimulation group, two participants reported burning sensations ( tenderness and bleeding, discomfort), and eight women reported problems with motivation and difficulty using the stimulator. Vaginal cones: one reported abdominal pain, two vaginitis, one bleeding, 14 problems with motivation and difficulty using the cones.	Bo 1999
Anal electrostimulation	Women with incontinence	“No serious adverse effects”.	Eriksen 1987
Vaginal electrostimulation	Women with overactive bladder	Discomfort due to vaginal irritation in 4 out of 52 women	Yildiz 2022
Vaginal electrostimulation	Women with urinary incontinence or overactive bladder	A minority of women developed adverse reactions such as pain, discomfort, hypersensitivity, irritation, tingling in the thigh, bleeding, diarrhea, bladder spasms and vaginal infections.	Jerez 2013

What can we learn from it?

Although not all studies report side effects, it is reasonable to assume that the use of a vaginal or anal probe with biofeedback or electrostimulation has no major adverse effects, apart from possible discomfort during use.

Even more rarely, bleeding during use.

We have no precise figures on the occurrence of these undesirable effects.

This discomfort is tolerated or not felt by a majority of women. For men, we have less data.

With almost half a century’s experience of using these probes, it’s reasonable to assume that there are no major side-effects that we would have missed!

📝 To remember: the main danger in using a perineal probe is pain or discomfort during use, although the majority of people are not concerned. In the event of pain or discomfort, it is of course possible to stop using the probe immediately.

Is it possible to do perineal rehabilitation without a probe?

It‘s perfectly possible to undergo perineal rehabilitation without using a probe. Nor any other invasive device.

This does not necessarily diminish the effectiveness of the sessions.

If you’re not comfortable with the idea of using a probe, you can discuss it with your physiotherapist. Depending on the situation, your physio may suggest :

• Probe-free rehabilitation;
• change physiotherapist if he or she is unable to provide probe-free rehabilitation.

I’ve dedicated an entire article to the value or otherwise of the probe for women’s perineal rehabilitation.

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That’s all I wanted to say on the subject! Any questions or comments? See you in comments!