Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT pelvic health PT specialist
Does Pelvic Floor Therapy Work for Prolapse?
Here at Purple Mountain PT, our doctors of physical therapy have helped countless women overcome their bothersome prolapse issues. If you are wondering does pelvic floor therapy work for prolapse, the answer is yes. With our prolapse pelvic floor therapy program, you absolutely can improve your prolapse symptoms and reduce the strain that your organs are experiencing. Being told you have a prolapse can be scary and lead to fear and worry that your daily movements, workouts and life will just make it worse; we have worked with patients who have stopped exercising, for example, because they don’t know how to exercise without worsening their prolapse. Our pelvic floor therapy for prolapse does work by improving your movement patterns, pelvic floor dysfunction, organ support and much more. We can assure you that there is so much you can do and you will learn in our prolapse therapy program to help you gain confidence in your body again. If you are interested in learning more about our pelvic physical therapy, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
Do you have a pelvic organ prolapse? Do you worry you will need major surgery to repair this?
If you have a prolapse, you are not alone. Research has found that the majority of women have some amount of prolapse:
Stage 1 Prolapse found in 43.4% of women
Stage 2 Prolapse found in 47.4% of women
Stage 3 Prolapse found in 2.6% of women
What these numbers should tell you is that prolapse is very common. You can have a prolapse, have a full life and be able to function without requiring major reconstructive surgery. Our licensed physical therapists have advanced training and clinical experience specifically related to pelvic organ prolapse prevention, rehabilitation, post-operative recovery. We have helped our patients reduce or resolve their prolapse symptoms and avoid surgery.
If you are among the 43% of women who have Stage 1 prolapse, or the 47.7% of women who have Stage 2 prolapse, rest assured that you can optimize your pelvic organ support system and reduce your symptoms. There is not one, easy fix to improve pelvic organ support; this is why we offer comprehensive care that holistically treats you. To learn more about our pelvic floor therapy for prolapse, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
It can be scary to be told you have a prolapse. Please don’t live in fear or confusion, we are here to help guide you so you can optimize your pelvic organ support.
So, let’s take back the scary from this diagnosis. There’s a lot that you can do in physical therapy to improve your pelvic organ support. We help women who have rectocele, cystocele, rectal prolapse, vaginal vault prolapse, uterine prolapse, bladder prolapse, enterocele or a combination of these types of prolapse. Pelvic organ prolapse happens when the structures that support your organs, including ligaments, fascia, bones and muscles, no longer effectively support the organs and they can drop down. In physical therapy for prolapse recovery, we work to optimize these structures and to improve your control of intra-abdominal pressure, so you are not causing unnecessary pressure/strain through the organs. Controlling intra-abdominal pressure is one important piece of prolapse support. To learn more about our treatment and pelvic floor therapy for prolapse, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
For pelvic floor physical therapy to work for prolapse, our goal is to enhance your pelvic organ support by treating all contributing factors that worsen your pelvic support: muscles, fascia, posture, breathing, etc.
Your pelvic organs are situated within your pelvis and respond, all day long, to your movement, breathing, bladder filling/emptying, bowel filling/emptying and posture. Because of this, we will help you understand how to better manage each of these things so that the prolapse region can have improved support. Optimizing your pelvic organ support requires a multi-dimensional rehabilitation approach that works to improve prolapse problems. To learn more about our treatment, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
The therapy we offer for pelvic prolapse is comprehensive because there is not “one” thing to do to resolve prolapse. For example, Kegels alone won’t solve the problem.
Does Pelvic Floor Therapy for Prolapse Work? Yes, it does! We Begin Pelvic Floor Therapy for Prolapse by Checking for Prolapse a Number of Ways:
Your therapy program here at Purple Mountain PT begins with a thorough assessment of your prolapse status. The most common way to check for a prolapse is when you are lying down. However, we also have found that prolapse can change when standing up and gravity occurs. For this reason, we may check for prolapse in a variety of positions, such as lying down and in standing, and sometimes when you complete various movements. If we examine for prolapse while you are moving, this helps you and us better understand how your prolapse is responding to daily movements. In particular, we want to learn if your organs are, in fact, descending more than ideal. Many times we have encouraging news to tell our patients when we complete these examinations. To understand when and how your prolapse is occurring, it requires us partnering with you and learning the patterns in your body. Our pelvic floor therapy for prolapse works because we spend the time with you to rehabilitate your body and help you optimize your pelvic organ support. If you would like to inquire about cost and availability of our pelvic floor therapy program for prolapse, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
If prolapse physical therapy works, what does it include?
