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Heather Jeffcoat, DPT
Getting Down With the Pelvic Floor
—And Getting Serious About Caring for It.
Thanks to a series of norm-shattering cultural movements—beginning with #MeToo and body positivity and continuing with the pleasure revolution—elements of sexual and reproductive health are being discussed openly like never before. Add to this major societal shift a pandemic that turned our attention to physical well-being in new and sex-plorative ways, and the stage is set for the next show of taboo-busting: The pelvic floor, that sling of muscles running from the pubic bone to the tailbone, is finally getting the attention it deserves. And in 2022, we’ll see pelvic floor health incorporated more readily into at-home wellness and in-clinic health care at all stages of life.
Contrary to popular belief, this muscle group exists in all people and serves a host of purposes outside of childbirth, including supporting the pelvic organs, controlling the bladder and bowels, and allowing for healthy sexual function. But although pelvic floor dysfunction is common—about 25 percent of people with a vagina and 10 percent of people with a penis experience at least one pelvic floor disorder—pelvic pain and conditions linked to dysfunction (like incontinence) have historically been regarded by medical practitioners as a necessary evil of having a uterus. “The messaging has been that little leaks are just part of being a lady,” says pelvic-floor physical therapist Sara Reardon, DPT. “But now, we’re seeing a shift toward normalizing the conversation instead of normalizing the problem.” In the future, she also predicts that discussion of the pelvic floor will be integrated into sex education, empowering more people to know that dysfunction isn’t inevitable.
In fact, caring for the pelvic floor muscles like you would any muscle group can help keep them in good shape—but doing so goes far beyond Kegels.
If you compare these muscles to your hamstrings, for example, you would never want to go on a hamstring curl machine, do three sets of 10, and never stretch them. And it’s a similar scenario with the pelvic floor,”
says pelvic floor physical therapist Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, owner of Femina Physical Therapy and president-elect of the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy.
The awareness that’s being built around making sure you can contract, relax, and lengthen your pelvic floor is a critical piece of information that all folks should have.”
Poised to solve for this piecemeal treatment approach is the growing industry of pelvic floor physical therapy, which is essentially like any kind of physical therapy, but geared specifically toward identifying muscular dysfunction in the pelvic floor region and developing a plan of targeted exercises and stretches to resolve it.
Pelvic floor physical therapy has a growing body of literature behind it that supports its use as a non-surgical way to help manage pelvic pain, prolapse, and leakage,”
says Dr. Jeffcoat.
To learn more about the growing industry of pelvic floor physical therapy, continue to the full article here.
