postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy Archives - Purple Mountain Physical Therapy

Why Does Sex Hurt After Having A Baby?

Why Does Sex Hurt After Having a Baby?

Moms, this one is for you if intimacy and penetrative sex hurt after having a baby. We are Purple Mountain Physical Therapy in Grand Rapids, Michigan and our licensed physical therapists specialize in treating pregnancy and postpartum conditions including painful sex, also called dyspareunia, vaginismus, pelvic girdle pain, lower back pain, pelvic pain, urinary incontiinence, diastasis recti abdominis and pelvic floor dysfunction. If you are experiencing new onset of pain with intimacy and wondering why sex suddenly hurts now, there can be a lot of reasons, which we detail below.

To learn more about why sex hurts for you after having your baby and our specialized physical therapy for painful sex or for complete postpartum recovery, call us at 616-516-4334 to get your questions answered from one of our knowledgable team members, or contact us here online and we will reach out to you!

Our pelvic floor physical therapists specialize in helping women who experience pain with intimacy and many times the reason why sex hurts after having a baby is because of musculoskeletal problems, such as pelvic floor muscle spasm, tailbone pain, SIJ pain, perineal scar tissue or C-section scar pain.

Your physical therapy begins with a detailed evaluation that will provide you with extensive insights and education for why sex hurts after having your baby. We specialize in helping you overcome all pelvic pain, including when sex hurts.

We offer in-person treatment and remote consultations for those who qualify. Research supports that women should be assessed by a physical therapist after giving birth, so you can be screened for problems, receive valuable education on the specifics of what your body needs to optimize your recovery and to learn corrective exercises to addres your pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) and diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) (also called split abdominals) as well as elongated & stretched out abdominals. So many of our patients come to us with no idea why sex hurts after having a baby. One woman this week told us “I have told my doctor about this problem for 17 years and have been blown off! The only thing I have ever been told is to lose weight. That’s not an answer!” If you wonder if our physical therapists can help you understand why sex hurts after giving birth and provide treatment for your painful sex and postpartum recovery, the answer is yes. We help women everyday who have vaginismus, postpartum pelvic pain and painful sex. Because we specialize in this and provide private, 55 minute appointments with your doctor of physical therapy, patients tell us that the level of care they receive with us is far above anything they have ever had. Please call us at 616-516-4334 to get your questions answered from one of our knowledgable team members, or contact us here online and we will reach out to you!

“Pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) and diastasis recti abdominis (DRA) are 2 examples of musculoskeletal disorders associated with pregnancy and childbirth that can have negative physical, social, and psychological consequences…. Evidence shows physical therapy is an effective, low-risk, therapeutic approach for PFD and DRA; however, physical therapists in the United States currently have a peripheral role in providing postpartum care. Lack of awareness, social stigma, and policy barriers prevent women from receiving physical therapist care.

-Claire J C Critchley, PT, DPT, Physical Therapy Is an Important Component of Postpartum Care in the Fourth Trimester, Physical Therapy, Volume 102, Issue 5, May 2022, pzac021,

If you are frustrated by having painful sex or vaginismus and no one has let you know why you are having pain with sex since giving birth and what you can do to help this problem, please know you are not alone! We treat postpartum women everyday whose sex is painful and who feel they’ve been dismissed by their medical provider. Our PTs will provide you with an examination that is different and more detailed so you can get some answers about why sex hurts after having your baby. If you are interested in getting insights into your condition so you can stop this pain with sex, call us at 616-516-4334 or reach out to us here and we will be in touch.

At what point postpartum should you reach out to a pelvic physical therapist?

We recommend that our pregnant patients touch base with us over the phone within two weeks of giving birth.

At that time, we provide a check-in and learn about how their birth went, whether they had a vaginal birth or cesarean and any complications, significant pain issues, bladder, bowel or anal issues. We answer all of their questions and advise on the next few weeks. If at two weeks you are feeling well, but tired, you don’t have pain, you can defecate, urinate and move without pain, then we advise you on basic corrective exercises for home to work on abdominal wall recovery, breathing, posture and pelvic floor rehabilitation. All of this can be done either remotely or in-person. To get your questions answered from one of our knowledgable team members, call 616-516-4334 or conctact us here online and we will reach out to you!

If, however, at one or two weeks postpartum you are having substantial problems with pain, peeing or pooping, we recommend coming to physical therapy straight away to begin treatment.

We commonly work with women who have experienced a traumatic birth injury (including OASIS injury), bladder injury, excess pain, tailbone pain, difficulty defecating, inability to sit, pain with trying to move from sit to stand or other more-than-expected pain problem (such as c-section surgical pain that is more than expected). If you cannot walk or easily move from sit to stand or in and out of bed, have terrible pain, trouble moving, difficulty peeing or pooping, we would want you to come to physical therapy for an in-person visit. Hopefully, if you are in the fist few weeks of your postpartum recovery and experiencing significant pain or problems functioning, you have reached out to your OB/Gyne or midwife and have been referred to physical therapy. Don’t be surprised, though, if they never mention physical therapy and simply tell you “good luck with that pain!” Unfortunately, we hear that happening all the time. Most of the women find us on their own, googling and frustrated by their pain or problems. If you are interested in learning more about our physical therapy for painful sex or for complete postpartum recovery, call us at 616-516-4334 to get your questions answered from one of our knowledgable team members, or contact us here online and we will reach out to you!

If you are struggling with painful sex and confused about why does sex hurt after having a baby, we can provide you answers.

Should sex hurt at six months after giving a baby? The answer is no, it should not hurt and if you are having pain with sex when six months postpartum we recommend you call us to receive a comprehensive pelvic physical therapy evaluation to determine if you have musculoskeletal issues contributing to your pain.

If sex hurts after giving birth and you are beyond 8 to 10 weeks postpartum and you are not already going to pelvic health PT, we recommend you get started. Common reasons why sex hurts after giving birth are that your pelvic floor muscles are tensed up, your pelvis is misaligned, your hip muscles are not allowing ease of penetration, lower back pain is influencing your pelvic floor, the tailbone suffered an injury or you have scarring either from tearing the perineum, an episiotomy or a cesarean surgery. Our licensed physical therapists specialize in giving you a compassionate and thorough examination of your entire body, not just your pelvic floor, to see what’s going on causing pain with sex or vaginismus. Our postpartum recovery program and painful sex treatment is private, thorough and will empower you to feel strong and painfree again. You can talk to fone of our knowledgable team members by calling us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here online and we will reach out to you!

37.5% of women experience painful sex six months after giving birth. Sex shouldn’t hurt! Physical therapy can help you and will give you answers to why sex hurts for you after giving birth.

Research has found that about 3 in 10 women can have pain with sex (dyspareunia) before pregnancy. To these women, I want you to know that physical therapy with our specialist PTs can help you. Research finds that at six months postpartum painful sex rates are higher, 37.5%. Fortunately, for 17% of women for whom sex hurts six months after giving birth, by 12 months their pain is back to where it was before having their baby. But, this means that 20.5% of women have persistent pain with sex at their baby’s birthday. Ladies, this is treatable! There is help! It is your pelvic floor muscles, low back, abdomen, scar tissue, hips, SIJ and tailbone that is causing this pain and our pelvic PTs specialize in this. Here is what the research finds regarding how many women find that sex hurts after having a baby:

“The proportion of women reporting dyspareunia (painful sex) at 6 months was significantly higher than those who experienced it pre-pregnancy (37.5% versus 29.3%, p < 0.001). Contrastingly, this was significantly lower than pre-pregnancy levels at 12 months postpartum (20.5% versus 29.3% p < 0.001).”

-O’Malley, D., Higgins, A., Begley, C. et al. Prevalence of and risk factors associated with sexual health issues in primiparous women at 6 and 12 months postpartum; a longitudinal prospective cohort study (the MAMMI study). BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 18, 196 (2018)

To determine why does sex hurt after having a baby, we will assess and treat you comprehensively. The causes and types of pain with sex vary. For example, some women have pain with deep penetration, while other women experience pain at the entrance (introitus or vaginal opening). Some women have pain with arousal, other women have pain the day after sex. Our PTs will help you understand why it hurts to have sex since you had your baby.

Where it hurts and when it hurts in the process of the intimacy can vary. Our PTs treat all varieties of pain that occurs with sex, including dyspareunia, vaginismus, tailbone pain, deep thrust pain, pain at the entrance/introitus, pain with orgasm, pain with arousal, burning pain, pinched nerve pain, bladder pain after having sex, feeling of having a bladder infection after sex but you don’t have an infection. This is not how it should be. It is not “normal” for sex to hurt after having a baby. Get proper treatment, it will help you feel better, recover your intimate relationship and ease your thoughts and worries about this problem. To get answers for why does it hurt to have sex after having your baby, you can begin the process by talking to one of our knowledgable team members at 616-516-4334 or conctact us here online and we will reach out to you!

If you are interested in learning more about our postpartum recovery program and whole-body treatment to help painful sex, diastasis recti abdominis, pelvic organ prolapse, pelvic floor dysfunction, core muscle recovery, back pain, tailbone pain, stress urinary incontinence or other issues, call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here online and we will reach out to you.

To determine why sex hurts after having your baby, our licensed physical therapists check for many problems that contribute to pain with sex and are also fully treatable with the help of our postpartum physical therapists. Some of the things we evaluation & treat include:

Pelvic floor problems, including weakness, tension and stiffness
Low back pain, stiffness, movement or pinched nerves
Pubic bone misalignment, symphysis pubis dysfunction
Abdominal wall elongation or diastasis recti abdominis,
Postural changes from head to toe, as these can alter the load on the pelvic floor, rendering these muscles tight so penetrative sex hurts.
Shallow breathing & rib cage alterations (because this can tense up the pelvic floor and contribute to painful sex),
SIJ dysfunction
Hip problems, including labral tears, gluteal weakness, piriformis syndrome and obturator internus tension. The hips are part of the pelvis and can be a cause of pain with sex.
Tailbone misalignment, tension or stiffness
Scar tissue from perineal tearing, episiotomy or C-section surgery
Bladder dysfunction such as urinary incontinenence, overactive bladder, frequency and urgency, pain, waking up at night a lot to pee (nocturia) or difficulty starting your urine stream
Bowel dysfunction including hemorrhoids, constipation, painful defecation, incomplete emptying.
Pelvic organ prolapse and associated pressure, pain, pelvic floor dysfunction, myofascial tension
Myofascial restrictions head to toe.

