the term “ individual ” relates particularly to humans , but it shall also be considered to include animals . the term “ lower urinary tract symptoms ” relates to symptoms in male as well as in female individuals . for male individuals , a particularly important class of such symptoms is detrusor urethral sphincter dyssynergia , but the term is not restricted hereto . any kind of symptoms in the lower urinary tract in male individuals shall be covered by the term . thus , in this invention the term “ lower urinary tract symptoms ” shall also be understood to include abacterial prostatitis , stress prostatitis , trigonitis and orchialgia in male individuals , and interstitial cystitis in male or female individuals . for female individuals , this term further include bladder instability and micturition urgency . the term “ pelvic pain ” shall here be understood to include symptoms related to abacterial prostatitis , stress prostatitis , prostatodynia , urethral syndromes , trigonitis or orchialgia in a male individual . furthermore , the term includes interstitial cystitis either in male or female individuals . the wording “ selective estrogen receptor modulator ” and any specific compound belonging to this group shall be understood to cover any geometric isomer , any stereoisomer , racemate or other mixture of isomers of the compound . furthermore , pharmaceutically acceptable salts and other derivatives such as esters are also included . suitable selective estrogen receptor modulators ( or serms ) for use in this invention are , for example , the compounds disclosed in v craig jordan ( 2003 ). thus , examples of suitable serm compounds for use in the present invention are triphenylalkene or triphenylalkane compounds such as compounds disclosed in wo 01 / 36360 , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 996 , 225 , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 696 , 949 , u . s . pat . no . 5 , 750 , 576 , wo 99 / 42427 and the toremifene metabolites disclosed in l kangas , cancer chemother pharmacol ( 1990 ) 27 : 8 - 12 . as examples of specific drugs disclosed in the aforementioned references can be mentioned toremifene , ospemifene and ospemifene . tamoxifen and its derivatives such as 4 - hydroxytamoxifen , alpha - hydroxytamoxifen , n - desmethyltamoxifen , n , n - didesmethyltamoxifen , deaminotamoxifen , and droloxifene and iodoxifene also examples of suitable serms of triphenylalkene structure . other preferable examples of serm compounds are compounds of benzothiophene structure , such as raloxifene and its analogues ( described for example in ep 584952 , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 133 , 814 , u . s . pat . no . 4 , 418 , 068 ) and arzoxifene . as further examples of suitable serms can be mentioned em652 , em800 , em776 , em651 , em312 , ici 182780 , era - 923 , zindoxifene and deacetylated zindoxifene , zk119010 , tse - 4247 , lasoxifene and its analogues , particularly those disclosed in ep 802910 , nafoxidine , basedoxifene , gw5638 , gw7604 , compound no . 32 disclosed in jordan ( 2003 ), ici 164384 , ru 58668 , ru 39411 and em 319 . the aforementioned specific serms or classes of serms are examples only , and other serms may be suitable for use in this invention as well . serms with no or weak estrogenic effect may be suitable for use , particularly in male individuals . a classical method to determine the estrogenic profile of a compound is to evaluate estrogenic effect in immature mouse or rat uterus ( terenius l , acta endocrinol 66 : 431 - 447 , 1971 ). the animals are exposed for 3 days to the compounds to be investigated at the age of 18 days . on the fourth day the animals are sacrificed and body weight and uterine weight is recorded . estrogens increase the size and weight of the uterus ( uterotropic effect ) while antiestrogens inhibit this action . the results are given as per cent of estrogen stimulation ( 100 % with estradiol ). in our tests , we used a high dose level , i . e . 10 - 50 mg / kg . compounds causing an uterotropic effect ≦ 40 % are for this purpose classified as weak estrogenic compounds , compounds causing an uterotropic effect ≧ 70 % are classified as strong estrogenic compounds and compounds in - between , an uterotropic effect of 41 - 69 % are classified as moderate estrogenic agents . as specific examples of particularly useful serms can be mentioned certain compounds of those disclosed in wo 01 / 36360 ( incorporated herein by reference ), namely the aforementioned six compounds are all classified as weak estrogenic serms . for the purpose of this invention , the serm or its isomer , isomer mixture or their pharmaceutically acceptable salts can be administered by various routes . the suitable administration forms include , for example , oral formulations ; parenteral injections including intravenous , intramuscular , intradermal and subcutaneous injections ; and transdermal or rectal formulations . suitable oral formulations include e . g . conventional or slow - release tablets and gelatine capsules . the required dosage of the serm compounds will vary with the particular condition being treated , the severity of the condition , the duration of the treatment , the