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The Femina Physical Therapy Blog
Featuring original articles by our staff about current events and trends
Explore our insightful blog articles on pelvic health, where we delve into essential topics that empower and educate. From understanding pelvic floor disorders to strategies for conquering infertility, our content is designed for those seeking knowledge and support. We discuss the latest research, expert advice, and practical tips to enhance your well-being and foster a deeper connection to your body.
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Endometriosis and Sexual Function Require a Specialized Approach
Endometriosis is a global disease affecting 5-15% of women during their reproductive years. It is characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus which can trigger a local inflammatory response and can have a significant impact on patients’ quality of life.
One such domain of quality of life that is often affected is the correlation between endometriosis and sexual function. The DSM-V defines sexual dysfunction as a clinically significant disturbance in a person’s ability to respond sexually or to experience pleasure and includes pelvic pain, penetration disorders, lack of sexual interest, and/or arousal and orgasm disorders. Unfortunately, it is common, as approximately 40% of women with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain suffer from sexual dysfunction.
Read more: Endometriosis and Sexual Function: A Multidisciplinary...
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Contraceptives and Sexual Function Considered
As pelvic floor physical therapists, we work with a lot of women who have some type of female sexual dysfunction, whether it may be pain with initial penetration, pain with deep thrusting/deep penetration, pain with orgasms, or decreased sexual arousal, desire, libido. Unfortunately, about 30-50% of women may suffer from these symptoms.
We often see women with sexual impairments have the following conditions/scenarios:
- Postpartum (regardless of delivery)
- Vaginismus (involuntary spasms of the pelvic floor muscles)
- Post-menopausal
- Vulvodynia
- Skin inflammatory conditions such as lichen sclerosus
Read more: What Do We Know About Contraceptives and Sexual Function?
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Did You Know Physical Therapy Can Help Endometriosis?
What is the link between endometriosis and painful sex?
Endometriosis is a global disease affecting 5-15% of women during their reproductive years. It is characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside of the uterus which can trigger a local inflammatory response and can have a significant impact on patients’ quality of life.
Sexual Function
One such domain of quality of life that is often affected is sexual function. The DSM-V1 defines sexual dysfunction as a clinically siginifcant disturbance in a person’s ability to respond sexually or to experience pleasure and includes: pelvic pain, penetration disorders, lack of sexual interest and/or arousal and orgasm disorders. Unfortunately, it is common, as approximately 40% of women with endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain suffer from sexual dysfunction.
Read more: Physical Therapy Can Help Endometriosis and Painful Sex
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What's the Connection Bewteen Eating Disorders and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?
Read on for some answers.
Eating disorders are unfortunately common, with at least 9% of people worldwide suffering from an eating disorder. This translates to 28.8 million Americans will have an eating disorder in their lifetime. There are different types of eating disorders (ED) including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Other than the typical psychological and social implications that these eating disorders may cause, they also can affect our pelvic health and lead to pelvic floor dysfunction. It can lead to incontinence (either urine or feces), prolapse, increased urinary urge, pelvic pain (possibly associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome or PCOS), constipation, and sexual dysfunction.
Read more: Eating Disorders and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction | ED...
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A Pelvic Floor PT Can Assist With Cervical Cancer and Recovery
Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer affecting women worldwide.
Luckily there are many wonderful treatments that can stop the cancer, either completely or from progressing further. However, the treatments do come with some unwanted side effects. But there is help and having a pelvic floor physical therapist added to your ervical cancer support team can truly guide you along the way.
Common Cervical Cancer Treatments
Some common treatments are pelvic external beam radiotherapy and/or brachytherapy, which unfortunately can adversely affect women’s sexual functioning and quality of life. Radiotherapy especially can cause vaginal stenosis, which is narrowing of the vaginal canal. This is due to radiation effects of collagen deposition, loss of elasticity in the vaginal tissue, and atrophic changes of the mucosa. Unfortunately, 88% of women after radiation will develop vaginal stenosis. As you can imagine, narrowing of the vaginal canal can impede women’s ability to tolerate penetrative sexual intercourse or gynecologic exams, for example.
Read more: Cervical Cancer and Recovery | A Pelvic Physical...
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What is IC or Interstitial cystitis?
IC is also known as bladder pain syndrome or painful bladder syndrome and is a debilitating condition that significantly affects the quality of life of patients living with it.
Many patients with IC have other overlapping pain conditions such as Dyspareunia (pain with intercourse). 88% of patients with IC had at least one symptoms of sexual dysfunction (lack of sexual interest, can’t relax and enjoy sex, difficulty becoming sexually aroused and difficulty reaching orgasm)1. Women with IC rated their sexual dysfunction as moderate to severe when compared to controls and reported increased pain with intercourse, decreased desire and decreased frequency of orgasm5,6.
Read more: What is IC and What Are The Symptoms? | Interstitial...
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Mental Health and Sexual Pain: Sexual Dysfunction is Not “In Your Head”.
We have seen that experiencing sexual pain CAN affect your mental health, and pre-existing mental health conditions can amplify sexual dysfunction.
This article will review the research related to these, but in reading, know that we believe your pain is real and should be addressed from all relevant contributing factors.
A very large range, about 7-46% of Americans may experience painful sex. For some, it may be a one-time painful experience, and for others, it may be every single time. This can have a huge effect on mental health and overall quality of life.
Read more: Mental Health and Sexual Pain: Having Sexual Pain Is Not...
