AMSTERDAM - WEARING high heels - although perhaps not stilettos - may improve your pelvic floor muscles and boost your sex life, a new study suggests, according to the BBC.

Dr Maria Cerruto, an Italian urologist, said her research showed that high heels were not as bad for women's health as some say.

In a letter to the European Urology journal, Dr Cerruto said her study showed that women under 50 who held their feet at a 15-degree angle to the ground - the equivalent of a 5cm heel - had posture as good as those wearing flats. Crucially, they showed less electrical activity in their pelvic muscles.

This suggested that the heeled shoe, usually linked to problems from corns to schizophrenia, tones the pelvic floor muscles.Dr Cerruto, who studied nearly 66 women wearing 5cm heels, said they assisted sexual performance and satisfaction, as well as provide vital support to the bladder, bowels and uterus, the BBC reported.

Ms Gill Brook, a women's health physiotherapist in Bradford, England, stressed the findings did not suggest that stilettos were good for those keen on improving their pelvic floor function.

'But for women who like a slightly higher heel, these are reassuring findings,' she said.