administration route and the specific compound being employed . for example , fispemifene can be administered perorally preferentially once daily . the daily dose may be 5 - 150 mg , preferably 20 - 100 mg . fispemifene can be given as tablets or other formulations like gelatine capsules alone or mixed in any clinically acceptable non - active ingredients which are used in the pharmaceutical industry . the invention will be illuminated by the following non - restrictive experimental section . we studied the effects of two serms , namely fispemifene , which also is known under the code hm - 101 , and raloxifene on voiding in control as well as in developmentally estrogenized male rats . as vehicle was used polyethylene glycol ( peg ). male rats were supplied by the central animal laboratory of the university of turku , finland . their mean age was 222 days ( sd 48 . 4 ). the number of the non - estrogenized rats was 50 and the number of developmentally estrogenized rats was 29 . the rats were maintained under standard laboratory conditions at 12 : 12 light / dark cycle and they got soyfree pelleted food ( sds , witham , essex , uk ) with free access . they had also free access to tap water . the estrogenized rats ( neodes ) were developed as follows : male noble rats were treated neonatally with estrogen ( 10 μg of diethylstilbestrol ( des )) in rap seed oil ( 10 μg / 40 μl ) s . c . on days 1 - 5 of postnatal life . after the treatment with diethylstilbestrol , the neodes rats were left to grow for 4 - 5 months before treatment with study drugs . the dosing volume was 0 . 2 ml solutions / 50 g body weight and the dose level of fispemifene or raloxifene 1 and / or 10 mg / kg body weight . the dose was given once a day for six weeks . the rats were weighed for the first time on the same day , as the treatments began . afterwards the animals were weighed once a week . this was carried out to ensure the right dosing to rats . there were eight groups of adult male rats . the anesthetized rats ( non - estrogenized or neonatally estrogenized ) were treated orally with fispemifene or raloxifene using doses of 1 and / or 10 mg / kg body weight . the rats were anesthetized with chloral hydrate ( 0 . 9 g / kg , sigma chemical co . st . louis . mo . 63178 , usa ) for a basic anesthetic , and i . v . injection of urethane ( 0 . 32 g / kg , sigma chemical co . st . louis . mo . 63178 , usa ) was used to maintain anesthesia for urodynamic measurements . the body temperature was kept constant at + 36 - 38 ° c . by a thermostatically controlled animal blanket and if needed , with a heating lamp . the bladder and the distal part of urethra were exposed with a midline incision of the lower abdomen . in transvesical cystometry a 20 g i . v . cannula was inserted through the bladder apex into the lumen . the cannula was connected to an infusion pump and to a pressure transducer . the whole system was filled with saline . measurements were made at the infusion rate of 0 . 23 ml / min . an ultrasonic flow probe was used for measurement of the flow rate from the distal part of urethra . the flow probe was connected to a flow meter , with sampling rate of 100 hz . at the same time with the measurements of transvesical cystometry and flow rate , the electrical activity of the striated urethral sphincter ( rhabdosphincter ) was measured extracellularly with suction electrode . the electrode was attached on anterior surface of the muscle by suction ( provided by a flow of tap water ). the suction electrode and pressure transducer were connected to an amplifier . low frequency ac coupling ( 0 . 8 hz ) was used in electrical activity measurement . the reference and ground electrodes were placed on the edge of the wound so that ecg signal was not observable . the tissues were kept moist during measurements with warm (+ 37 ° c .) saline . the pressure and flow meter signals were transferred to the biopac - system . the biopac - system was connected to a personal computer . continuous recording was made with acq knowledge 3 . 5 . 3 program with sample rate of 400 hz . the setup of the apparatus for use in this method is disclosed in u . s . pat . no . 5 , 972 , 921 ( column 9 - 10 , fig3 ). three representative voidings were chosen for further analysis from each rat . intraluminal pressure high frequency oscillations ( iphfos ) of bladder pressure are characteristic in male rodent micturition during the second phase , during which also the urine flow occurs . the maximum and mean bladder pressures were calculated from the pressure oscillations seen in pressure wave . the maximum value was measured from the highest peak and the mean value from all iphfos during the second phase of micturition . the maximum flow rate value was measured from the highest flow rate peak and the mean flow rate value from all flow peaks during the second phase of micturition . the duration of the micturition and the volume of the residual urine were measured . fig1 illustrates one typical micturition cycle showing bladder pressure wave ( a ) and flow rate wave ( b ), and the method for calculation of the urodynamic parameters . the measurement of the maximal bladder pressure , flow rate , and micturition time are shown in the figure . parameters of mean bladder pressure and flow rate are measured as average from all the bladder pressure and flow rate peaks , respectively . continuous recording was made by acq knowledge 3 . 