SynergyManualPT_Women's Health

How A Physical Therapist Can Treat Pelvic Pain

Staff Spotlight

I have been treating patients with pelvic floor dysfunction for almost 20 years. Patients ask me all the time how in the world, I started treating the pelvic floor. I pursued a specialty in pelvic health for three reasons: My mother was a Teresa Kenens MPT, COMT

labor and delivery nurse. She would come home from a particularly dramatic delivery and be demonstrative about everything that may have occurred during the labor and delivery process. I think she did that to keep me chaste in high school, which worked. That seemed like a terrible result of unprotected sex. The next reason, I would always read letters to the editor in my mother’s Good Housekeeping Magazine about how after women would have babies, they would either have bladder leakage or pain with intercourse or “things just didn’t feel right.” I felt like that didn’t seem fair to the ladies. The third reason I went into treating pelvic floor dysfunction is that, when I got out of school 20 years ago, it was a tough time to be a PT, and I felt like I needed a niche. So, I took my first class and was hooked, knowing that I could improve the quality of life for so many people. I go to work every day, knowing that I am improving my patients’ quality of life. When they come in and say, “I was able to attend my grandson’s soccer game without peeing myself,” or “I was able to have sex withmy husband and not have pain and cry in the pillow” or after a prostatectomy for prostate cancer, “I was able to play a round of golf without leakage”—this is why I believe that treating pelvic floor dysfunction is my calling and how it can help almost everyone in the community.

Every patient presenting with chronic pelvic pain is unique. If youcome toseeaphysical therapist for yourpelvicdysfunction, you’ll be taken through a thorough physical examination and patient history questionnaire. He or she will ask you specific questions about your pain, what makes it worse and better, and whether you have a history of any related issues. Based on the results of the examination, your physical therapist can then develop a customized treatment plan to relieve your symptoms and address the suspected underlying causes to prevent recurring dysfunction. Common physical therapy treatments may include: • Soft tissue mobilization and massage of internal and external pelvic musculature, to relieve muscle tension and provide pain relief. • Spinal and sacroiliac joint manipulations to reset the neurological pathway, relieve pain, and restore normal spinal alignment. • Electrical stimulation modalities , such as neuromuscular electrical stimulation to provide pain relief and restore normal neuromuscular activation of pelvic floor muscles and nerves. • Therapeutic exercises to restore the normal strength, flexibility, and endurance of stabilizing postural muscles in the low back and hips. Struggling with pelvic pain? Frustrated and concerned about incontinence? For both short-term and long-lasting relief without the need from invasive interventions or medications, consider consulting with a physical therapist today. Source: http://www.bing.com/search?q=physical+therapy+treatment+of+pelvic +pain&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid=

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