Would I benefit from an Annual Pelvic Floor Wellness Checkup?
- It is common for our pelvic floor muscles to not be working correctly (pelvic floor dysfunction). An annual pelvic floor wellness checkup will screen you for this issue.
- Do you wonder if your spine, hip and pelvic joints and muscles and bladder/bowel function are optimal?
- Do you have a family history of pelvic conditions and want to be proactive about your health?
- Did pregnancy change your body in ways you never imagined and now you wonder if things are working right?
- Did you previously have some pelvic pain or urinary incontinence and you are uncertain if things are working top notch?
- Did your dad have prostate or bladder problems and you want to do everything you can to avoid the same thing?
- Are you wondering if the exercises you are doing are bad for you, might cause an injury or could cause a pelvic organ prolapse?
At Purple Mountain PT we offer Annual Pelvic Floor Wellness Checkups. Why do we offer this?
We are all familiar with scheduling a checkup with our family doctor, OBGyne or dentist. But, none of these providers are specialists in the musculoskeletal system, which includes your bones, muscles, nerves, ligaments, and tendons. And, thus, these things don’t get a proper checkup. Call us at 616.516.4334 or contact us here to speak with our knowledgeable staff today.
Pelvic Health Physical Therapists are musculoskeletal experts of your pelvis! None of your other providers examines what we assess in our annual pelvic floor wellness checkup.
Your musculoskeletal system, and keeping it strong, flexible and healthy, is the specialty of all physical therapists. We have doctoral level degrees in the musculoskeletal system. This is our jam! We are nerds in this department. Pelvic health physical therapists take this up a notch and zero-in on the musculoskeletal system of the spine and pelvis. The pelvic system that we specialize in helps to:
- Maintain urinary control
- Get your bowel movements out!
- Maintain pelvic organ support
- Provide for circulation in the pelvic region
- Keep you sexually healthy and functioning properly.
The importance of the pelvic system cannot be overstated! With so many important things going on in the pelvis, an annual pelvic floor wellness checkup with an expert pelvic physical therapist can catch early problems before they become big issues. Contact us to set up your appointment!
What if you don’t exactly have a pelvic condition that needs treatment, but you have some questions or concerns and want an expert assessment?
This annual checkup is for you! Our pelvic health wellness checkup program was developed because patients asked us for this! If you’ve been on our website you’ve seen that we offer pelvic floor specialty physical therapy care to treat individuals with bladder, bowel, pelvic pain and sexual conditions. Over the years we have heard MANY times from patients (both men and women!) that they wished they had gotten looked at years before meeting us with their condition. These are the things we’ve heard:
I wish I had known about you years ago because I think I have had pelvic floor problems going back decades.
Can my daughter come and get checked by you just to see if she is ok down there?
My best friend and I have commiserated that we both have had urinary incontinence since having our kids, but she doesn’t know where to go to get checked.
So, ask and you shall receive! We offer an annual pelvic floor wellness checkup program just for you! If you would like to read some additional material regarding the importance of pelvic health physical therapy, here is a blog post Dr. Maureen wrote for a fellow PT. Contact our knowledgeable and caring staff today to get your appointment in the books!
Who is this Annual Physical Therapy Checkup for?
This is for all women and men who want to be proactive about their pelvic health, want to avoid bladder, bowel and sexual pain problems and want to keep their pelvic floor, core, spine and hips in tip-top working order. If you have a suspicion that things might not be working right, either in your abdominal muscles, your back, hips or pelvic region, then this is for you!
Every person on this planet has pelvic floor muscles. These muscles are crucial to your quality of life because if they aren’t working optimally you can have urinary or bowel incontinence, overactive bladder, waking up at night repeatedly to urinate, pain with intimacy, trouble with arousal, back pain, hip pain, SI joint pain, tailbone pain and many other problems. Contact us to learn more about how our model of care can help you!
What does a pelvic floor wellness checkup involve?
This is an annual check up of your strength, conditioning, flexibility, posture, coordination of your core muscles, your abdominal wall integrity and function, low back, hip, pelvic muscles and joints.
- We will talk to you to determine any concerns you may have and answer all of your questions. Patients tell us this education is perhaps the most valuable part of seeing us. It is common for us to hear “I had no idea that I was doing this wrong all these years.”
- We will establish your baseline at present, so you know where you are starting and we can compare this year over year to make sure you are staying strong, flexible and healthy.
- Correcting issues early on is always easier than waiting until symptoms worsen.
- We want to learn about your history and any risk factors that you may have for pelvic floor dysfunction. For example, often I hear from women that their mom had a prolapse and they don’t want to get one, what can they do to prevent one. Or, I hear from men that their dad always had back pain and then developed prostate problems and they want to be proactive about their health. I also hear from people that they’ve “always had a small bladder” or that in high school they “always leaked urine when playing” their sport.
- Our pelvic floor wellness checkup is particularly important for individuals who have a prior history pelvic pain or incontinence, even if you are currently not experiencing symptoms.
- For women we cover pregnancy and postpartum considerations. For men we cover prostate considerations
- We will conduct a thorough wellness screen of your abdominal, pelvic, low back and hip control, strength, flexibility and asymmetries.
- We will review your exercise routine and provide you with exercise and behavioral suggestions for keeping your core and pelvic floor strong and healthy.
Still not sure if you would benefit from a pelvic floor wellness checkup? No problem, we love to talk to you and answer your questions beforehand to determine if we are a good fit for you. Call us with your questions! Or to schedule An Annual Physical Therapy Wellness Check Up with Your Pelvic Physical Therapist today, contact us at 616-516-4334.
Peace,
Dr. Maureen O’Keefe
