Let’s clear up the mystery of knowing if you need pelvic floor physical therapy!
Quite often there is limited understanding of what the pelvic floor muscles do and whether these muscles might be a problem. The pelvic floor muscles are located inside the bones of your pelvis and sit like a hammock inside you. On top of this hammock you have all of your organs: bladder, bowel, uterus/prostate. These organs are supported by the muscles. How do you know if you need Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy? Well, the muscles and the organs communicate with each other and work together as partners, so if you have problems in one area (such as your bladder control) you will have problem in the other area (the pelvic floor muscles). Pelvic floor dysfunction presents itself as pain, bladder, bowel or intimacy problems and we can help with all of those issues!
This is a checklist of some common symptoms you may be experiencing that can indicate you have pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.
If you have any of these then you know you need pelvic floor physical therapy:
*Pelvic Pain: Any pain from the abdomen/spine through the pelvis/groin. This includes mid and lower back pain, SI joint pain, pubic bone pain, groin pain, tailbone pain, abdominal pain.
*Lower Back Pain: This pain gets its own bullet point because research has shown us that people with persistent lower back pain typically also have underlying pelvic floor muscle dysfunction.
*All bladder and bowel issues can also have an underlying problem with pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. This could be fecal smearing, unexpected loss of gas, urinary incontinence, urinary urgency, painful urination, poor urinary stream, getting up at night to pee.
*Intimacy related struggles: pain with penetration, pain with erection, pain after intimacy, poor intimacy response, inability to orgasm.
*Pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic heaviness, vaginal and pelvic pressure
*Pelvic muscle weakness, whether you can perceive it or not, is usually happening. The muscles are commonly stiff, tight, have trigger points and operate slowly and deficiently. Hence, the laundry list of symptoms here! Kegels are often not the solution to the problem and, in fact, can make things worse. So, seek expert care from a pelvic PT if you have any of these symptoms.
If you are interested to learn more about the benefits of our physical therapy, check out this blog we wrote for Revive Physical Therapy.
If you know you need pelvic floor physical therapy, what should you do? Call us and we can help!
Well, we are here to help you! We provide holistic and comprehensive care to get you results! Our compassionate, patient-centered treatment will identify underlying issues that are contributing to your problem and will treat each of these things. This is key to your success! By providing numerous assessment and treatment methods we can get your symptoms to improve. We have a lot of techniques to help you improve such as:
- Myofascial release
- Trigger point release
- Joint mobilization
- Movement pattern restoration
- Muscle firing and recruitment re-education
- Strength and conditioning
- Trigger point dry needling
- Self-care education and modification of habits/behaviors that contribute to your symptoms
- Instruction in optimizing nutritional healing to promote relief of symptoms
- Postural correction and alignment
If you are pregnant or postpartum the pelvic floor muscles and the rest of your body change dramatically during this experience. Unfortunately in our region of West Michigan pelvic floor physical therapy is not routinely suggested to a pregnant/postpartum person, even though we know that it helps improve how you feel!
At Purple Mountain Physical Therapy we provide a comprehensive pelvic health physical therapy treatment program special for pregnant and postpartum women! If you would like to read more about what we do, here is an article we wrote that details one of our postpartum patient’s experiences with us!
Peace,
Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in treatment for pelvic pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, vulvar pain, TM joint disorders and back pain.
Purple Mountain Physical Therapy located in Grand Rapids, Michigan is a specialty pelvic health clinic that serves women and men who have any pelvic condition. If you are still wondering “how do I know if I need pelvic floor PT?” then give us a call! We offer a free phone consult to discuss your condition. Call 616-516-4334 to schedule your free consult. No problem is too simple or too difficult for us! We commonly help people who have failed to get results from other interventions. The men who come to us often have experienced years of pain and/or bladder & intimacy issues that have proven very frustrating, anxiety producing and depressing. The women who come to us may also have pelvic pain or could be pregnant, struggling with postpartum recovery, have long standing pelvic floor dysfunction that shows up as urinary incontinence, constipation, pelvic pressure, painful intimacy, “mommy tummy” or weakness in their back. If any of these resonate with you, give us a call to schedule your free phone consult: 616-516-4334.