Our treatment program will help you reduce strain on your pelvic organ prolapse. We include a variety of rehabilitation methods that optimize your body mechanics, breathing and posture so you learn to effectively control your intra-abdominal pressure and discontinue any habits or movements that strain the pelvic organs and contribute to prolapse. We work to restore your core and abdominal muscle integrity, because these muscles are important components of your pelvic support. We also will address pelvic floor dysfunction and get those muscles to work more effectively, so that they can better support your organs. We provide manual therapies that may include a combination of myofascial release, trigger point release, scar tissue work, adhesion reduction and joint mobilization. To learn more about our treatment, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
For Pelvic Floor Therapy for Prolapse to Work, We Must Optimize Your Bowel and Bladder Habits, Especially if They Are Contributing to Your Pelvic Organ Prolapse
If you have non-optimal strategies when urinating or defecating, you may be pushing your pee or stool out. When a person strains or pushes, they are creating a descent on the pelvic organs that can contribute to pelvic organ prolapse. In fact, some people have caused their rectal prolapse or rectocele from lifelong issues with constipation and straining.
To Improve Your Prolapse, We Will Help You to be able to Urinate & Defecate Without Straining Your Organs
Our care will teach you how to urinate and defecate with optimal strategies, so you don’t strain your organs. Our licensed, doctors of physical therapy have post-doctoral education specific to how to optimize your bladder and bowel function so that pelvic organ prolapse issues can be minimized or resolved. When you complete pelvic physical therapy for pelvic organ prolapse, it works by addressing your muscles, in addition to fascia, scar tissue, visceral mobility, posture and breathing strategies. To learn more about our treatment, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
If constipation is an ongoing problem, you will need to improve that. We help you discover a variety of ways to improve constipation that include movement, exercise, self massage, dietary recommendations, breathing techniques and posture on the toilet. We also will help you learn how to urinate to ensure you do not push your pee out. Pushing your pee, even a little bit, is applying excess force through your organs. When you consider the daily and repetitive actions of urinating and defecating, it is important to optimize your technique with these functions so you do not consistently strain or push. Quite often, pelvic floor dysfunction is contributing to the need to push or strain. We also see that people have simply learned to push, instead of learning to let it go. Whatever is going on for you, we are here to help you optimize your urinary and bowel mechanics.
Our pelvic floor therapy for prolapse works by improving your posture, movement patterns, pelvic floor dysfunction, abdominal wall, low back, hips and breathing muscular coordination and strength.
If you have a diastasis recti abdominis, we will help you resolve this, which will help prolapse.
Our physical therapy for prolapse will retrain your pelvic floor muscles, abdominal muscles, low back and hips. We have found that sometimes people who have pelvic organ prolapse also have a diastasis recti abdominis. Our PTs will assess you for this condition and resolving a DRA is a key component of helping your prolapse. We have found that pelvic PT for prolapse works best when we fully address and restore the integrity of your abdominal wall.
When pelvic floor dysfunction is present, the muscles are not able to support the organs optimally. We will help resolve your pelvic floor dysfunction and enhance pelvic organ support.
We also will assess and treat your pelvic floor muscle strength, tone, tension, stiffness, timing, coordination and more. Commonly with pelvic organ prolapse we find that the muscles have gone into overdrive called high tone pelvic floor dysfunction. When this is the case, the pelvic floor muscles are failing to support the organs that rest on top of the muscles, resulting in worsening prolapse. By assessing and treating your pelvic floor muscle tone, strength, coordination and activation, prolapse symptoms can improve.
The way you move contributes to prolapse symptoms.
