Do I Have a Pelvic Floor Disorder?

Many women suffer from symptoms that they believe to be “normal” after a certain age.  However, we now understand that isn’t necessarily the case, and pelvic floor dysfunction can be diagnosed and treated.

Common pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms include:

• urinary issues, such as the urge to urinate or painful urination
• constipation or bowel strains
• lower back pain
• pain in the pelvic region, genitals, or rectum
• discomfort during sexual intercourse for women
• pressure in the pelvic region or rectum
• muscle spasms in the pelvis

Although we don’t really understand causes, we can link pelvic floor dysfunction to:

• pregnancy and childbirth
• pelvic surgery 
• obesity or high body weight 
• excessive high impact sports
• sendentary lifestyle or  poor nutrition 
• improper bathroom technique 
• incorrectly performed kegel exercise
• childhood trauma
• stress

A common diagnosis for pelvic floor dysfunction that we often treat before and after surgery is pelvic floor prolapse. A prolapse occurs when the pelvic muscles and other supporting tissues become weak, which causes the organs in the pelvis to drop or fall out of place.

We also see patients who do not have prolapse but complain of some of the above dysfunctional symptoms. We recommend these patients see a specific internal pelvic floor physical therapist in addition to us working on the imbalances externally in their hip and pelvic musculature.  

Many of our pelvic floor patients have extremely tight pelvic floor musculature.  Once of the exercises we instruct them to do is for relaxation - deep diaphragmatic breathing with imagery.

While breathing , the client is to imagine the 4 points of the sitz bones, coccyx, & pubic bone to spread apart as if you are “ laying an egg”.

For more pelvic floor questions, concerns and exercises, contact us at Pilates Sante!