High-impact exercise linked to higher anal incontinence risk in women

Running, CrossFit training and team sports were linked to a higher risk of anal incontinence in women, adding new weight to a problem pelvic-floor specialists say is too often hidden by embarrassment and low awareness. The concern is not only discomfort. Even intermittent leakage can alter how women train, compete and socialize, while many never connect the symptom to exercise or bring it up in the exam room.

The finding fits a broader pattern already seen in women athletes. A 2021 mixed-methods systematic review found that pelvic-floor symptoms, including anal incontinence, can interfere with women’s participation in exercise. Another study, published in 2021 and focused on female artistic gymnasts, team gymnasts and cheerleaders, examined both urinary and anal incontinence in athletes exposed to repeated impact and strain. In 2020 and 2021 qualitative work across sports, one in three women reported pelvic-floor symptoms such as urinary incontinence during training or competition.

The issue drew attention at the Francophone Hepatology, Gastroenterology and Digestive Oncology Conference, known as JFHOD 2026, held in Paris from March 19 to March 22 at the Palais des congrès Porte Maillot. Organized by the SNFGE with FMC-HGE, the meeting is described as the leading francophone conference on digestive diseases and cancers and the second-largest European conference in the field by attendance. That setting underscored why gastroenterologists were paying attention to a symptom many patients still treat as too private to mention.

Specialists say the message is not to stop exercising. It is to ask better questions, normalize the topic and identify women who may benefit from pelvic-floor evaluation, symptom management or lower-impact options. A 2024 commentary in the British Journal of Sports Medicine called pelvic-floor dysfunction undervalued, underreported and undertreated among female athletes. A 2026 Frontiers review noted that the pelvic floor supports the genitourinary-anal region and is central to anorectal function.

Clinical care can help. Cleveland Clinic says fecal incontinence can be treated with dietary changes, pelvic-floor exercises, medication and surgery, and that pelvic-floor dysfunction can also cause stool leakage and other bowel and bladder symptoms. The latest association between high-impact exercise and anal incontinence suggests the burden is likely larger than the number of women who disclose it, and that more coaches, primary-care doctors and sports clinicians need to ask before symptoms drive women out of the workouts they want to keep.