Female conditions We treat
(and other pelvic floor topics related to women)
Understanding the anatomy of the bladder and its supportive structures is crucial for maintaining urinary control and addressing potential issues effectively.
Fecal incontinence, the involuntary leakage of stool, is a challenging condition that can significantly impact a person's quality of life. While it may be a sensitive topic, it's crucial to address the various treatment options available to restore both physical and emotional well-being.
In recent years, brain research has taught us a lot about pain. Instead of focusing on where pain comes from, the new approach looks at where pain is felt. Pain is created by the brain as a response to a perceived threat, even if there's no actual damage. Pain is a very personal experience, and tissue damage does not always result in pain, and vice versa. Sometimes, the brain can prioritize other needs over pain, but it might also create pain when it sees normal signals as a threat.
Physical therapy for the pelvic floor can help treat constipation by loosening up the pelvic floor muscles that are too tight. The pelvic muscles are very important when you have to go to the bathroom. They relax to make room for the stool to move through. If the muscles aren't working right and tighten instead of relaxing, it's hard to go to the bathroom.
Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) are a group of connective tissue disorders that affect various systems in the body, including the pelvic floor. For those living with EDS, weak and overly flexible connective tissues can lead to multiple challenges, from chronic pain to pelvic floor dysfunction. Understanding how EDS impacts the pelvic floor and its relationship with the nervous system is essential for managing these symptoms effectively.
For patients with overactive bladder or urgency urinary incontinence, electrical stimulation can cause direct contractions of the pelvic floor muscles, which then stimulate the pudendal nerve fibers going to the sacral spinal cord. This reflexively reduces the sensation of urgency and decreases involuntary bladder contractions. Electrical stimulation can be used alone or with pelvic floor muscle training.
Physical therapy for the pelvic floor has been shown to be the most effective way to treat interstitial cystitis. In their guidelines, the American Urological Association (AUA) states that physical therapy should be the first step. Physical therapy gives the patient longer-lasting relief than medicines or treatments for the bladder.
Chronic kidney disease is a serious condition where the kidneys gradually lose their ability to function properly. It is becoming more common and is linked to higher risks of illness and death. When someone has chronic kidney disease, their ability to filter waste from the blood, tends to decline, although the speed of this decline can vary. Those whose filtration rate drops quickly are at a higher risk of heart problems.
Lateral Elbow Pain: "Tennis Elbow"
Discover common causes and treatments for elbow pain, including an in-depth look at the anatomy, symptoms, and risk factors of these conditions. The content also provides effective management strategies, such as exercises, ergonomic adjustments, and therapeutic interventions, helping individuals understand their elbow pain and offering practical methods to manage and prevent it for improved arm function.
Learning to contract pelvic floor muscles correctly
Understand: Knowing where the pelvic floor muscles are and how they work.
Search: Being able to locate the pelvic floor muscles within the body.
Find: Getting confirmation and guidance from a physical therapist to correctly identify the muscles.
Learn: Practice contracting the pelvic floor muscles correctly, with feedback from a physical therapist.
Control: Work on performing controlled and coordinated pelvic floor muscle contractions.
While various factors contribute to low back pain, one often overlooked aspect is the connection between the pelvic floor and spinal stabilizing muscles. In recent years, pelvic floor therapy has emerged as a promising and effective approach to address chronic low back pain.
Various tools are used to assess pelvic floor muscle function, such as clinical observation, vaginal or rectal palpation, electromyography, manometry, ultrasound, and MRI. These tools can measure different stages of pelvic floor muscle contractions, including resting activity, increased tone, voluntary contractions, and automatic contractions during physical activities.
The pelvic floor muscles are controlled from nerve pathways that descend from the brain. These nerve pathways are mostly indirect. The pelvic floor muscles are controlled from nerve pathways that descend from the brain. These nerve pathways are mostly indirect. The nerves that control the bladder and bowel sphincters are smaller and have high concentrations of specific chemicals, making them different from the nerves of the legs, bladder, and other pelvic floor muscles.
Benefits of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy for Neurodivergent Individuals
Pelvic floor physical therapy can be highly beneficial for neurodivergent individuals, such as those with ADHD, autism, OCD, and sensory processing challenges, especially when approached with a whole-body, holistic focus. By integrating sensory, motor, and emotional regulation strategies, pelvic floor physical therapists can provide targeted support that goes beyond just addressing the pelvic floor.
Overactive bladder is a condition where a person suddenly and strongly feels the need to urinate, leading to frequent trips to the bathroom and waking up at night to urinate. It can also cause urine leakage when this urge happens, which is called urgency urinary incontinence. This condition usually occurs without any infection or other clear health problems.
Osteoporosis, a condition characterized by weakened and brittle bones, affects millions of people worldwide, especially as they age. The good news is that there are various approaches to manage and treat osteoporosis, and physical therapy plays a crucial role in this journey.
Welcoming a new life into the world is a beautiful and transformative experience for mothers. However, the postpartum period brings with it a set of challenges and changes that can be both physically and emotionally demanding. One aspect of postpartum care that is gaining recognition for its remarkable benefits is pelvic floor physical therapy.
Vaginal birth is a major cause of pelvic organ prolapse and problems like urinary and fecal incontinence, known as pelvic floor disorders. Physical therapy is important for pelvic floor recovery after birth. To get the best results, rehabilitation should be based on a good understanding of the injuries, their biology, and the recovery process. Childbirth affects different parts of the pelvic floor in various ways.
Pelvic organ prolapse involves the descent of female pelvic organs such as the vagina, uterus, bladder, and/or rectum into or through the vagina. Prolapse can greatly affect a woman's daily life and quality of life. Understanding the symptoms, their severity, and how they impact a woman's life is key to deciding the right treatment.
Intrapelvic nerve entrapments can be difficult to diagnose because pain symptoms often mimic sciatica. Nerve entrapment syndrome happens when a single nerve or nerve root is compressed. Symptoms include pain, tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness in the pelvic area. Since many intrapelvic nerves have both somatic and autonomic fibers, intrapelvic nerve entrapment can also cause visceral symptoms like urinary urgency, painful urination, rectal pain, and abdominal cramps.
Sexuality is a significant aspect of overall health and well-being. Female sexual dysfunction often arises from pelvic floor dysfunction, influenced by childbirth in younger women and menopause in older women. Multiple factors, including biological, psychological, medical, interpersonal, and social elements, contribute to female sexual dysfunction, impacting the quality of relationships and life.
The urethral sphincter, in conjunction with the levator ani muscle and the endopelvic fascia, plays a vital role in preventing urinary leakage, particularly under conditions of increased abdominal pressure.
Stress Urinary Incontinence Prevalence
Knowing how common a condition is helps us plan for the needs of a population. Many studies on urinary incontinence in women have shown varying results because of different definitions and study methods. Two important studies in Europe and the United States defined urinary incontinence as any leakage in the past 30 days.
Types of Pelvic Floor Muscle Training
The NICE (2019) guidelines concluded that pelvic floor muscle training is as effective as surgery for about half of the women with stress urinary incontinence. Given the risks associated with surgery and the lack of adverse events with muscle training, they recommend three months of supervised pelvic floor muscle training as the first-line treatment for stress urinary incontinence and mixed urinary incontinence.