If you have been experiencing pelvic floor symptoms you might have visited your G.P. They may have sent you to see a Gynaecologist. For this to happen, your symptoms might have included:
Leaking urine when you cough, sneeze or laugh.
Leaking urine with running or exercise.
Leaking urine on the way to the toilet.
Getting lots of urgency and going often to empty your bladder.
You may feel a pressure sensation, like something is coming down within the vagina, throughout the day or after exercise/heavy lifting.
Have issues with controlling your bowel movements.
Have a lot of urgency to empty the bowels.
You cannot have sex due to pain at the entrance of the vagina or with deeper penetration.
Can't insert a tampon due to pain
You might find getting smears difficult or painful.
If that is the case they may recommend seeing a Women's Health Physiotherapist. If you have never seen a Physiothearapist for your pelvic floor you might not know what to expect. Here is a basic summary of what typically happens at your appointment.
The Questioning Stage:
After introductions I will often ask you at the beginning what brings you here. This might seem like an obvious question but listening to someones story is an important part of physiotherapy. From your story I can start to gather clues about what might be happening and what might be relevant to your symptoms. There will be questions gather information of the list of symptoms, looking at your bladder and bowel habits, issues with prolapse or issues with sex.
The time of your lift will also be relevant. Are you pregnant, postnatal, starting menopause or finished menopause? Have you given birth? Was it a vaginal or caesarean birth?
How this impacts on your life is important. Are these symptoms stopping you from being able to do a life or fitness goal.
The Assessment Stage:
If you are comfortable with having an internal assessment, one will likely be offered to you. It is your decision whether you would like to have one.
What might we be looking for? Here are some of the basics:
Assessing the strength of the pelvic floor muscles. Your ability to squeeze and to let the muscle go. Can you hold on?
Is there any pain or any tightness in the pelvic floor muscles.
How do the pelvic organs sit? If there is pressure what happens to them? What happens when the pressure is taken away?
This assessment can be performed in supine or may even be done in standing depending on the information we need to gather.
If there are any issues with a particular exercise we might want to also explore this if we have time after all the above in the first session. E.g. If you are struggling to lift you toddler or your shopping bags without feeling any prolapse symptoms this is something we will want to explore with movement and modifying this.
The Plan:
After we have ticked those boxes, the next step is to make a plan. This will all depend on what you want to be able to achieve. Having goals in mind for your physiotherapy session can be helpful. Together we can then look at bridging the gap between where you are now and where you would like to be.
If you want to get on top of pelvic floor symptoms, give me a message and we can see if you are suitable.
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