We begin treatment at the very first appointment, which is a private, one-on-one 55 minute evaluation. You are welcome to bring your partner. Because we provide a whole body assessment of posture, core muscle strength, neck and back issues, your hips, glutes and thighs, we have a lot to cover in this first appointment. Depending on your symptoms and comfort level, this first appointment may include a gentle internal examination that assesses every pelvic floor muscle, your nerves and fascia. We also check for prolapse, pelvic floor strength, perineal scar tissue, tailbone mobility and more. Women tell us that our compassionate and trauma informed methods relieve their stress, fear and anxiety and give them answers and hope. You will leave your first visit with meaningful insights and education about your body, so you can begin to understand why it hurts to have sex since giving birth. If you are interested in learning more about our physical therapy for painful sex or for complete postpartum recovery, call us at 616-516-4334 to get your questions answered from one of our knowledgable team members, or contact us here online and we will reach out to you!

All of these issues can contribute to why sex hurts after giving a baby. The good news is that these are fully treatable with the skilled help of our licensed physical therapists.

We love to work with pregnant and postpartum women. It is a joy for us to see you get back to feeling great. We women know that the changes to our body during pregnancy are almost unbelievable to experience. For many of us, the pains, postural changes and pelvic floor and core muscle weakness that pregnancy caused persist after giving birth. Time passes and we find ourselves at 6 months postpartum experiencing pain with sex and wondering if it will just go away. We also have that quiet voice in our head that worries that sex will always hurt or be a diminished experience for the rest of our lives. Neither of these is true. Please, get the help of our specialist PTs who can give you a roadmap forward and answers that not only explain to you what is going on, but alleviate your pain and lift your fear and worry. You deserve this care. If you are interested in learning more about our postpartum recovery program and whole-body treatment to help painful sex, call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here online and we will reach out to you. All of our team members with whom you will speak are knowledgable about our physical therapy and have talked with countless women just like you. changes our bodies so much and pushing a baby out of our pelvis does a number on our pelvic bones, hips, SIJ and pelvic floor muscles and tissues.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT founder of Purple Mountain Physical Therapy and specialist pregnancy and postpartum physical therapist. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan and offer in-person care or remote consultations for those who qualify. All of our PTs are specialists in the field of pelvic health, pelvic pain, TMJ disorders, neck and back pain. We treat adults and children.

You may be alone and wondering why does sex hurt for your after having your baby? There are so many things that can help you, reach out to us today to speak with one of our knowledgable team members who can answer your questions about cost, availability and what to expect.

You may be interested in reading these other articles we’ve written about the treatment we offer:

Physical Therapy Resolves Vaginismus and Dyspareunia

Are you looking for Painful Sex Treatment in Grand Rapids?

Exercise in Pregnancy: A Physical Therapists Perspective

Tips to Fix Incontinence Naturally

Does Physical Therapy Help Endometriosis?

Vulvar Pain and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction go together.

References for why does sex hurt after having a baby:

Alligood-Percoco NR, Kjerulff KH, Repke JT. Risk Factors for Dyspareunia After First Childbirth. Obstet Gynecol. 2016 Sep;128(3):512-518. doi: 10.1097/AOG.0000000000001590. PMID: 27500349; PMCID: PMC4993626.

Claire J C Critchley, PT, DPT, Physical Therapy Is an Important Component of Postpartum Care in the Fourth Trimester, Physical Therapy, Volume 102, Issue 5, May 202.

O’Malley, D., Higgins, A., Begley, C. et al. Prevalence of and risk factors associated with sexual health issues in primiparous women at 6 and 12 months postpartum; a longitudinal prospective cohort study (the MAMMI study). BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 18, 196 (2018)

Simonds, Adrienne H. PT, PhD¹; Abraham, Karen PT, PhD²; Spitznagle, Theresa PT, DPT, WCS³. Clinical Practice Guidelines for Pelvic Girdle Pain in the Postpartum Population. Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy: January/March 2022 – Volume 46 – Issue 1 – p E1-E38

Stuge, Britt MSc, PT^*; Lærum, Even PhD^†; Kirkesola, Gitle PT^‡; Vøllestad, Nina PhD^*. The Efficacy of a Treatment Program Focusing on Specific Stabilizing Exercises for Pelvic Girdle Pain After Pregnancy: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Spine: February 15, 2004 – Volume 29 – Issue 4 – p 351-359

Does Pelvic Floor Therapy Work for Prolapse?

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,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT

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.

Why Does My C-Section Scar Hurt Years Later?

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum specialist

Why does my c-section scar hurt years later?

Here at Purple Mountain PT in Grand Rapids, MI, we routinely help people who have c-section scars that hurt. Our clinical specialization in pregnancy, postpartum recovery and pelvic floor physical therapy gives us unique insights into those pesky c-sections scars that hurt. We work with individuals in person in our clinic and online via telehealth. Our patients comes to us throughout the lifespan and some of our patients, whose kids are no longer babies, still have C-section scars that hurt. After your healing is complete following your cesarean delivery, your scar should not hurt you, but the truth is that anywhere between 7-18% of women develop chronic scar pain from their c-section. The good news is that you are not stuck with this painful scar tissue. We are licensed physical therapists who specialize in postpartum recovery, scar tissue mobilization and developing treatment plans that optimize your healing process, calm down your pain and enhance your scar mobility. Our specialty in pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum care, c-section recovery, visceral mobilization, bladder, bowel and pelvic organ prolapse gives us unique insights into c-section scars that hurt. If you would like to learn more about our treatment methods to alleviate scar pain, contact us here.

What can you do for a cesarean scar that hurts years later?

Cesarean scars that hurt for years can still benefit from physical therapy that provides specialized scar tissue treatments and abdominal wall and pelvic floor recovery care. We commonly work with women who have developed scar adhesions and can recollect pain in their scar for years. Our clinical experience, patient feedback, and published research have all found that using advanced fascial and visceral release techniques to old, painful cesarean scars (and any other scar) can help resolve pain, improve function and optimize bladder, bowel and pelvic organ function. We provide physical therapy for women following cesarean and vaginal delivery to optimize postpartum recovery, even if you gave birth years ago. Our treatment plans include scar tissue and fascial recovery, to facilitate improved movement of your scar, viscera and muscles. While we all expect that a cesarean delivery is a painful medical procedure, none of us are expecting to have chronic c-section scar pain; if you fall into the 7-18% of women who do experience chronic c-section scar pain, please reach out to us. To inquire about cost and availability of our services, contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.

If you experience challenges with your c-section recovery, our licensed physical therapists are here for you! We provide you a treatment plan that includes pelvic floor PT and helps resolve your chronic scar tissue pain.

We have found that our patients tell us that the care they’ve received with us has improved their healing process, even when their cesarean delivery was decades ago. Improving the trigger points and fascial restrictions in and around the scar and also in areas far away from the scar can alleviate your pain and improve your function. Our licensed physical therapists have post-graduate training specific to chronic abdominal and pelvic pain, chronic c-section and other surgical scar treatment and pelvic floor dysfunction. We offer treatments, such as visceral mobilization, scar mobilization, trigger point release, pelvic floor dysfunction recovery, diastasis recti abdominis rehabilitation and more to help overcome the pain that a c-section scar can cause. To learn more about these treatments, contact us here or call 616-516-4334.

How many women experience C-section scar pain?

One paper examined the prevalence of c-section scar pain found the following:

18.3% of women at 3 months post-birth

11.3% at 6 months postpartum

6.8% at 12 months postpartum.

That’s a lot of people! Nearly 7 women out of 100 who have a cesarean delivery will have pain a year later! Flip these numbers and you’ll notice that nearly 82% of women have NO PAIN by 3 months after giving birth.

We recommend starting physical therapy before 3 months postpartum, especially if you are having pain. But, it is never too late to start! Some of our moms have adult children and are grateful to finally get the care they have needed for decades.

Our treatment plan for every patient, regardless of the age of their scars and adhesions, includes scar tissue work. We work with scars that are decades old and are able to meaningful improve these so there is less pain, adhesions and symptoms, like bladder urgency, related to scar issues. If you are reading this and wondering “should my c-section scar still hurt?”, chances are that, no, you should not be having ongoing pain and that physical therapy can help you. To learn more about cost and availability of our licensed physical therapists to help you during your old c-section scar that still hurts, contact us here or call 616-516-4334.

Our licensed physical therapists perform fascial release techniques that have been shown to help alleviate cesarean scar pain

One study provided fascial release techniques and scar tissue manual therapy to women who had chronic cesarean scar pain for 6-9 years following their cesarean delivery. In this study, the women reported high pain levels in the premenstrual period, with bowel movements and with any pressure on their scar. One woman also reported pain when she was trying to move around in her bed. Our physical therapists have advanced training in manual therapy methods, including fascial release techniques, to treat scars. The women in this study experienced resolution of their pain! This is huge. Their pain rating scale was 0 out of 10 after they completed treatment. Using these fascial release techniques, the scars were measured and their mobility and tolerance to pressure both improved. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment plan that comprehensively helps address old c-section scars that hurt, call our office at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

In one study about c-section scar pain, women reported it hurt when:

*At Rest: Most women reported mild pain when at rest.

*They move: Moderate to severe pain with movement was present at 3 months and tended to decrease for some, but not all women, by 12 months.

*With Activities of Daily Living: Because your c-section scar hurts, this study found your activities of daily living were compromised.

Characteristics of chronic C-section scar pain

The women we work with who have chronic cesarean scar pain describe to us a lengthy list of what it feels like to have c-section scar pain. While this is by no means a complete list, any pain you experience in or around your cesarean scar is a valid experience. Some things our patients report vary and include:

My c-section scar feels tight

My c-section scar feels pinched

I don’t like to touch my abdominal muscles or cesarean scar

My c-section scar hurts, it can throb, when something comes in contact with it, like my pants

I can’t have a baby or child in my lap, because I may experience sharp pain in my lower abdomen and scar.

My cesarean incision always hurt, from day one! It was a really painful medical procedure, a major surgery! I feel like my healing process was not right from the very beginning.

Sometimes I have pain with bowel movements; it can feel sharp in my abdomen.

Sometimes when I reach behind me, twist or roll in bed I get a catching feeling, sharp pain or something that says “nope, you shouldn’t move that way.”

My cesarean scar looks asymmetric, puckers and pinches.

When I try to pull it up or to the side, it just won’t go. It feels very tight and can feel throbby.

My c-section scar burns or feels like there’s nerve pain.

Adhesions, tension and stiffness causes chronic c-section scar pain?

As your incision site heals, it goes through 3 stages of developing scar tissue.

The first stage is the inflammatory stage, when beneficial inflammatory factors flood the tissue for the purpose of cleaning up the wound and beginning the process of scar tissue development.
The second stage is the proliferative stage, when collagen and other cells begin to fill in the defect caused by the incision site.
The final stage is remodeling and, in this stage, your new collagen scar tissue becomes more organized and structured, so it is stronger.

When someone experiences chronic pain from a cesarean section or any other surgery, often we find that their healing process may have led to scar tissue that is contracted and stuck to surrounding structures.

