Benefits of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
Living with pelvic health issues can be frustrating and disruptive to daily life. Whether you're experiencing pain, incontinence, or other symptoms, finding effective treatment is essential. Pelvic floor physical therapy is the solution you have been looking for. If you are in Atlanta, look no further, you have found your guidance with us at Empower Physical Therapy and Wellness.
Pelvic floor physical therapy focuses on strengthening and rehabilitating the muscles in the pelvic area, which can help alleviate symptoms and improve overall pelvic health. We take things a step further and make sure we are getting to the root cause of your issue which sometimes comes from outside your pelvis. By addressing the root causes of issues we are able to get long lasting results.
Most people have not heard of pelvic floor physical therapy, so we are here to tell you a little about what we do and how we can help reduce your discomfort, regain control of your body and improve your quality of life.
Whether you have never been pregnant, are pregnant, a mom struggling with postpartum issues (even if you are 10+ years postpartum), you are dealing with age related pelvic health concerns we are here to help you understand all things about your pelvic floor and how we can help. If you are in the Atlanta area, make sure to give us a call!
Understanding the pelvic floor muscles and their importance
Your pelvic floor is a group of muscles that span the bottom of your pelvis. They have several important functions. Together all of the muscles
help to stabilize your spine and pelvis,
help support organs above,
help manage intra abdominal pressure,
help you pee and poop when you are ready
play a vital role in helping you have enjoyable sexual function.
Your pelvic floor is not just one muscle, in fact, it is made up of 14 different muscles as well as fascia. If you want to learn about specifics of your pelvic floor, check out our blog on What the Pelvic Floor Is.
The best description of how they move is like a trampoline where it descends down and lifts up. It does this in response to moving, breathing, and lifting to help keep us stable, manage pressure and support organs as well allowing us to void when necessary.
The system in which your pelvic floor works within
Your pelvic floor works within a system called your core canister. It moves like a trampoline as part of that system.
Think of a canister in front of you. The top of that canister is your diaphragm, the bottom your pelvic floor, the front and side your deepest core muscle called your trans versus abdominus and the back the small muscles between your spine called your multifidi. All of these need to work together for the system to work optimally. If one is tight or not strong the other parts of the system need to pick up the slack and therefore the demand is increased on other structures which can lead to issues. This is why your pelvic floor is way more than doing a kegel. It works with muscles and finding the root cause of your problem within the system is what will give you lasting results versus just treating symptoms.
Common reasons to see pelvic floor physical therapist
Stress Urinary Incontinence
This is the involuntary loss of urine. It happens frequently with coughing, sneezing, jumping, running but can also happen with walking or changing position. This is a common complaint especially after childbirth or during perimenopause or menopause, however it is not something you just need to deal with, pelvic floor physical therapy can help.
Pain With Sex or Dysparuenia
Sex should not be painful and it is not just something you need to suffer with. Pain with sex is usually seen with some tension throughout the pelvic floor. Think of any tight muscle; like your ITB (the muscle on the side of your hip/leg) if you were to foam roll a tightened ITB it would feel uncomfortable. The tightness in your pelvic floor can produce pain upon penetration.
Urinary Frequency
Does your day revolve around when you can go to the bathroom or do you always know where the bathrooms are? Your bladder can become conditioned to empty when it is only ½ or ¼ full versus when it is full. This will prompt you to go to the bathroom more frequently but good news pelvic floor physical therapy can help.
Pelvic Organ Prolpase
Pelvic organ prolapse is when your pelvic organs descend downward. It can happen to your bladder, urethra, uterus, and/or rectum. A lot of people will describe pressure or heaviness as a main complaint. Some people have no complaint of feeling anything, except when wiping they felt something.
Birth Prep
Optimal pelvic floor function is vital during delivery. It needs to stretch (at most up to 247% of its normal length) in addition to your pelvis, sacrum, and tailbone (which your pelvic floor attaches into) need to open. Making sure all of this can happen can help make delivery easier. We plan for other physically difficult tasks in life to make it easier and planning and prepping for birth should be another.
