Start Your Pelvic Health Journey
Alphabetical Index of Articles on Women's Sexual, Pelvic Floor, and Reproductive Health
How to Involve Your Partner in Your Pelvic Floor Therapy
Involving your partner in your pelvic floor therapy may improve your outcomes and your relationship.
Here are some ways you can involve your partner in your pelvic floor physical therapy:
Start Talking About Your Experience.
Both studies and clinical experience have shown that talking to your partner about your sexuality, pelvic floor issues, and sharing the progress you’re making in pelvic floor therapy can improve anxiety, reduce pain levels, and bring more intimacy to your relationship. As you transition to sex with your partner, sexual assertiveness will also help you find activities, angles, and positions that feel pleasurable, not painful to you and your partner.
Pelvic Floor Therapy
Unlike other offices, your first visit to Femina Physical Therapy is a thorough 85 minute evaluation.
Here's an outline of what to expect when it comes to pelvic floor therapy.
The goal of this initial evaluation is to understand all the different layers that could possibly be contributing to your condition. Once we understand the root causes of your issue, we will formulate a treatment plan to help you start feeling better, experiencing less pain, and getting back to the activities that you care about.
Well + Good | The Surprising Benefits of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
The popular website Well + Good has been featuring a lot of content on the benefits of pelvic floor physical therapy lately, and though it's one thing to do the research and write about what you find, it's the next step of having the author actually experience the process for themselves that can really bring the issue to light. This is exactly what Natalie Arroyo Camacho has done in this latest article, and it's perhaps their most informative piece yet on the topic. Read on for excerpts from the article interspersed with my own thoughts and comments.
Heather Jeffcoat, DPTThe Many Benefits of Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Are Still Being Discovered
Despite its increased recognition as valuable therapy for many symptoms, there is still a lot to be learned
Natalie begins with some thoughts on what she was expecting from her session and how wrong she was about her preconcieved notions. She expected something akin to a Pilates class, perhaps in part because she had seen so much info on Pilates and yoga on our site. She may have been surprised to discover that Pilates and yoga are only one aspect of what we offer:
What is Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy and How Can it Help You?
What is pelvic floor physical therapy?
When you are suffering from neck or shoulder pain, it is common to go see a physical therapist to help correct any issues with like alignment, movement, strength, and flexibility to reduce pain and improve function. Pelvic floor physical therapy is performed by physical therapists with advanced training to help correct those same issues in the pelvis, lower extremities, spine, and abdomen.
Pelvic floor muscles: What are they?
The inside of the pelvis is lined with muscles referred to as the pelvic floor muscles, these muscles are made of the same types of muscle tissue as other parts of the body, like the neck or shoulder. Similarly, the pelvis is home to ligaments, nerves, fascia, and bones, just like other parts of the body. Pelvic floor physical therapy utilizes an inegrative approach to get all of these functions working together as they should.
Why See a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist?
A 101 on the credentials, training, and skills of a pelvic floor physical therapist
Two recently published articles, in the International Urogynecology Journal and in Neurourology and Urodynamics talk about the positive outcomes of treatment with trained pelvic floor therapists. Today is a basic rundown of what kinds of credentials, training, and skills a pelvic floor physical therapist has to offer you.
Credentials
Pelvic floor therapists are often physical therapists (PT), a discipline that requires academically rigorous coursework and covers topics from anatomy and kinesiology, to neuroscience, and the evaluation, treatment, and management of common diagnoses. They are also trained in a medical system, and are aware of "red flags" in signs and symptoms that patients may present with. These "red flags" will typically require additional medical referral to rule in or out (i.e. suspected masses, infection, etc).
You will often find a jumble of letters after your pelvic floor therapist’s name. Here is a breakdown of what those letters mean:
PT, MPT, MSPT, or DPT: These letters represent the degree that your pelvic floor physical therapist earned. For many years, physical therapists earned a bachelor's degree prior to becoming licensed. Later, schools transitioned to master's degree programs. The letters MPT or MSPT indicates a master's degree in physical therapy. Most programs today now train therapists for a DPT degree, which stands for doctorate of physical therapy.