In many cases, the person sustained an infection in their postoperative days, but this is not always the case. If you are wondering why does my c-section scar hurt years later, come to an appointment with our licensed physical therapists and you will receive answers. We help you uncover what’s going on and also find a path forward to resolve your c-section scar pain. We find that chronic c-section scar pain has myofascial layers (abdominal muscles, connective tissue, nerves, blood vessels) that often have adhesions and are not able to slide and glide properly. The result is tension and stiffness in the scar tissue and nearby structures. If you have tension and stiffness in nerves and tissues that should be able to easily move when you are going about your daily activities, it is likely you will experience scar pain. In our postpartum recovery physical therapy, we provide skilled treatment to all types of scars, including adhesions, c-section scars, laparotomy scars, robotic scars, perineal tears, episiotomies, keloids and scars that had prior infections.

The physical therapy treatment plans that we provide for individuals who have any abdominal or pelvic pain, especially if it is pain that is related to a cesarean delivery scar, always includes a variety of manual therapy methods, such as visceral mobilization, trigger point release, fascial release to the scar, joint mobilization and massage. Our licensed physical therapists also incorporate exercise, postural correction, movement, stretching and core and gluteal strengthening into a recovery plan for anyone with chronic abdominal and pelvic pain. If you are interested in learning more about our treatment plans to help resolve abdominal, pelvic, back or hip pain, you can call our office at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

What are some of the predictors that your C-section scar is going to hurt?

If you have chronic c-section scar pain, please know that you have not done anything wrong. We don’t always know why one person’s c-section scar hurts years later whereas another person experiences no pain. Some of us simply lay down more scar tissue, develop adhesions and experience more nerve pain than others. Our licensed physical therapists are able to help you navigate the complexity of chronic abdominal and pelvic pain. If you are wondering “why is this happening to me?”, we do have some research that investigated risk factors for chronic c-section scar pain.

The risk factors for chronic c-section scar pain:

*How did it feel those first 24 hours? Higher pain intensity with movement within 24 hours of giving birth. This is an important indicator for women because this continued to be the associated with higher pain levels at your baby’s first birthday.

*Did you experience low mood before your C-section? Depression present before the operation was a risk factor for ongoing C-section scar pain.

*Did your operation take a long time? Longer duration of surgery was found to be a predictor of ongoing c-section scar pain.

Could my bladder, bowel or prolapse symptoms be related to my c-section scar tissue?

Because your cesarean scar and incision site penetrates all the layers of tissue in your entire abdominal wall, it can affect how your entire abdominal and pelvic region function. Scar tissue that is altering the ability of your abdominal muscles and pelvic floor to work optimally might contribute to back pain, hip pain, pelvic pain or abdominal pain. Scar tissue might cause non-optimal forces through the abdomen and pelvis, resulting in worsening of pelvic organ prolapse symptoms. Scar tissue might cause pinching or pulling when your bladder or bowel fill up. It is common that our patients have urinary urgency, frequency or incontinence. We also find our patients experience painful bowel movements and sometimes difficulty emptying their bowels. In our work as pelvic health specialists, this is why we examine and treat every scar, even if you don’t have any scar pain. Our experience with providing fascial release and visceral mobilization to all types of scars is because our licensed physical therapists have advanced training in these manual therapies and cesarean recovery. Because we specialize in pelvic pain, we have written a variety of articles, you may be interested to read this. To get your questions answered, you may contact us here or call our office at 616-516-4334.

About Purple Mountain PT’s Treatment for Chronic Pain in C-section Scars

Purple Mountain Physical Therapy is a specialty pelvic health clinic that serves women, men and children in Grand Rapids Michigan. We help kids and adults overcome pelvic conditions, including chronic abdominal and pelvic pain related to old c-section scars that still hurt. If you are looking for solutions for why does your c-section scar still hurt years later, we are here to help you. Our c-section recovery program helps women who are newly postpartum and women who have old c-section scars that still hurt. Our physical therapists focus exclusively on pelvic physical therapy and we’ve written before about chronic c-section scar pain. The treatment plans we provide for c-section scars and other scars that are adhered and cause pain, are comprehensive, effective and offer whole-body care. We have training and techniques specific to ongoing c-section scar pain, pelvic floor rehabilitation and abdominal wall recovery. If your c-section scar still hurts and you know that something doesn’t seem right, give us a call to get help. Our doctors of physical therapy are here to help you feel like yourself again. Give us a call at 616-516-4334 to learn more about cost and availability or contact us here.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specializing in pelvic floor physical therapy, pregnancy and postpartum recovery for 25 years.

Should My C-section Scar Still Hurt?

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specialist in pregnancy and postpartum recovery and c-section scars that hurt.

Should My C-section Scar Still Hurt?

At Purple Mountain PT our patients often ask, “should my c-section scar still hurt?” We are pelvic floor physical therapists specializing in pregnancy and postpartum recovery and we have a special place in our heart for moms who birth via cesarean delivery. We offer a treatment program to optimize your postpartum recovery, take the guesswork out of what you should and should not be doing and to promote effective C-section scar healing and abdominal muscle recovery. A cesarean birth is a painful medical procedure, because it is major surgery. After any major surgery, it is best to work with a licensed physical therapist who specializes in treatment plans and rehabilitation for your particular condition. If your c-section scar still hurts after you would reasonably expect it to be fine, please reach out to get the support and treatment you need. Also, if in the early days of healing, you experience more pain than would be expected, get started with physical therapy right away. If you would like to learn more about our program to help alleviate scar pain for women after cesarean section, contact us here.

About 7 in 100 Women will have chronic C-section scar pain. The good news is that PT can help alleviate this pain.

A cesarean delivery is major surgery and you should be supported with the help of a licensed physical therapist on your c-section recovery journey. Your incision site may be the visible signs of your surgery, but your c-section scar tissue goes much deeper than the layers of skin, muscle and connective tissue. Most of us expect that this painful medical surgery will not be a cake-walk in the early days. But, very few of our patients were told they have a 7% chance of having chronic scar tissue pain after cesarean delivery. This is unacceptable and, we think, women should know that this is a risk factor following cesarean section and that physical therapy can help your pain. If you would like to learn more about our treatment to help alleviate scar pain for women after cesarean section, contact us here.

A C-Section That Has Healed Nicely Should have the Following:

Your C-section scar should not hurt you, at rest or when moving
You should move freely without pulling or pinching. The layers of skin, connective tissue, muscle, fascia and organ should move easily.
The scar should be able to move freely all directions, without restrictions.
It should not pucker anywhere along its length
The abdominal muscles should contract, relax and be able to maintain non-bloated appearance
You should be able to wear pants and all clothing touching it without pain.

Will Physical Therapy Help My Scar Tissue and Postpartum Recovery?

Yes. Our licensed physical therapists help women following their pregnancy and we treat all types of scars, including painful scars, c-section shelf scars, scars with adhesions, scars that underwent revision surgery and tunneling scars. We take the guesswork and uncertainty out of your c-section recovery so you’re not confused when looking at the jumbled layers of skin that are in your incision site. If your c-section scar hurts, it is telling you that something is not right and your healing process would benefit from a licensed physical therapist to develop a treatment plan to ease c-section scar pain. To answer your questions about treatment for c-section scars, contact us here.

C-sections that hurt more than expected in the first 24 hours have a greater risk of long term pain.

For some people, the first 24 hours post-cesarean are miserable. Unfortunately, data suggests that women who experience higher than expected pain levels in the first 24 hours have a higher risk of developing chronic pain from their c-section scar. Your surgeon may have done everything right, but a nerve can get sewn in just-the-wrong-way to cause ongoing pain. Or, perhaps your body experiences high pain levels following any trauma, like a cesarean birth. If you have higher than expected pain levels in the early days of your recovery, don’t delay starting physical therapy.

Your scar tissue is healing and laying down from the very first days after your surgery. If you are having more pain than expected, skilled PT can provide gentle movement based and hands-on based manual therapies to promote more effective healing and calm down your pain. At Purple Mountain PT, our postpartum physical therapists partner with you and provide whole body care that is helps calm down your pain, improve your abdominal wall integrity and strength, restore posture, resolve pelvic floor dysfunction and improve your overall fitness and ability to function. If you are interested in learning more about our physical therapy for postpartum recovery, including c-section scar recovery, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

What does a physical therapy treatment plan include for the healing process following cesarean delivery?

We always want to resolve any pain. If your c-section scar hurts, we will alleviate this. We are also fully trained in orthopedic physical therapy and treat all neck, back, hip, leg and feet pain.

Our treatment plans will help you resolve your pain so you can move without difficulty and have greater confidence in your body. We use a variety of treatments to help ease your pain. These will combine exercise with manual therapy. The exercises include a variety of things to enhance strength, muscular coordination, pelvic floor muscle activation, to reduce trigger points and balance your pelvis, abdomen and low back. We also include manual therapies such as specialized joint mobilization, pelvic balancing exercises, manual therapy to address muscle stiffness, scar tissue adhesions, trigger point release or visceral restrictions. If you have questions about your c-section scar, contact us here.

All scars are treated, including c-section scar tissue as well as any scar from prior surgeries or injuries.

Sometimes women who had a cesarean birth are surprised to learn that vaginal deliveries can also result in scars, located in the perineal area whether from episiotomy or tearing. We can help all types of scars by using our hands-on scar mobilization techniques, visceral mobilization and fascial release.

Our manual therapy methods also help with endometriosis related adhesions and pain. We specialize in helping people overcome chronic pelvic pain, including endometriosis. If you had a c-section and also have endometriosis we would recommend getting PT as soon as possible to optimize your visceral mobility, scar tissue healing process and bowel/bladder function. If you have endometriosis and also a c-section and would like to learn more about our treatment for both conditions, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Abdominal muscle and tissue recovery is part of your treatment plan to help alleviate c-section scar pain and improve your ability to function.

We include diastasis recti abdominis and abdominal wall elongation recovery into your treatment plan to address your scar tissue. Our patients tell us that our diastasis recovery program lifts their confidence and demystifies what they should be doing to restore their abdominal wall appearance and function. Following pregnancy, your abdominal muscles are elongated and often impaired. Additionally, the linea alba connective tissue can have trouble transferring load as your move through daily movement. Part of your treatment plan will include specific and detailed assessment of the integrity of your abdominal wall to determine if you have a diastasis recti abdominis, ongoing abdominal wall elongation (from the pregnancy) and impaired abdominal muscle activity. If you wonder if you have a diastasis recti abdominis, or what is going on with your “c-section shelf” or have general questions about your c-section scar call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

We customize an exercise rehabilitation program to improve your strength. Postpartum moms need to retrain their muscles and body!

To alleviate c-section scar pain, any pelvic girdle or low back pain, neck and TM joint pain, our licensed physical therapists provide whole body care. By properly assessing you and providing private, one-on-one appointments that are upto 55 minutes in length, we give you the time necessary to effectively treat your symptoms. We will also help you improve your hip and glute strength, restore your pelvic floor function and more. If you have questions about our treatment plan for postpartum recovery following cesarean section so you can optimize your healing process, please contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.