Some people who have prolapse may have movement patterns that include breath holding or straining through the abdominal wall, low back and pelvis, worsening pressure through the pelvis and prolapse symptoms. Our pelvic floor therapy for prolapse works when you can learn to retrain your movement patterns and breathing strategies. At Purple Mountain PT we customize your treatment program to your body’s findings. Our prolapse therapy program addresses your body mechanics so you aren’t continually straining your organs, re-aligns your posture so your organs are nestled nicely inside the bones of the pelvis, enhances your core strength so your abdominals, back and hip muscles can do what is needed, thereby taking the strain off of the organs. To learn more about our treatment, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
Our Physical Therapy for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Works in Many Ways. One Thing Patients Tell Us is That They aren’t as Fearful of Their Prolapse after Completing PT with Us.
When you come to us, you are choosing to work with a team of doctors of physical therapy who will partner with you, address your symptoms and bring clarity to your status. Most often, our patients tell us they are relieved, that they finally feel like they know what they can do about their prolapse. One of the most common questions we get is “will I need to have surgery?” and “will my prolapse just progressively worsen as I age?” Because we have many years’ experience working with women who have been able to avoid surgery, we know that with our pelvic physical therapy for prolapse, we can give you the best opportunity to avoid surgery. We also have worked with many women post-operatively to provide pelvic floor therapy for prolapse reconstructive surgery. For these women, we help improve strength, bladder and bowel function, intimacy issues and we guide their post-reconstructive surgery rehabilitation. One important piece of our pelvic floor therapy for women who have had prolapse surgery is our educating you in the specifics of body mechanics and how to lift and move without straining your surgical area. Our experience informs the care you receive and we can help you better navigate your circumstances. If you would like to talk with one of our staff members to learn more, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334.
Prolapse Symptoms Vary. Pelvic Floor Therapy for Prolapse can Help Bladder, Bowel, Intimacy, Pelvic Pain and Pressure Symptoms
Pelvic organ prolapse symptoms vary and can include pelvic pressure, urinary stream that is not normal, urinary frequency, urinary incontinence, pelvic pain, painful intimacy, urinary urgency, post-void dribbling and more. In our pelvic floor therapy program for prolapse, it works when we help you optimize your body so that these symptoms are reduced or fully resolved. We will also treat underlying causative factors associated with your symptoms.
Prolapse Physical Therapy Works by Holistically Treating You
There is so much we can do to alleviate prolapse symptoms. Please, if you are wondering, like so many other people, “does pelvic floor therapy for prolapse work”, rest assured that you can improve prolapse with high quality pelvic PT. If you would like to talk with one of our staff members to learn more about prolapse physical therapy, contact us here or call (616) 516-4334. Your physical therapy for pelvic organ prolapse may include:
*Manual therapy such as myofascial release, adhesion work, visceral mobilization, joint mobilization, trigger point release, fascial flow techniques.
*Correcting muscle imbalances including resolving pelvic floor dysfunction, weak hips & glutes, non-optimal breathing strategies and more.
*Restore movement patterns so you don’t strain the pelvic organs.
*Core muscle retraining, including coordination exercises, breathing, strength and conditioning
*Diastasis recti abdominis recovery program
*Scar tissue manual therapy
*Postural correction to restore your alignment of your spine, pelvis, hips and feet. This is one important reason why our PT for prolapse works: we help restore the orientation of the bones of your pelvis so that your organs have the proper house to support them, instead of falling down through your vagina.
Purple Mountain Physical Therapy, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a specialty pelvic health physical therapy clinic. Our licensed, doctors of physical therapy have post-graduate education specific to the needs of rehabilitating pelvic organ prolapse. Our PT methods work by holistically caring for you, optimizing your pelvic organ support, educating you on your condition and what you can do to help yourself and alleviating strain through your organs. We help pelvic organ prolapse so you can get back to living an active life, without fear. Many of our patients come to us frustrated by prolapse symptoms of chronic pelvic pain. You may be interested in reading this blog we wrote about PT for pelvic pain. Our therapists are exclusively focused on pelvic health. If you are wondering if we may be able to help you, call 616-516-4334 to learn more or contact us here.
Peace,
Purple Mountain PT is a specialty PT clinic located in Grand Rapids, MI. Our licensed physical therapists are devoted to providing high quality and compassionate care to our patients who experience pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic floor dysfunction, pain, bladder, bowel and intimacy problems. Our staff are all trained in orthopedics, also. We also treat TM joint disorders, neck and back pain and myofascial pain syndrome. If you would like to inquire about cost and availability of our therapists to help you, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.
