A Cochrane review included 21 studies with a total of 1 281 women. Most studies were at moderate to high risk of bias. There was considerable variation in interventions used, study populations, and outcome measures. Women with stress urinary incontinence who were in the pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) groups were 8 times more likely than the controls to report that they were cured (46/82 versus 5/83, RR 8.38, 95% CI 3.68 to 19.07) and 17 times more likely to report cure or improvement (32/58 versus 2/63, RR 17.33, 95% CI 4.31 to 69.64). Women who did PFMT were more likely to report they were cured or improved than women who did not. PFMT women also experienced fewer incontinence episodes per day. Women who did PFMT also reported better continence specific quality of life than women who did not. Of the few adverse effects reported, none were serious. The trials in stress urinary incontinent women which suggested greater benefit recruited a younger population and recommended a longer training period than the one trial in women with detrusor overactivity (urge) incontinence.