C-section recovery research found postpartum PT with a pregnancy, postpartum and pelvic health licensed PT gets you feeling better.

Do you want less pain, the ability to exercise and higher satisfaction with your c-section recovery? What’s holding you back?

Physical therapists who specialize in pregnancy and postpartum recovery have been saying for years that all women should be provided with physical therapy after giving birth. Research has shown that postpartum women who receive physical therapy have less pain and better ability to exercise. Being pain-free and physical fit are crucial for our quality of life, the ability to take care of others, to being in a good mood and to having the energy that being a mom demands. If you are interested in our postpartum PT program, call us at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here to have your questions answered.

Which group of women would you want to be in? All of these women had cesarean delivery, they were divided into two groups:

Group 1: These C-section moms completed postpartum physical therapy and were able to get back to exercise, completed a core retraining program (abdominal muscles, low back and more), had less pain and expressed higher satisfaction.

Group 2: These C-section moms did not complete postpartum physical therapy and they had more pain, were less able to exercise, were uncertain about how to get their core to recover and felt overall less satisfaction in their healing process and postpartum recovery.

It’s an easy choice, really. Of course, we all want to be part of Group 1! All you have to do is call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here to start your postpartum recovery program. This research found that postpartum physical therapy twice a week for six weeks resulted in less pain, higher ability to exercise and higher patient satisfaction. Why wouldn’t you prioritize this for yourself?

Each of us deserves to not have pain, to move and exercise and to feel good about our postpartum recovery.

If you are going through your c-section recovery, our treatment plans will ease your mind and provide you with customized rehabilitation that takes the confusion out of your healing process. Our treatment plans are based on your specific evaluation findings and customized to your body. If you have c-section scar pain, or any pain in your postpartum period, our pelvic physical therapy program will help you resolve pain, improve strength, restore your pelvic floor muscles and get back to the things you love. At Purple Mountain PT we implement the measures that this research found helps you: core retraining, safe and structured stretches, hands-on treatments, education in what to be doing at home. If you have questions about our treatment plan for postpartum recovery following cesarean section so you can optimize your healing process, please contact us here or call 616-516-4334 to learn more.

Our physical therapy provides you scar massage and visceral mobilization to help all of your scar tissue slides and glides better. Scar massage can help collagen remodel in a beneficial way!

Our patients tell us that the hands-on treatments they received eased their c-section scar pain, improved the appearance of their abdomen, alleviated pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms and generally helped them to feel better. We are licensed physical therapists with post-graduate training specific to pregnancy and postpartum recovery, pelvic health and orthopedic physical therapy. We help women who had cesarean section deliveries or vaginal births. You can expect to receive a variety of specialized manual therapy techniques that ease tension, help adhesions, promote normal organ mobility, improve blood flow, resolve muscular trigger points, enhance joint motion and restore postural alignment. If you labored and tried for a vaginal delivery before ultimately having a cesarean delivery, please understand that your body went through a lot of stress and strain, both vaginally to the pelvic floor and ultimately with your major surgery. For c-section scars that hurt, you can expect care directed to your whole-body, because everything is connected and tension, restrictions or tightness in one area can impair the mobility of the layers of tissue in your c-section scar that hurts or is adhered.

If you want a healthy, mobile, unrestricted scar so that you can run, push, pull, lift and move without feeling the scar, give us a call at 616-516-4334 or contact us here. We treat EVERY scar (whether it is cesarean, laparotomy, vaginal birth, hernia, hip surgery, robotic or other scar) to get the scar moving optimally and so that your c-section scar won’t hurt.

Your C-section Scar may be contributing to your bladder control problems.

Cesarean delivery requires an incision site that is very close to your bladder. You will lay down scar tissue right near your bladder. Sometimes this scar tissue causes impairment with bladder filling or emptying or can disrupt the pelvic floor muscles and how they function. You may develop urinary frequency, urgency, urge incontinence, stress incontinence, difficulty emptying or lots of waking up at night to urinate. For women who had vaginal deliveries, it is well known that pelvic floor dysfunction, episiotomies or perineal tearing can also contribute to bladder control troubles when postpartum. Our postpartum recovery treatment plan includes care for your bladder, as well. If you had a c-section and now also have bladder symptoms, such as painful filling of your bladder, urinary urgency and frequency or incontinence, to learn more about our treatment call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here.

Your C-section scar may be contributing to your Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Because the abdomen, pelvic organs and pelvic floor are so intimately connected, any disruption to the integrity of one of these areas can impair the others. Therefore, it is possible your C-section scar is impairing the support of your pelvis and contributing to prolapse. With pelvic organ prolapse we always work to optimize all of the support structures for your organs and vagina. Scar tissue and scar pain can both lead to pelvic floor muscle dysfunction and impairments in the support of the pelvic organs. For any patient who underwent cesarean or vaginal delivery, we always assess your pelvic floor muscles, organ support structures and look for signs and symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse. Rest assured, there are many things we include in our treatment plan that help improve pelvic pressure, urinary incontinence, c-section scars that hurt, scar tissue adhesions and pelvic organ prolapse symptoms.

Many of our patients live in fear of prolapse. Someone vaguely told them that they have a prolapse, which can be scary to hear, but did not advise them on what to do about it. We will clear your mind and give you a detailed treatment plan to address your prolapse. This is our life’s work and we are happy to share it to help you. Call us at 616-516-4334 to learn more or contact us here.

If your c-section scar hurts, we are here to help you!

We’ve detailed some of the considerations we include in our postpartum recovery treatment plan following cesarean delivery and many of these also apply to vaginal birth. The early days of recovering from this painful medical procedure should be effectively managed with high quality support from your surgeon and associated medical professionals. As you progress through your postpartum recovery, you should expect your c-section scar to begin to hurt less and eventually to have no pain. Our licensed physical therapists have post-graduate training in manual therapy methods to help all types of scars. For anyone who has a c-section scar that hurts on an ongoing basis, please know that it is never too late to get help for this from one of our physical therapists. Chronic c-section scar pain is not something to be ignored. We find many women put themselves on the backburner, prioritizing their children and other people’s needs over their own needs. We also find that women tell us they are frustrated, exhausted and feel ignored when they raise complaints of their c-section scar hurting. A frustrated, tired and ignored mom is not in the best moods and not up for all the things that may be required of her. If you are feeling this way, please reach out to us because we can help you. At Purple Mountain PT, we specialize in postpartum recovery, including cesarean birth healing and vaginal delivery rehabilitation. We provide treatment both in person at our clinic in Grand Rapids, Michigan and virtually via telehealth. Contact us here to learn more about our postpartum recovery treatment plan or call us at (616) 516-4334. We help women who are in pain every day and we can help you, also. We’ve written about PT for pain here and you may be interested to read that information.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT

The Journal of Women’s Health Physical Therapy published the research that showed that 6 weeks of PT following cesarean section improved pain and ability to exercise. The article is titled: Physical Therapy in addition to standard of care improves patient satisfaction and recovery post-cesarean section.

Pelvic Floor PT in Grand Rapids!

You Have Found The Best Pelvic Floor PTs in Grand Rapids!

Here at Purple Mountain Physical Therapy we offer advanced and expert pelvic floor PT in Grand Rapids for women, men and children. We understand that when you have a pelvic problem you don’t know where to go to receive your care and you want to make certain that you are getting the best results. Our doctors of physical therapy are uniquely qualified and offer you many years experience and advanced post-doctoral education specific to the challenging needs of pelvic health. To connect, connect us here, or call us at (616) 516-4334.

Pelvic Floor PT Explained!

Some patients tell us “I was skeptical this could help my urinary urgency and frequency, but now I’m a believer because it is so much better.”

We know that pelvic floor PT can be a bit of a mystery. Most of our patients tell us that they had no idea what pelvic PT would do for them. Pelvic floor PT is a specialty field within physical therapy that focuses upon treating bladder, bowel, pain and intimacy related problems for women, men and children. Our pelvic floor PT clinic in Grand Rapids is a place for you to be evaluated and treated with expertise and compassion in a trauma-informed setting that truly elevates the standard of care you should expect to receive from all of your providers. Our Doctors of Physical Therapy are licensed and also have completed extensive post-doctoral training specific to the field of pelvic health, spine and TMJ disorder physical therapy. It makes a difference when you work with an experienced specialist. If you are interested in learning more about working with our PTs here at Purple Mountain PT, reach out to us here or call us at (616) 516-4334.

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

It all begins with the first phone call!

First, you will know from your first phone call that you are receiving care from people who truly care about you and who strive to provide you with excellence. Our care is always welcoming, holistic, compassionate and trauma-informed.

Your Pelvic Floor Evaluation Appointment is Holistic and our Whole Body Framework ensures you receive comprehensive insights into the multiple contributions to your condition.

Your first appointment will be an evaluation, where we will go into depth with talking about your pelvic concerns. Some people come to us with focused and specific concerns, such as chronic lower abdominal pain that worsens with a full bladder. Other people come with more general pelvic concerns; for example, they had a child ten years ago and since then they have had some mild, annoying urinary incontinence and intimacy has not been quite the same. Men often present with severe pain that has been frustrating and ongoing. It is common that men have chronic prostatitis pain and/or nerve related problems of the pelvic floor. We are experts in nerve pain, including pain that radiates into the genitalia, perineum, anus and sit bones, as well as sciatic pain and other nerves. Rest assured, we will evaluate and treat every patient for the specifics related to numerous nerve conditions. Contact us for more information or call us at (616) 516-4334 to speak with a knowledgable team member.

Your Pelvic PT Treatment Begins Day 1! This first visit, it is our goal to begin the process of healing!

During this evaluation we begin treatment right away. This includes advising you on how to optimize bladder, bowel and intimacy function. If your child is our patient, we include the child and parent into all evaluation and treatment methods and all care is age-appropriate and focused upon optimizing the child’s bladder and bowel function. Our examination may include an in-depth assessment of your posture, hip mobility, low back function, thoracic spine and diaphragm. We examine and treat your abdominal wall strength and diastasis recti abdominus. Every adult patient receives a comprehensive myofascial assessment of all tissues from your shoulders to your knees (we check your neck and feet, if warranted, also). It is common that we find trigger points and areas of decreased blood flow in the tissues we evaluate and treat. As we discover items that are contributing to your symptoms, we educate you about our findings, commence treatment and help you understand what you can do to help yourself at home. Call us at (616) 516-4334 to speak with our knowledgeable staff to your questions answered and see about how we can help you!

What is Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?

