PELVIC FLOOR THERAPY
What is it exactly?
Have you ever been to therapy to rehab an injured knee or shoulder? Pelvic floor therapy encompasses a lot of the same principles, but it focuses on an individual’s pelvic floor and surrounding structures.
Everyone has a pelvic floor, it is layers of muscles, nerves and ligaments that sits within the pelvic bowl and attaches from the pubic bone to your tailbone. It has 5 main functions: supports your internal organs, contains sphincter control for bowel and bladder, sexual function, stability for the trunk, and sump pump to move lymphatic fluid from legs to the heart.
The pelvic floor works together with your core and diaphragm, so if any of these areas are not functioning properly then problems can arise. Some of the symptoms that can arise from pelvic floor dysfunction are: urinary or fecal incontinence, pelvic pain, pain with intercourse/insertion, erectile dysfunction, pregnancy and birth trauma, diastasis recti, constipation, back and/or hip pain, pelvic organ prolapse, difficulty returning to exercise or weight lifting, and many more.
The good news is that these symptoms can be managed with pelvic floor physical therapy.
