Why See a Your Pelvic Matters Therapist?
Many pelvic floor conditions can be managed and healed without surgery. Seeing a specialist who is trained as a pelvic floor trainer may help you better understand your symptoms and design a personalised program to help alleviate your pelvic discomfort or pain through retraining and strengthening your muscles.
Some people will see a pelvic floor specialist just once or twice to assess their strength and flexibility, to get assistance with learning a specialized exercise and self-care program, assist with learning to do Kegel exercises correctly, and receive personalized guidance for maintaining pelvic floor health. Others may need more sessions for their condition(s) to be sufficiently treated.
Pelvic floor issues are rarely isolated—it is common for symptoms to emerge together or for one problem to cause a cascading effect. Some conditions treated by a pelvic rehabilitation therapist include:
• Bladder and bowel issues
• Incontinence
• Prolapse
• Painful sex or an inability to have penetrative sex
• Musculoskeletal aches and pains (involving the back, hips, SI joint, groin, abdomen and sometimes limbs)
• Pregnancy & postpartum recovery
What to Expect During Appointments
The first appointment includes a careful interview and discussion about your experience, including an account of symptoms as well as medical history and lifestyle.
We will then evaluate your alignment and posture, discuss movement patterns, look at your back, and hips, and I will explain along the way what they are noticing and how their work can help. Since the muscles of the pelvic floor relate to a person’s bladder function, bowel function, pelvic and low back pain, and sexual function, you will be asked about these topics. You are free to discuss whatever you are comfortable sharing.
Common goals include sitting through lunch without having any leaking, pain free and enjoyable intercourse, comfortable and controlled bowel movements, improved strength to reduce a pelvic organ prolapse, reducing pelvic pain in order to enjoy a hobby, urinating less frequently in order to sleep through the night, or returning to increased physical activity with better bladder control.
During the first appointment, you may receive some initial advice and education. After the second appointment, you should have a more complete treatment plan. This plan may change based on how your body responds and may include massage and exercises to do at home. Below are some things that might be recommended.
• Pelvic floor exercises to do at home
• Massage to release muscle tension
• Massage of other parts of the body
• Stretching and yoga
• Other gentle strength-building exercises
· Alignment analysis
• Nutrition and lifestyle
• Mindfulness, breathing techniques and other pain management methods