Broadly speaking, pelvic floor dysfunction refers to the muscles at the base of your pelvis not working quite right. In many cases these muscles have stiffness, tightness and trigger points. In some cases, the muscles are weak. Other times the muscles have adequate strength, but their timing and coordination with other muscles is impaired, leading to urinary or gas leakage or pelvic organ prolapse symptoms. When these muscles are not working properly, because they work in concert with your abdominal wall and low back, they often contribute to pain in the abdomen, hips or back. Some people with pelvic floor dysfunction have considerable pelvic pain. These muscles also provide you control of your bladder and bowel, so if they are dysfunctional you may experience urinary leakage or frequency and urgency. The pelvic floor muscles have both superficial and deep layers; for some of the women and men we treat their primary problem is in the superficial layers. We check all of the layers of your pelvic floor muscles so that you can receive the right treatment to effectively recover your problem. To read more about the benefits of physical therapy, check out this blog we wrote or contact us here!

What does Pelvic Floor PT Involve?

Our treatment is holistic. This means that we evaluate and treat the numerous things that contribute to your pain, so that you experience excellent results. Our treatment is not cookie-cutter. You get specific care related to your body’s needs. Our care is often hands-on manual therapy that includes myofascial release, trigger point release, and nerve release. We also focus quite a bit on improving blood flow to your tissues because blood flow is the source of life & nutrition for your body, especially your nerves. We also offer treatment that is exercise based and focused upon recovering the coordination and firing of your pelvic floor muscles with your abdominals, low back, hips and knees/feet. For some people’s needs, we include balance training, jumping exercises and dynamic exercises that challenge the pelvic floor muscles so that they begin to fire more appropriately. We will assess and treat your abdominal wall so if you have a diastasis recti abdominus, we will provide very targeted exercises and myofascial work to facilitate recovery of your abdominal wall. Connect with us here to get started.

Why Should I Choose to Come To Purple Mountain Physical Therapy?

Our goal is to provide you excellence in care so that you experience meaningful results. Each appointment is with the same physical therapist, is private and lasts upto 55 minutes. We never bounce you around to a lesser trained person or someone you don’t know. Because we have extensive post-doctoral training and experience treating very challenging pelvic conditions, you can expect an expertise that is difficult to find. You will find that our physical therapists provide trauma informed care in a compassionate setting that is focused upon clinical excellence. We are here to provide you world class pelvic health PT care in Grand Rapids.

Meet Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT Pelvic Health, Spine and TM Joint Disorder Physical Therapist. Founder of Purple Mountain PT. Wife, Mother.

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT is a pelvic health, spine & TM joint physical therapist specialist, serving the West Michigan region. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT practiced for 20 years in Chicago working with some of the top surgeons and physicians in the country at Northwestern Medicine Chicago, Loyola University Health Centers and Rush University Medical Center. She had patients travel to her from all over the country and world, seeking relief from their pelvic pain and bladder conditions.

Dr. Maureen founded Purple Mountain PT to provide specialized, one-on-one treatment to her patients by giving them the time needed (upto 55 minutes each appointment) and a whole-body framework to properly and holistically treat you.

Dr. Maureen provides pelvic, spine and TMJ treatments to women, men & children who are wanting to improve their condition by accelerating results from working with an experienced specialist. Dr. Maureen is the leader at Purple Mountain PT and the reason behind our whole body framework that informs all of the treatments you receive. All of our physical therapists are trained directly by Dr. Maureen, to ensure you receive the specialized excellence that Purple Mountain PT is known for. Dr. Maureen combines manual therapies with therapeutic exercise, patient education, rehabilitative ultrasound imaging, balance training, deep core retraining and neural calming. She loves to educate you on what you should be doing and how to help yourself. If you would like to work with Dr. Maureen, give us a call at (616) 516-4334 or contact us here.

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT is proud to be a member of numerous professional societies that are leading organizations in the field of pelvic health and pelvic research.

These include the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health and the Intl Society for Sexual Medicine, The North American Menopause Society and the American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT has even taught physicians, surgeons and other pelvic health physical therapists techniques for evaluating and treating complex pelvic health conditions. Her more than 25 years’ experience are a culmination of broad post-graduate pelvic health, sexual health and menopause related advanced education including treating chronic pain, pregnancy & postpartum recovery, diastasis recti abdominis healing, male pelvic & bladder conditions and pediatric bladder & bowel development. Her experience treating individuals with chronic TM joint disorders, cerivcogenic headaches and neck pain provides relief from headaches, neck and jaw pain and difficulty with chewing and yawning. She enjoys working with individuals with challenging TM joint disorders or complex pelvic problems, including painful intercourse, pelvic floor dysfunction and chronic pelvic pain. She has a special heart for women in the pregnant or postpartum recovery stages, as she loves those special times and understands the difficulty it can cause to a women’s body. She herself had a traumatic birth injury and had to recover her body through extensive rehabilitation. She creates a healing environment, in partnership with the patient, to optimize results and address all contributing factors in the pelvic condition. Dr. O’Keefe is committed to providing top level care to her patients and is actively engaged in ongoing advanced education to keep up with the latest research and methods.

How Do I Get Started with Pelvic Floor PT? I Have Some More Questions.

The first step is to call our office at (616) 516-4334 to schedule an evaluation. We like to understand what your needs are, so we can know that we can meet your needs. We love this work and consider it a privilege and honor to help people in such a meaningful way! We look forward to meeting you and helping you to feel like yourself again.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT and the Purple Mountain PT Team.

How Do You Know if You Need Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

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.

How Do You Feel About Your Postpartum Recovery? Would Pelvic PT help you?

Being Pregnant and Postpartum can be an Overwhelming Experience and Definitely Changes Our Body! Pelvic Floor PT is a Key Component of Your Postpartum Recovery.

Each of us will experience our unique emotional reactions to the changes in our body! You don’t have to know all the answers. Expert help from a pelvic floor PT will take your postpartum recovery to the next level!

How do these changes in your postpartum body make you feel? What do you think about your body now? If you are struggling with disappointment in your pregnant or postpartum body, we can help you get back to feeling more like yourself when you join us to complete a postpartum PT recovery program. Pregnancy and the postpartum period carry a risk of low back pain, pelvic girdle pain (such as SI joint pain, pubic bone pain, coccyx pain), painful sex, pelvic floor dysfunction, diastasis recti abdominus and urinary incontinence. This is quite a long list, actually, of unfortunate things that you be experiencing as a result of being pregnant. The good news is that working with us will give you a comprehensive evaluation and treatment program to ensure you get your body back into top form. Pregnancy changes our posture, breathing, abdominal wall, pelvic floor, bladder, bowels and sex life. We can help you recover all of these things! Contact us to start seeing results sooner than later!

What should your postpartum recovery program look like and include? Pelvic floor PT help you get your body back and return to an active life!

Check you for a diastasis recti abdominus and develop a program of recovery from this.
Evaluate and treat every muscle of your pelvic floor to determine how each one is working and to get each one to come back to function.
Teach you how to recover optimal breathing function, which was disrupted when you were pregnant and the baby moved your diaphragm. Recovering breathing is crucial to recovering your pelvic floor function.
Take you through a progressive exercise program to restore your pelvic floor strength, coordination, function and speed.
Address your posture, especially increased midback hunch, tight shoulders, forward head and tilted pelvis. Pregnancy changes your fascia and postural alignment and we look at this and help you correct it.
Optimize your pelvic organ support, a very important part of addressing pelvic organ prolapse.
Strengthen your back and abdominals so you can confidently lift your baby and everything else you need to lift.
Get you back to higher level activities including jumping, skipping and running.

Research confirms that exercise and hands-on care for pregnant women can help their low back pain

“Exercise (any exercise on land or in water), may reduce pregnancy‐related low‐back pain and any exercise improves functional disability and reduces sick leave more than usual prenatal care. Evidence from single studies suggests that acupuncture or craniosacral therapy improves pregnancy‐related pelvic pain, and osteomanipulative therapy or a multi‐modal intervention (manual therapy, exercise and education) may also be of benefit.”

Liddle SD, Pennick V. Interventions for preventing and treating low‐back and pelvic pain during pregnancy. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2015, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD001139. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001139.pub4. Accessed 11 July 2022.

Pregnancies and a live baby were hard to come by in my experience.

I was one of the healthiest people I knew. I was fit and active. I was a physical therapist and knew how to help women through their pregnancy. I had a regular cycle and zero clue that becoming a mother would take years of tears, pregnancy losses, hopelessness and digging in. I had to discover holistic ways to facilitate fertility, I had to work on stress/mind/body/spirit. I had to call on my faith to get us through this. I did just about everything under the sun to facilitate becoming a mother. If you have experienced infertility you know what I’m talking about. Yep, I did everything. Everything.

My postpartum experience wasn’t so peachy, either. I had to do extensive pelvic floor PT, abdominal wall recovery and rebuilding my strength and conditioning.

In my first 30 days postpartum I had emergency surgeries and spent ten hellish days in the hospital. My family was amazing and scared to death for me. It is not an exaggeration to say it looked like I wasn’t going to make it. The will got drawn up in the hospital bed and the priest came. It was a serious and dangerous and God-awful experience. I had two kids under two years old who were not allowed at the hospital. My family and friends were amazing and provided around the clock care for our kids, with my husband shuttling between the hospital and the two locations where our kids were staying. My family wanted to touch base with me or my husband each hour to see how I was doing, because it seemed to change rapidly and would go downhill fast. We were desperate to get me stable, but the roller coaster had begun and it was decidedly out of control. And, remember, I was one of the healthiest people I knew! I was an athlete, super healthy eater, had come to pregnancy after completing years of holistic healing. And. Still. It. All. Went. Wrong. Until it went right! Yay! Eventually I stabilized and got to go home, exhausted and uncertain if I would be able to take care of our two kids. And my body was a wreck. My pelvic floor was a disaster (so many surgeries and my labor and delivery had done a number on me), my abdominal wall had a huge diastasis recti abdominus, all of my body muscles had atrophied. I remember looking at my calves when I was in the hospital and shedding a tear at how atrophied they became. It happened so quickly, over a matter of two weeks. My OBGyne said “well, you’ve lost all of your pregnancy weight and then some.” And I remember replying “It is all atrophy. I will weight lift and get it back.” And I did. It took a long time & a lot of discipline to recover my abdominal wall and pelvic floor and to get strong again. But I did it, with the help of pelvic PT and my clinical background in how to take a woman through a safe and progressive postpartum recovery program.

Now you know a bit about how I got to be the person I am today. I have been through an epic pregnancy and postpartum recovery and found a path forward that is authentically grateful, happy, strong and whole! And we offer this wisdom and understanding to my patients. We know our patient’s pregnancy and postpartum experiences feel like a huge challenge to them. May feel overwhelming. May feel hopeless, like you are stuck with urinary incontinence or a “mommy pooch.” I am proof positive that this is not the case. Get in touch with our knowledgeable and caring staff to see what your plan of care could look like, contact us here.

Working with individuals who are experiencing pregnancy or are postpartum is a calling for us! We love it!

