How Women’s Health Physical Therapy Can Change Your Life

The first thing you are probably asking is: What is women’s health physical therapy?

In women’s health physical therapy we address muscles that are often ignored. The pelvic floor is a network of muscles that stretch across the bottom of the pelvis. These muscles are part of our core that control our bowel and bladder functions. They also help keep our back stabilized, maintain correct abdominal pressure and keep us balanced.

When these muscles aren’t working the way they should be, a number of different issues can occur including:

  • Stress incontinence
  • Urinary urgency
  • Pelvic pain
  • Sexual dysfunction

These issues often go ignored for years with women feeling that “it’s a part of aging” or “that’s what happens when you have kids.” It doesn’t have to be that way…

I got into women’s health because I saw the impact it can make in improving the quality of people’s live.

Mom and daughterWe had a young woman come in. She was 25 years old and she was receiving care for back pain, but the reason she was having back pain was because during labor she slipped 3 disks in her low back. She also had pelvic pain so bad that she couldn’t stand for maybe two minutes at a time. She was 25 years old, she wasn’t able to hold her own baby, and her marriage was falling apart, because it had been almost a year since having the baby and her and her husband still were unable to have sex.

She was receiving care from us for her back pain and she was also seeing another therapist that was treating her pelvic pain. Just the things she was saying on how it turned her life around really made me want to go into women’s health physical therapy. Now I get to be part of the journey in helping women improve their quality of life.

The leading cause of why people end up in nursing homes is because of incontinence.

So if we can solve that problem before we ever get to that age, that’s a big change in people’s lives. A huge change! But it tends to be that people’s quality of life really needs to break down before they find me. It has to be that they are in so much pain that their relationship is falling apart or they are nervous going out with friends, because they are worried they are going to pee their pants when they get up to dance.

You don’t need to get to that point of desperation. Some everyday issues that women’s health physical therapy can help with is:

  • Say you are a runner and when you get home you notice your underwear is a little wet. It hasn’t really impacted your life much yet, but you are starting to have some leakage. You know…you are in your 20s or 30s and you shouldn’t be having leakage. Once you notice that, it’s time to get started with PT.
  • Or women who find themselves rushing to the bathroom all day long. You know getting up from their desk 6 or 7 times while they are at work, because all of the sudden they had to go pee. That’s something we can change before you have an accident at work.

Be proactive. The most important thing to remember when you come in for women’s health physical therapy is that you and I are a team. We will work together to get you back to optimal health.

If you have questions about your specific problem please schedule a free pain consultation with me or email me at [email protected].

By Kirsten Twaite, DPT

Back in Motion Physical Therapy – Portland Clinic

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