Pelvic Floor Therapy For Women: Your Guide to Female Pelvic Health 

Do you experience urinary incontinence, urgency, or frequency? What about pelvic, rectal, or bowel movement pain? When your pelvic muscles aren’t working as they should, you may begin experiencing symptoms like the ones mentioned above. Pelvic floor therapy can help solve these problems and allow you to live a more normal — and comfortable — life. So, what exactly is your pelvic floor? The pelvic floor is a bowl or hammock-shaped set of muscles that extend from your tailbone to your pubic bone and to both sides. These muscles provide support for your reproductive, urinary, and digestive tracts. This includes your:

• Bladder
• Uterus
• Urethra
• Vagina
• Rectum

When your pelvic floor muscles aren’t working properly you may begin experiencing pain and other symptoms that are disruptive to your daily life. As you go through pelvic floor physical therapy, your physical or occupational therapist will assess your pelvic floor muscles and provide you with a treatment plan specific to your symptoms — ensuring that you are able to restore the stability and coordination that’s necessary to promote proper pelvic function.1  

Pelvic Pain in Women

It should come as no surprise that when women approach their OB/GYN about pelvic pain, the doctor is trained to find and focus the cause on their organs. Some may even feel like they’ve reached a dead end because all of the patient’s organs appear to be fine. Because of this, myofascial pain — that is, pain related to the connective tissues that cover our muscles — oftentimes is misdiagnosed or completely overlooked altogether. And although myofascial pain occurs in women of all ages, those that begin experiencing this after menopause may be more prone to tissue sensitivity and pain due to hormonal changes.2

Pelvic Floor Therapy During Pregnancy

Did you know that both being pregnant and giving birth causes your pelvic floor muscles to stretch? This may cause:

• Leaking urine
• A constant urge to visit the bathroom
• Difficulty emptying your bladder or bowels
• Pain during intercourse

Not only can pelvic floor therapy during pregnancy help elasticize your pelvic floor muscles for birth, but it can also be used as a preventative measure to help avert any issues from occurring during the latter part of your pregnancy.3

Postpartum Pelvic Floor Therapy

What if I told you that that postpartum pelvic floor therapy is the standard of care in France? That’s right! The French government prescribes 10 to 20 sessions of what they call perineal re-education after delivery.4,5 Physical or hormonal changes related to pregnancy and delivery may heighten your chance of pelvic floor complications. Some of the most common postpartum complications to your pelvic floor are:

• Urinary and fecal incontinence
• Pelvic pain
• Pain with sexual intercourse
• Lower back pain
• Pelvic organ prolapse
• Separation of abdominal muscles (diastasis recti)

Under typical circumstances, it is usually recommended to wait 4 to 6 weeks after delivery to begin your postpartum rehab, as your symptoms may subside.6

Pelvic Floor Therapy: What to Expect

Before you step in the door for your first therapy session, we hope that you know our office understands scheduling your first appointment took a lot of courage. All too often, women will push aside their symptoms and worries about their pelvic health for years. Taking the first step to regain control of your health is no small feat. To help you prepare for your first therapy session, here is a basic summary of what an initial appointment at our office will look like: First, we will begin with a conversation about your health and medical history — including your current symptoms regarding any pelvic floor complications you may be experiencing. We’ll then use a simple questionnaire that is designed to help you assess your own pelvic health. This will give you the opportunity to examine the details of your symptoms that you may never have considered before. These questions will include: 

• Information about your bladder and bowel urgency
• Frequency and leakage
• Symptoms of prolapse (feeling of heaviness or dragging)
• Pain in your pelvis or genitals
• Pain with intercourse

Finally, we’ll move onto the physical part of your evaluation. This includes assessing your posture and checking for diastasis recti. We will perform both internal and external assessments of your pelvis. We will check for:

• Pain points or sensitivities
• Perineal scarring or c-section scars
• Pelvic floor strength

If you ever feel too much discomfort please let us know! We have plenty of tools and may be able to try a different technique to achieve the same goal. And keep in mind that it’s perfectly normal to feel some discomfort — both mentally and physically. Some questions can become personal, but it’s important to remember that your therapist is on your side and we are not trying to pry — we have the same end result in mind.

Are You Ready to Live Your Life Free From Pain and Embarrassment?

One of the biggest challenges in being a patient is finding someone who truly empathizes with your situation. I personally experienced the benefits of pelvic floor therapy as a patient for the first time after the birth of my 3rd child. It was life-changing — a turning point for me both as a mom and as a therapist.  It was from that experience that I became passionate about helping other women restore their confidence again — especially after birth — and now work solely on treating women’s pelvic floor dysfunction.  If you are looking for pelvic floor therapy near Pittsburgh [Add schema markup around Pittsburg], it would be my pleasure to answer any questions you may have. You are one call away from being in charge of your life — your way. Please schedule your free 20-minute consultation here. We look forward to hearing from you!   Resources:  

1. https://www.beaumont.org/treatments/pelvic-floor-physical-therapy
2. https://www.health.harvard.edu/womens-health/pelvic-physical-therapy-another-potential-treatment-option
3. https://luminohealth.sunlife.ca/DHSLab_ArticleController?url1=ka03m000000fYSEAA2&src=article&Language=en_US
4. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-the-french-get-so-right-about-taking-care-of-new-moms_n_587d27b4e4b086022ca939c4?utm_campaign=share_email&ncid=other_email_o63gt2jcad4
5. https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-body/postpartum/should-all-new-moms-see-a-pelvic-floor-therapist/
6. https://healthcare.utah.edu/womenshealth/gynecology/postpartum-pelvic-floor-disorders.php