We offer these women an insight, grace, clinical expertise, understanding and joyfulness for their pregnancy. I had to complete intensive postpartum PT recovery. Because of the nature of my labor and delivery and postpartum complications I had serious work to do to recover my pelvic floor, abdominal wall, strength, conditioning and function. I did the hard work. And, I know the commitment it takes to reach your goals. It doesn’t happen overnight and it takes real insight and expertise to provide postpartum pelvic health physical therapy to a woman. It is an honor to work with women who are pregnant and postpartum. Read more about the benefits of pelvic floor PT.

We have advanced training in providing pregnant and postpartum women pelvic floor PT and designing a postpartum recovery fitness program.

And my training dates back to the 1990s! So, I’ve been studying and treating pregnancy and postpartum recovery for more than 2 decades! Many pregnant women come to us experiencing miserable pelvic pain. It might be their SI joint hurts, or their pubic bones are grinding everytime they move their leg, or they cannot roll in bed without back pain. Or it might be that they are experiencing urinary incontinence or pelvic floor muscle spasms or a diastasis recti. We can help all of these conditions! How lucky are we? It is truly an honor to help women during their pregnancy and postpartum periods.

We offer compassionate, patient-focused holistic treatment for people who are suffering from pelvic conditions! Are you interested in addressing your postpartum recovery? Call Today for Information on our Program.

Continue reading →

Oh no, I am having stress incontinence! What natural treatments can I do?

Stress Incontinence: Natural and conservative treatment options to improve your urinary control!

We often work with women and men who experience stress urinary incontinence and are looking for natural treatments, rather than medications or surgery. The age, backgrounds and lifestyle of these patients vary wildly and, no, not everyone is experiencing the urinary leakage because they had a baby (this is obvious for men, but it can be assumed women only experience stress incontinence due to childbirth). The good news is that there are natural and safe options you can undertake to improve your stress incontinence, that do not involve surgery nor medications. If your goal is natural treatments for stress incontinence, you are in the right place! Get in touch here!

Stress Incontinence Basic Overview:

When speaking of stress urinary incontinence we are talking specifically about the involuntary loss of urine that occurs with some activities that put pressure on your bladder and urinary control system. Most often you hear about leaking happening with laughing, coughing and sneezing because these activities cause a large increase in intra-abdominal pressure. When you have increased intra-abdominal pressure, the bladder control mechanisms must be able to tolerate and respond to this intra-abdominal pressure to avoid leaking urine. With stress incontinence, the system is overwhelmed and urine readily escapes. We commonly treat individuals who experience stress incontinence with activities such as walking, getting up from a chair, moving in and out of a car and bending over to pick something up. Regardless of whether your stress incontinence occurs with higher level activities (jumping, running, jumping jacks) or more benign daily activities (walking, changing positions, bending over), all of the suggestions in this blog can help you. Or you can contact us here to get in touch!

Female vs Male Stress Urinary Incontinence, Key Differences:

Female Stress Urinary Incontinence

Stress incontinence is something that can occur in young, female athletes who’ve never had a baby. All the athletic moves such as jumping and quick directional changes can place a lot of force through the abdomen and genitourinary system and for some young athletes, their body cannot manage this. It is common when we work with women that their stress incontinence dates back to their youth. They often remember losing urine when having a fun laughing attack in their youth or when playing their high school sports, for example. Following pregnancy, a woman’s pelvis and pelvic floor muscles change and an unfortunate consequence for many women is stress urinary incontinence. Many women have heard of or know friends who have undergone surgery for their stress incontinence, but most women we know would prefer to avoid surgery and instead are looking for natural treatments for their stress incontinence. Read more about the benefits of our physical therapy here!

Male Stress Urinary Incontinence

In men, the most common reason for their stress urinary incontinence is having a prostate procedure, usually a prostatectomy but also following a TURP (transurethral resection of the prostate). Post-prostatectomy incontinence rates vary in research, but can be as much as 80% of men. About 6-8% of men who have a prostatectomy will experience longstanding stress incontinence, but rest assured that there are things you can do to help this, including physical therapy. Research shows that about 30-40% of men will experience stress incontinence following TURP, but typically it will resolve. Unfortunately, for 0.5-1.0% of men following TURP, their stress incontinence does not go away, after 6 months.

How the prostatectomy or TURP causes urinary incontinence:

Why does a prostatectomy cause stress incontinence? It is because your anatomy is changed because the radical prostatectomy removed a number of your urinary control mechanisms and may also damage some of the nerves. The prostate itself provides a degree of urinary control, so its removal compromises your ability to control your urine. Normally, you have urinary sphincters that are muscular bands at the base of the bladder & prostate. These sphincters are important and keep you from unexpectedly losing urine. They remain shut, tightly, to prevent urine from leaking. When you pee, these sphincters relax and dilate so that your urine flows. With a prostatectomy the prostate is removed and your sphincters are also part of the process. Surgically, the bladder is connected to the urethra (in the area where the prostate used to be). Anecdotally, our patients sometimes tell us that they do perceive their urethra to be shorter after their prostate has been removed. Just about all men have some amount of urinary leakage immediately following their procedure, but with physical therapy and specific strengthening exercises you can improve urinary control. Call us at 616.516.4334 or contact us to learn more about our plans of care.

I don’t want to leak urine all the time! What are my natural, conservative treatment options for stress incontinence?

There are numerous things you can do to help your stress urinary incontinence.

Bladder retraining and fluid intake balance

When we are talking about stress incontinence natural treatments one of the first places to start is to look at bladder retraining, behavioral changes and fluid intake. A physical therapist can help you learn how to retrain your bladder and can troubleshoot and advise you on your fluid intake. We often find that individuals are scared to lose urine so they unnecessarily empty their urine prematurely, which can in the long-run not work in their favor. Ideally, your bladder is strong and able to fill and hold a normal amount of urine, without experiencing bladder spasms, urgency and frequency. We also see people have vast problems with their fluid intake. Some people avoiding drinking, so they are dehydrated. Other people sip and drink water all day long, which for some people makes it hard to hold your urine. In some cases fluids like caffeine can worsen bladder control. A PT can help you figure out what would be the most strategic fluid intake for your circumstances. Contact us for more info!

Weight Loss is a great natural treatment option for stress incontinence

Yes, losing weight is shown to reduce stress incontinence! Do you have an extra 5-10 pounds on you (Or more?). Extra weight places more strain and pressure through the bladder, urethra and pelvic floor. Losing even 5 pounds can have a beneficial effect on your stress incontinence. While losing weight can feel like a challenge, the rewards it brings are totally worth it. And, if you are serious about implementing natural treatments for your stress incontinence, this one is a big one to accomplish! Contact us for more info!

Pelvic floor muscle training with a pelvic physical therapist

When an individual experiences stress incontinence your pelvic floor muscles typically are not functioning properly. Research has shown that pelvic floor muscle training can improve your symptoms. It has also shown to help for pelvic organ prolapse symptoms, which is a condition common to women, and something that contributes to stress incontinence. Training your muscles does take time, research seems to show it takes 3-6 months of consistent work to get the benefits you are looking for. So, the trick is to be consistent and make the commitment to doing your exercises. Training these muscles is the ultimate natural treatment for stress incontinence. Seriously, if you have stress incontinence these muscles are always dysfunctional and you must address this. Contact us for more info!

What exercises should I be doing to train my pelvic floor muscles?

Working with a pelvic health therapist you will learn a wide variety of exercises clinically shown to help improve urinary control. Exercise is nature’s gift, as it is a natural treatment for stress incontinence that has no unpleasant side effects, like you would experience with pharmaceuticals and surgery. There is not one exercise to do and, definitely, doing a “kegel” is not what we are talking about. Stress incontinence occurs when your bladder control is overwhelmed by abdominal pressure that is generated through your movements. We will assess the symphony of muscular coordination that should be occurring. We also look at your movement patterns and see if your strategies are optimal for promoting bladder control. When we help you train your pelvic floor muscles we also coordinate your breathing, abdominal wall, pelvic floor, glutes/hips and thighs and we address speed and timing. Contact us for more info!

Why we do NOT recommend you do Kegels:

We don’t recommend that you just try to work on Kegels or pelvic floor muscle training on your own at home; stress incontinence is a bigger problem than just getting a kegel to be stronger. In fact, most people we see who have stress incontinence cannot perform a kegel properly. They do it all wrong and in some cases can worsen the problem! They are often bearing down on the muscles, even when they think and perceive they are correctly tightening the muscles. Other times the muscles are already too stiff and tight, so kegels can worsen your stress incontinence. Another problem we see is the lack of correct coordination between your abdominal wall and breathing with your pelvic floor muscles. Additionally, in men, we see a tendency to recruit the wrong muscles when they do kegels such that they are unlikely to get much benefit to help their incontinence. We also see, in both women and men, a tendency to “cheat” using your glutes and thighs, which does you no good and, in fact, can give you a false perception that you are helping yourself. We also see people who commonly have a problem in their abdominal wall that can contribute to your stress incontinence. This problem, a diastasis recti abdominus (DRA), is a widening of your linea alba that causes a disruption in your body’s ability to transfer load through your trunk, thus rendering it easier to lose your urine. Before we begin pelvic floor muscle training, we assess you for a DRA and if this is a problem you have, then we treat that as well. Working with a pelvic health PT will give you the best chance of improving your stress incontinence and we can teach you what to be doing at home so you can add these things to your workouts. Contact us for more info!

Pessary, an option for women.

A pessary is a small item that is custom fitted by your physician for your anatomy and is inserted in your vagina. Pessaries come in many different shapes and sizes to help correct your anatomy when you have a pelvic organ prolapse. Combining a pessary with behavioral changes and pelvic floor muscle training, as described above, was found to have better improvement than only wearing a pessary. Put another way, a pessary all by itself might not eradicate your stress incontinence, but if you also work on improving your pelvic floor awareness, strength and coordination while making some behavioral changes, you have a better chance of meeting your goals. Just as most women are comfortable using a tampon, a pessary is something a woman can learn to insert and remove by herself. Getting fitted for a pessary happens at your doctor’s office, preferably a urogynecologist who is specially trained in measuring your prolapse and fitting you for a pessary. In one study, 73% of women who were given a pessary were happy enough with it to continue wearing this after one year. If you have a pessary, usually there are regular follow ups with your physician to ensure everything is going all right with it. How often you have a follow up depends on your physician’s preferences and your body, menopausal status and other considerations. Sometimes follow up checks for your pessary would be every 3 months, other times it could be every 6 months or once a year. Based on my experience as a pelvic health PT, I find that pessaries are under-utilized and not well known. They are, in fact, an excellent natural treatment for stress incontinence and most women, can adapt well to wearing one. You don’t even feel it, once it is inside you and fitted well. Contact us for more info!