5 . 3 program ( mp100 manager ver . 3 . 5 . 3 , copyright © 1992 - 95 biopac systems inc .). further numerical data were carried out with excel 2000 ( microsoft corporation , redmond , wash ., usa ), and the statistical analysis with statistica for windows 5 . 1 ( stat soft , inc ., tulsa , okla ., usa ). statistical analysis was carried out with anova and the post hoc tests with hsd test . if levene &# 39 ; s test for variances shows significant differences ( p & lt ; 0 . 05 ) between the treatment groups , kruskall - wallis test was be used , and mann - whitney u test was used as a post hoc test . there were no significant differences in the bladder pressures ( maximal and mean ) between the groups ( tables 1 and 2 ). because neodes treatment did not influence on the bladder pressure , it is not expected that serms would influence on it either . decreased urine flow rate is a definite sign of urination problems . neodes treatment decreased the flow rate and serms normalized it indicating a positive effect on urodynamics . treatment with fispemifene or raloxifene increased both the maximal ( table 3 ) and mean ( table 4 ) flow rate in non - and neonatally estrogenized rats with dose of 10 mg / kg . no differences were seen with dose of 1 mg / kg in non - estrogenized rats . neonatally estrogenized rats received only 10 mg / kg of drug treatment . neonatally estrogenized rats showed lower flow rates than non - estrogenized rats . micturition time was significantly prolonged in neonatally estrogenized rats ( table 5 ). this is well understandable , because the urine flow rate was decreased . treatments with hm - 101 or raloxifene did not shorten the micturition time in non - estrogenized rats . in neonatally estrogenized rats the treatments shortened the micturition time . although the effect did not quite reach the statistical significance , the effect can be considered beneficial . the amount of residual urine was increased significantly in neonatally estrogenized rats indicating that the bladder was not completely empty after urination . residual urine leads to increased urination frequency and is also a risk factor of lower urinary tract infections . the treatment with fispemifene ( 10 mg / kg ) did reduce the amount of residual urine both in non - and neonatally estrogenized rats . this result is very promising and indicates improved functional activity of the bladder . raloxifene ( 10 mg / kg ) reduced the amount of residual urine almost significantly in non - estrogenized , and significantly in neonatally estrogenized rats ( table 6 ). bladder capacity was increased significantly in neonatally estrogenized rats . although the increased bladder capacity can be considered beneficial as such , the increase in neodes rats indicates abnormal relaxation of bladder wall muscles and thus damage of the bladder ( due to residual urine and slow urine flow ). the bladder tries to compensate the increased need of bladder volume . however , in such conditions the bladder wall looses its strength . treatment with fispemifene ( 10 mg / kg ) reduced significantly the bladder capacity in neonatally estrogenized rats , and raloxifene almost significantly indicating that the bladder wall has retained its normal strength and function . this effect can be considered very beneficial . no effects were seen in non - estrogenized rats ( table 7 ). this is expected , as the bladder in these animals is not damaged . treatments with serms ( fispemifene or raloxifene ) had similar effects in non - and neonatally estrogenized rats . they had increased maximum and mean flow rates . duration of micturition consisting of multiple voidings in neonatally estrogenized rats was shortened , while no differences were seen in bladder pressures between the groups . amount of residual urine was reduced both in non - and neonatally estrogenized rats , which indicates improvement of bladder function even in the non - estrogenized rats as well as the increase in flow rates does . it is known that estrogenization of the rodents increases the bladder capacity . this was evident also in present study . the treatments with these serms decreased the bladder capacity in neonatally estrogenized rats . thus the studied serms had antiestrogen function on bladder capacity . the rhabdosphincter function was improved in both non - and neonatally estrogenized rats , but the emg changes were not statistically significant . fispemifene and raloxifene reversed the estrogen - related alterations in flow rates , micturition time , and bladder capacity ( fispemifene even in non - estrogenized rats ). it will be appreciated that the methods of the present invention can be incorporated in the form of a variety of embodiments , only a few of which are disclosed herein . it will be apparent for the expert skilled in the field that other embodiments exist and do not depart from the spirit of the invention . thus , the described embodiments are illustrative and should not be construed as restrictive .