Postpartum Recovery
During pregnancy, your body goes through 9 months of changing placing increased stress and strain on your muscles, joints and ligaments. During delivery, whether it is a vaginal or a cesarean it goes through even more stress causing direct trauma to your pelvis, pelvic floor and/or abdomen depending on the method of delivery. Mamas should receive care to get their body back into normal alignment and posture, improve the strength of muscles like abdominals that have been stretched as well as improve coordination and reactive ability of the pelvic floor that has had increased stress placed against it from the weight of the baby.
What to expect during your first pelvic floor Physical therapy session.
Your first session starts with a detailed evaluation. We go through a comprehensive subjective history where we learn about what your symptoms are, what makes them better/worse, when they started, possible contributing factors and what YOUR goals are.
We will then go through an objective evaluation where we look at how you move, your mobility, your strength, your breathing patterns, if there is tenderness/tightness anywhere, and the coordination of your pelvic floor. We go over all of our findings and then come up with a plan together to achieve your goals.
Do i need to have an internal assessment?
An intravaginal or internal exam can be helpful to give more information about your pelvic floor but it is not something you have to do. As pelvic floor physical therapists, we are trained to assess the pelvic floor muscles, just like a regular physical therapist would assess the muscles on the front of your leg; the big difference is the best way to feel and assess your pelvic floor is through direct contact which is done through an intravaginal exam.
It is however not something you have to do. You can make changes and achieve your goals without an internal assessment.
Do i need to shave for my sessions?
Shaving, waxing ,sugaring whatever you want to use for personal grooming is your personal decision. You do not need to do any hair removal before your appointment.
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy treatment
Treatment in pelvic floor physical therapy is specific for each patient, however, some of the common treatments that are used are:
Manual Therapy
Manual therapy for pelvic floor physical therapy can involve joint mobilization, scar mobilization, soft tissue mobilization, and visceral mobilization.
Dry Needling
Dry Needling is a technique that uses needles however there is no medication in the needles, hence the name dry. They are acupuncture-sized needles and can help to increase blood flow, decrease pain, and decrease tightness.
Breathwork
Breathwork can do amazing things to improve pelvic floor conditions. It helps improve balance to the autonomic nervous system (imbalance can contribute to pelvic floor symptoms) as well as helps improve mobility of your pelvic floor and coordination of your pelvic floor and your diaphragm which has to happen to work well as part of your core canister.
Pelvic floor strengthening and coordination
Exercises will focus on strengthening your pelvic floor however it will not just be in isolation, like doing a kegel. This is not how your pelvic floor functions therefore we focus on strengthening your pelvic floor in the way it was designed to work. Your pelvic floor helps with supporting organs, stabilizing your pelvis/spine, and controlling voiding yes because of some of its strength but it also needs to lift or lengthen when appropriate and that is where coordination becomes vital to decrease symptoms.
Mobility exercises
We want to ensure balance within your core canister therefore mobility work to make sure your spine, rib cage, pelvic floor, diaphragm, and abdominals can move well is important. If they can not move through their full range of motion they will have difficulty helping you in all situations. We also look down to your hip and foot. If your hip and foot are not moving well to help absorb shock and provide strength it can increase demand and work to your pelvic floor contributing to dysfunction.
Strengthening exercises
Strengthening your core canister allows it to function optimally which helps decrease symptoms. Strengthening supporting muscles is also important for lasting results. If these are weak, it can put extra strain on your core canister, contributing to your core canister functioning suboptimally, and to symptoms.
Cupping
Cupping uses a negative pressure to manipulate fascia and soft tissue. This helps improve tightness, improve lymphatic drainage, and decrease pain.
Lifestyle and self-care practices to help improve pelvic health
There are many easy changes we can make to our daily lives that can make huge improvements in the health of our pelvic floor. Proper hydration and dietary choices can both have a positive effect on pelvic health.
Ensuring adequate fluid intake can improve bladder and bowel function.
The recommended liquid intake per day is half of your body weight and the majority of that should be water.
Proper hydration helps regulate bowel movements to decrease constipation.