Address and improve your constipation

Improving urinary control can happen when you get your bowels regulated. Individuals who have extreme constipation may face stool impaction and this has been shown to worsen urinary control. Additionally, straining to have a BM is a strain on your pelvic floor muscles, the exact muscles that are needed to be in tip-top shape to maintain continence. For any person I am working with who presents with issues related to stress incontinence, I always assess and help them with their bowel regularity. Getting your bowel movements optimized is a natural treatment for stress incontinence and, for some people, can be an “easy win” towards getting their urinary control improved. Contact us for more info!

There is hope! You can improve your stress incontinence if you undertake the above tips!

The bottom line is that stress incontinence, although a frustrating and common condition in both women and men (following prostate surgeries), is not normal and can be improved with targeted efforts. By implementing a combination of efforts listed in this blog you can improve your constipation. Do you need to lose a few pounds? Cut back on your caffeine? Retrain your pelvic floor, breathing and core muscles? Improve your constipation? Get a pessary? These are many natural treatments for stress incontinence that can help you, so please do not assume you are stuck with this problem. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT offers expert and customized care specific to your body, your movement patterns, your muscular dysfunction and your bladder. If you feel you would benefit from expert, directed guidance to help you improve your stress incontinence, call us today at 616-516-4334. We always enjoy answering your questions and helping you determine your next best steps!

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT

Founder of Purple Mountain PT. We love this work and are here to help you regain control of your bladder.

You may be interested in these other articles we’ve written:

What Can I Do Naturally to Help My TMJ? 8 Tips That Help!

Does Pelvic Floor Therapy Work for Prolapse?

Does Physical Therapy Help Endometriosis?

5 Tips To Ease Pelvic Pain that Won’t Go Away!

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Bladder Problems. What’s Going On?

Vaginismus and Dyspareunia Treatment in Grand Rapids

8 Ways Pelvic PT Helps IBS

What Can I Do Naturally to Help My TMJ? 8 Tips That Help!

Physical Therapy for Neck Pain and Headaches

How Much Bedwetting is Normal?

Why Does My Child Keep Wetting Their Pants?

What Can Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Help With?

How do I retrain my bladder after prostate removal?

Pelvic PT for Testicular Pain (Orchialgia) in Grand Rapids

Pelvic Floor Specialist in GR

Looking for a Pelvic Floor Specialist in GR? You’ve found the right place!

You deserve to receive your care from an experienced pelvic floor specialist who can help you get the best results. When an individual has pelvic problems, we understand your apprehension and concerns with finding someone who can help you. Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT, our founder, and the team of pelvic floor specialist physical therapists at Purple Mountain PT in GR and treat men and women, helping them achieve their goals and recover from their pelvic condition. All of our physical therapists specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of pelvic floor, spine and TMJ disorders. We treat all pelvic health conditions including abdominal and pelvic conditions that involve pain, bladder, bowel and intimacy problems. In addition to helping adults, we treat pediatric patients with bladder and bowel problems!

What can a Pelvic Floor Specialist do for you?

We empower our patients with safe, effective and natural techniques to help improve and manage all pelvic conditions. This means we evaluate and treat pelvic floor dysfunction, abdominal wall problems, low back pain, SI joint pain, hip pain, pelvic pain, nerve pain, bladder and bowel conditions and painful intimacy. Our pelvic floor specialty care can relieve pain, address boney pelvic alignment issues, recover core muscle coordination, restore bladder and bowel function, get you back to intimacy without pain and increase strength, mobility and function. Read more here, this is a blog Dr. Maureen O’Keefe wrote for Revive Physical Therapy.

Who We Help

We help women and men with any pelvic condition involving bladder, bowel, sexual dysfunction and pelvic pain. We also help kids with bladder and bowel problems. Sometimes the people we help have already been to other providers to treat their condition and they are still suffering, so they come to us looking for expertise and another approach. Because we are pelvic specialists, we comprehensively treat your condition with an approach that works to holistically and naturally get you recovered. We bring over 20 years experience to your condition and we are actively engaged in keeping up with the latest developments in clinical research, so you have the best chance of getting better!

What type of conditions do our pelvic health specialist PTs treat?

Musculoskeletal pain:

Low back pain, stiffness, spasm, herniated disc, degenerative disc disease, spinal stenosis and sciatica
SI joint pain (both men and women, pregnant and not pregnant)
Symphysis pubic pain (men and women, pregnant and not pregnant)
Tailbone pain (coccydynia. Again, men and women throughout the lifespan. It is common after a fall and following labor/delivery)
Hip Pain, clicking, stiffness, labral tears.

Bladder, Bowel and Sexual concerns:

Bladder control problems, overactive bladder, urinary frequency & urgency, bladder pain
Constipation, difficulty with bowel movements, fecal and flatulence incontinence
Painful intercourse in men and women, we treat all pain related to intimacy.

These pelvic symptoms may stem from a variety of things, such as:

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction: this is routinely found in just about every patient we treat. We are expert pelvic floor specialists and we provide you with peace of mind. Our evaluation will be very educational to you and will let you know whether you have pelvic floor dysfunction or not. And, what you can do about it, if you have it.
Pregnancy and postpartum related pelvic changes
Chronic prostatitis, endometriosis, PCOS, interstitial cystitis
Posture and lifestyle factors such as excessive sitting, exercise overload, high stress, poor sleep quality.
Surgery (C-section, hysterectomy, bladder suspension, pelvic reconstructive surgery, hernia surgery, hip labral repair surgery or other abdominal or pelvic surgeries)
Trauma (physical trauma and emotional trauma can influence pelvic floor dysfunction and pelvic conditions)
Diastasis recti Abdominus (also known as abdominal separation): we are experts at evaluating men and women for this condition and helping you heal this, if you have it.

If you are experiencing any pelvic condition, live in the West Michigan or GR area and wonder if seeing a pelvic floor specialist might help you, please call us today at 616-516-4334 for more information. We are happy to answer your questions and determine if you are a good fit for our pelvic floor specialty care. Stop the angst of not knowing what is going on and call us today to find out if we might be able to help you.

Peace,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT

Specializing in pelvic health since 1999.

You may be interested in reading these other articles we’ve written:

Vaginismus and Dyspareunia Treatment in Grand Rapids

How do I retrain my bladder after prostate removal?

What is Pelvic Floor PT?

Pelvic PT for Testicular Pain (Orchialgia) in Grand Rapids

9 Tips That You Need Pelvic Floor Therapy

Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Bladder Problems. What’s Going On?

Tailbone pain and How Pelvic Floor PT Can Help You! Plus Some Self-Care Tips!

What Does TMJ Physical Therapy Help?

Physical Therapy for Neck Pain and Headaches

Why Does My Ten Year Old Wet The Bed?

Why Does My Child Keep Wetting Their Pants?

Postpartum Pelvic Floor PT in Grand Rapids

What does Postpartum Pelvic Floor PT Treat?

If you are postpartum and wondering what postpartum pelvic floor PT in Grand Rapids would do for you, read on! We thought it might help you to hear of one woman’s recovery story with us. If, after reading this, you feel postpartum pelvic floor PT could help you, contact us!

Here’s a story of one woman we helped. Her problems: pelvic and perineal pain, pelvic floor dysfunction with bladder and bowel control problems, postpartum recovery following severe pelvic trauma with labor and delivery and pelvic reconstructive surgery.

Like all new moms, this woman was impressive! She worked full time, was in love with her baby, struggled with sleep deprivation and wanted to get back to being athletic. When we met, she was 6 months postpartum with problems of bladder/bowel control and pelvic instability, pelvic pain, pelvic floor weakness and diastasis recti abdominus (split abdominals). She experienced inner thigh and pubic pain with walking, exercising, moving in and out of positions when picking up her baby and when driving and moving her foot from gas to the brake. This pain was her dominant concern, but she also wasn’t happy to have embarrassing and unexpected loss of gas, problems with bladder control, a weak abdomen and a diastasis recti abdominus (split abdominals) as well as knee pains. Before I met her, when her baby was 4 months old, she had pelvic surgery to correct a serious injury from her labor and delivery. She had been referred to me by her urogynecologist surgeon, but had tried two other pelvic floor PTs prior to her surgery and before finding me. Neither of the prior pelvic health PTs could help her pain and she had been told that she needed to get in shape, but she found herself unable to exercise because of pain.

Her Goals:

Get pregnant again and be healthier before the pregnancy, down the line.
Get the adductor (inner thigh & pubic bone) pain to go away. “It prevents me from doing every other exercise.”
Regain the strength of the pelvic floor and muscle control.

We got to work right away with a comprehensive postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy evaluation. This included a detailed assessment of her:

Load transfer ability: This was impaired, she could not shift weight from one leg to another and keep her pelvis and low back in stable.
Strength: Poor all around, she was deconditioned, had weakness in her glutes, pelvic floor and abdominals and low back.
Abdominal wall integrity: Disrupted by a diastasis recti abdominus that caused ineffective and abnormal load transfer through her legs, pelvis and core)
Pelvic floor integrity & coordination: Integrity of the multiple layers of the pelvic floor was intact, but coordination was impaired and deficient, poor timing and firing of the muscles noted). This includes looking at pelvic floor strength and pelvic floor dysfunction.
Postoperative healing: She was doing well, but the vaginal tissues were fragile and needed to be treated delicately and carefully.

Her Plan of Care Included Hands-On Treatments and Graded, Specific and Careful Exercises to Promote Stability, Strength and Coordination

We worked together at each visit, with a very careful and coordinated plan to progressively help facilitate her recovery. This person’s treatment included a combination of therapeutic corrective exercises and hands-on manual therapy to her abdomen, low back hips and thighs and internally to her pelvic floor. Together we worked to optimize her muscles and her fascia, to improve her pelvic stability, to advance her strength and conditioning and to restore her pelvic floor, breath and core muscle coordination, timing and strength. If you might benefit from postpartum pelvic floor PT in Grand Rapids, we can offer the same specialized and personalized care for you! Contact us here to ask us a question or call 616.516.4334 to speak with our knowledgeable and caring staff to get started!

At Her 5th postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy appointment, she was feeling better! Less pain! Less Worry! Hope and optimism were born!

She arrived with a smile and noticeably less stressed. She reported this was because she was feeling better and seeing that we were making progress. Her postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy program was different than the other two physical therapists had recommended and it was detailed, systematic and progressive. She was feeling improvements and this gave her confidence that she was getting the help she needed.

By this fifth appointment she reported improvement in her pain:

“every now and again I get twinges of pain in my inner thighs or my abs, but it goes away. It doesn’t happen often. My walking is pretty good. Standing on one leg still hurts a little; I have to sit down to put on shoes and pants. It is unstable and some pain in the proximal adductor.”

Difficulty with standing on one leg is something that women with pelvic instability can experience.

We perform a comprehensive evaluation to determine what are the driving factors with balance, pelvic stability, muscular control and motor coordination. Then, once we know what is causing this pain and problem, we devise a program to systematically address all of the contributions to it. In her case, we provided a postpartum pelvic physical therapy program customized to her post-operative precautions and designed to optimize both her post-operative and her postpartum healing. The results of pelvic floor physical therapy are born from the wisdom and experience of a good pelvic health physical therapist to design an effective and comprehensive treatment program. Contact us today to learn more.

