There’s not much good news for women with faecal incontinence and normal stool consistency, with a study showing most treatments actually make little difference to their condition.

A rare randomised trial on the topic finds even the therapies thought to work probably don’t help that much.

In the study, US researchers tested four combinations of treatments, including anal sphincter strength training with biofeedback, loperamide, education and oral placebo on 300 women.

They were aged on average 64 and reported a mean of 1.6 leaks per day.