Drinking the appropriate amount of water helps your bladder stay happy and empty when appropriate. Most people try to limit the amount they drink to help their bladder symptoms however this makes urine less diluted and more irritating to the bladder which contributes to symptoms.
Foods and drinks can be irritating to your bladder which can contribute to your pelvic health dysfunction. An easy way to determine this is to track your intake and how much you are urinating and as well as the urges associated with it. Irritants are different for everyone but tracking it may help. Some common irritants are:
caffeine
carbonated beverages
acidic foods
alcohol
tomato-based foods
Ingesting foods that are rich in fiber can help regulate bowel function to help decrease constipation which can have a positive benefit on pelvic health.
Moving throughout your day is very beneficial. Our bodies crave movement and perform better when they are not stuck in one position. Getting activity throughout your day can have amazing impacts on your pelvic health
Finding a pelvic floor physical therapist
Finding a pelvic floor physical therapist can be difficult because not all physical therapists are specialized in the pelvic floor. If you are in the Atlanta area; look no further you can come in and see us. If you are not, we do offer virtual sessions.
If you want to see someone in person make sure you find someone you are comfortable with. Pelvic floor physical therapy involves very intimate parts of your life. Therefore making sure you find a pelvic floor physical therapist you trust and are comfortable with is important.
We also highly recommend finding someone who commonly treats why you are searching for care. For example, if you do crossfit, making sure you find a pelvic floor physical therapist who is comfortable getting people back to lifting heavy is important.
To find a pelvic floor physical therapist in your area, check out our blog which goes into more detail about how to find a pelvic floor physical therapist and what questions to ask when making an appointment.
Insurance coverage and cost considerations of pelvic floor physical therapy
Is pelvic floor physical therapy covered by insurance? This is a common question we get asked. The answer is, it depends. Some are in-network with insurance companies and some are not. This is very similar to regular orthopedic physical therapists as well.
You will generally see more pelvic floor physical therapists who are out of network. There are multiple reasons for this.
Many issues involving the pelvic floor tend to involve multiple systems and areas of your body. To get to the root cause of your symptoms; this can involve looking outside of the pelvis. Unfortunately, insurance companies limit you to treating just the area that the patient is coming in for and this limits our treatment thus limiting lasting results.
Insurance companies dictate when and what can be involved in someone’s treatment. Many pelvic floor physical therapists, including us decided they want to be the one who is dictating treatment for their patients versus someone who is sitting at a desk at an insurance company
Treatment needs to be medically necessary for insurance companies to pay for coverage. The definition of medical necessity is far off from what a lot of people think of as normal. As long as the person can go about their daily tasks, that is achieving medical necessity. If you are a runner and want to get back to your normal 5 mile runs; the insurance company does not think this is necessary and does not pay for it. We want to get our patients back to what they love to do, what makes them happy and healthy not what the insurance company says is normal.
The average price for pelvic floor physical therapists varies between companies and states. In the Atlanta area, the average is about $200/visit. This is individualized one-on-one treatment for an hour. You are not spending 20 minutes with your physical therapist and having a tech take you through the remaining portion of your appointment. Your trained and skilled physical therapist is providing your entire care getting you better faster!
pelvic floor physical therapy success stories
Hopefully, you took away a lot of new information on what your pelvic floor is, how it works, and how pelvic floor physical therapy can be the solution to changing your life! There is a lot more to the pelvic floor and how it affects specific conditions, therefore if you have any questions don't hesitate to contact us directly with the contact info below. If you are local to the Atlanta area give us a call and come in to see us!
Dig Deeper: Uncover More Secrets to Pelvic Floor Health
Hi! We are Dr.Aimee and Dr. Lauren
We are the owners of Empower Physical Therapy and Wellness. We are pelvic floor physical therapists who specialize in helping women from pregnancy, into postpartum and through perimenopause, menopause and then beyond! We believe all women deserve to do all of the things they love without symptoms!
You can contact us via our website, email at hello@weempowerpt.com or social media!
The information provided in this blog is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or symptoms. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any medical or healthcare institutions.