Not all pelvic health physical therapy is the same!

For this woman we were challenged to develop a pelvic health recovery program that gave a “Goldilocks” effect. You remember the childhood 3 Little Pigs tale, with Goldilocks finding the “just right” bed and porridge? We needed to evaluate and treat her with the “just right” methods of physical therapy. Enough to stimulate pelvic recovery, coordination and strength while also reducing pain and instability. Too fast, too aggressive or the wrong exercises and treatments and she was at risk for a huge flare up and possibly adverse healing. Too little or the wrong exercises and treatments and she was at risk for physical therapy not helping her, having no response and thinking “this doesn’t work and I’m never going to get better.” If you might benefit from postpartum pelvic PT in Grand Rapids, we are here to help you. Contact us today to learn more about our model of care.

We’ve Seen This Before & We Can Help You!

Because the physical therapists at Purple Mountain PT specialize in pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum recovery and pelvic floor dysfunction, we offer our patients an experienced eye assessing and treating your condition. We had seen this condition many times over the years.

By working with so many other postpartum women and having advanced training in pregnancy and post-partum pelvic floor physical therapy, our PTs know how to help our patients, even when they have tried other therapies or have complex problems.

This patient benefitted from the specialization our PTs have undertaken. All of our PTs have their doctor of physical therapy degree & also post-doctoral training specific to pregnancy and postpartum recovery, including in rehabilitation for complicated postpartum conditions, such as chronic pain and traumatic birth injuries. The pregnancy and postpartum physical therapists at Purple Mountain PT are also avid readers of clinical research and participants in professional education and societies.

We provide our postpartum patients comprehensive and wholistic care, which is what will help them feel better.

By treating the entire person, including the midback, low back, hips, abdominal wall, pelvic floor, balance, posture, strength, flexibility and more, our patients are able to feel better. In this woman’s case she had a diastasis recti abdominus, which is split abdominal muscles. In the last ten years there has been a lot of research, debate and clarifications on how to best treat this condition. Having kept up with all of this, our PTs are able to provide you current and effective methods to resolve diastasis recti abdominus. We love to work with women throughout their pregnancy and postpartum journey and find this work to be joyful and rewarding, because we see you get back to being confident in your body! If you are interested in learning more about our postpartum physical therapy here in Grand Rapids, Michigan or via telehealth for those who qualify, you can speak with one of our team members by reaching out here or calling 616-516-4334.

At 6 Months After Starting Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy She Was Roller Blading!

To help someone recovering after pregnancy and surgery requires a systematic and progress approach, customized to the person’s needs.

At 6 months after starting physical therapy, this patient returned with happiness reporting

“I’m feeling ok! I feel fine doing my core exercises (this is an improvement!). I went roller blading and felt good. I feel some soreness in my inguinal region, not like it was before, it is mildly sore, same as my abs. My knees and back have felt better. I’m doing all of the exercises you gave me and some extra squats throughout the day and my knees are fine.”

You can see this is a huge advancement in her activity tolerance. Rollerblading? That was absolutely out of the question when I first saw her, she would have had pelvic pain, possibly knee and low back pain also, possibly loss of gas or urine.

And, here she was able to roller blade without anything more than some soreness that was normal post-workout soreness! Her success with roller blading was a huge win and a reflection that all of our pelvic floor physical therapy had correctly addressed her myriad problem. If you would love to get back to doing something you enjoy, contact us to speak with our knowledgeable staff, get your questions answered and make an appointment today!

If you are interested in finding out more about postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy call us at 616-516-4334 or contact us here and we will be in touch!

This story gives you a glimpse into one woman’s experience of postpartum pelvic floor physical therapy. This woman had an unfortunate and complicated case and was able to get back to an active life and achieve her goals. Many women we help are fortunate to have fewer problems. But, most postpartum women do experience some challenges to their recovery. Even when they are feeling fine they don’t know exactly which exercises they should be doing. Or, they may experience some urinary leakage from time to time and don’t know how to get that to go away. If you wonder if postpartum pelvic floor PT in Grand Rapids could help you and have some questions, we are happy to chat to see if our care is a good fit for you. If you are interested to learn more about working with our pregnancy and postpartum specialist physical therapists, call 616-516-4334 to chat with one of our knowledgable team members who can answer your questions.

Blessings,

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT

Founder of Purple Mountain Physical Therapy

You may also be interested in these articles we’ve written related to pelvic health conditions

Exercise in Pregnancy: A Physical Therapists Perspective

What Can Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Help With?

Why Does My C-Section Scar Hurt Years Later?

Why Does Sex Hurt After Having a Baby?

Your physical therapy begins with a detailed evaluation that will provide you with extensive insights and education for why sex hurts after having your baby. We specialize in helping you overcome all pelvic pain, including when sex hurts.

At what point postpartum should you reach out to a pelvic physical therapist?

We recommend that our pregnant patients touch base with us over the phone within two weeks of giving birth.

If, however, at one or two weeks postpartum you are having substantial problems with pain, peeing or pooping, we recommend coming to physical therapy straight away to begin treatment.

If you are struggling with painful sex and confused about why does sex hurt after having a baby, we can provide you answers.

37.5% of women experience painful sex six months after giving birth. Sex shouldn’t hurt! Physical therapy can help you and will give you answers to why sex hurts for you after giving birth.

To determine why sex hurts after having your baby, our licensed physical therapists check for many problems that contribute to pain with sex and are also fully treatable with the help of our postpartum physical therapists. Some of the things we evaluation & treat include:

All of these issues can contribute to why sex hurts after giving a baby. The good news is that these are fully treatable with the skilled help of our licensed physical therapists.

Peace,

You may be alone and wondering why does sex hurt for your after having your baby? There are so many things that can help you, reach out to us today to speak with one of our knowledgable team members who can answer your questions about cost, availability and what to expect.

You may be interested in reading these other articles we’ve written about the treatment we offer:

Our TMJ Disorder and Pain Treatment:

Our pediatric bladder and bowel physical therapy services:

Our male pelvic health physical therapy services:

References for why does sex hurt after having a baby:

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT pelvic health PT specialist

Does Pelvic Floor Therapy Work for Prolapse?

Do you have a pelvic organ prolapse? Do you worry you will need major surgery to repair this?

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.

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.

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:

If prolapse physical therapy works, what does it include?

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

To Improve Your Prolapse, We Will Help You to be able to Urinate & Defecate Without Straining Your Organs

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.

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.

The way you move contributes to prolapse symptoms.

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.

Prolapse Symptoms Vary. Pelvic Floor Therapy for Prolapse can Help Bladder, Bowel, Intimacy, Pelvic Pain and Pressure Symptoms

Prolapse Physical Therapy Works by Holistically Treating You

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT pelvic health, pregnancy and postpartum specialist

Why does my c-section scar hurt years later?

What can you do for a cesarean scar that hurts years later?

If you experience challenges with your c-section recovery, our licensed physical therapists are here for you! We provide you a treatment plan that includes pelvic floor PT and helps resolve your chronic scar tissue pain.

How many women experience C-section scar pain?

One paper examined the prevalence of c-section scar pain found the following:

We recommend starting physical therapy before 3 months postpartum, especially if you are having pain. But, it is never too late to start! Some of our moms have adult children and are grateful to finally get the care they have needed for decades.

Our licensed physical therapists perform fascial release techniques that have been shown to help alleviate cesarean scar pain

In one study about c-section scar pain, women reported it hurt when:

Characteristics of chronic C-section scar pain

Adhesions, tension and stiffness causes chronic c-section scar pain?

When someone experiences chronic pain from a cesarean section or any other surgery, often we find that their healing process may have led to scar tissue that is contracted and stuck to surrounding structures.

What are some of the predictors that your C-section scar is going to hurt?

The risk factors for chronic c-section scar pain:

Could my bladder, bowel or prolapse symptoms be related to my c-section scar tissue?

About Purple Mountain PT’s Treatment for Chronic Pain in C-section Scars

Author| Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT specialist in pregnancy and postpartum recovery and c-section scars that hurt.

Should My C-section Scar Still Hurt?

About 7 in 100 Women will have chronic C-section scar pain. The good news is that PT can help alleviate this pain.

A C-Section That Has Healed Nicely Should have the Following:

Will Physical Therapy Help My Scar Tissue and Postpartum Recovery?

C-sections that hurt more than expected in the first 24 hours have a greater risk of long term pain.

What does a physical therapy treatment plan include for the healing process following cesarean delivery?

We always want to resolve any pain. If your c-section scar hurts, we will alleviate this. We are also fully trained in orthopedic physical therapy and treat all neck, back, hip, leg and feet pain.

All scars are treated, including c-section scar tissue as well as any scar from prior surgeries or injuries.

Abdominal muscle and tissue recovery is part of your treatment plan to help alleviate c-section scar pain and improve your ability to function.

We customize an exercise rehabilitation program to improve your strength. Postpartum moms need to retrain their muscles and body!

C-section recovery research found postpartum PT with a pregnancy, postpartum and pelvic health licensed PT gets you feeling better.

Do you want less pain, the ability to exercise and higher satisfaction with your c-section recovery? What’s holding you back?

Each of us deserves to not have pain, to move and exercise and to feel good about our postpartum recovery.

Our physical therapy provides you scar massage and visceral mobilization to help all of your scar tissue slides and glides better. Scar massage can help collagen remodel in a beneficial way!

Your C-section Scar may be contributing to your bladder control problems.

Your C-section scar may be contributing to your Pelvic Organ Prolapse

If your c-section scar hurts, we are here to help you!

You Have Found The Best Pelvic Floor PTs in Grand Rapids!

Pelvic Floor PT Explained!

Some patients tell us “I was skeptical this could help my urinary urgency and frequency, but now I’m a believer because it is so much better.”

What to Expect at Your First Appointment

It all begins with the first phone call!

Your Pelvic Floor Evaluation Appointment is Holistic and our Whole Body Framework ensures you receive comprehensive insights into the multiple contributions to your condition.

Your Pelvic PT Treatment Begins Day 1! This first visit, it is our goal to begin the process of healing!

Why Should I Choose to Come To Purple Mountain Physical Therapy?

Meet Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT Pelvic Health, Spine and TM Joint Disorder Physical Therapist. Founder of Purple Mountain PT. Wife, Mother.

Dr. Maureen founded Purple Mountain PT to provide specialized, one-on-one treatment to her patients by giving them the time needed (upto 55 minutes each appointment) and a whole-body framework to properly and holistically treat you.

Dr. Maureen O’Keefe, DPT is proud to be a member of numerous professional societies that are leading organizations in the field of pelvic health and pelvic research.

How Do I Get Started with Pelvic Floor PT? I Have Some More Questions.

Peace,