When pelvic muscles, connective tissue, and pelvic organs are not working optimally, a woman may experience signs and symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction.
These symptoms can include:
A bulge in the vaginal canal.
A feeling of heaviness or dragging in the perineum or vagina.
Difficulty emptying bowels or bladder.
Low back, Sacro-iliac Joint pain, hip, or abdominal pain.
Painful intercourse.
More frequent use of the toilet.
Urinary urgency that does not correlate to the volume being voided.
Not making it to the toilet on time.
Leaking of bowel or bladder with increases in intra-abdominal pressure such as w/exercise, coughing, or sneezing.
Feeling like something is falling out of the vagina.
Difficulty inserting a tampon.
Menopause & Aging = Pelvic Floor Dysfunction? True or False?
Menopause and aging are both risk factors for developing pelvic floor dysfunction but different stages of a woman's life can also have an impact.
Development of functional reserve during growth - this happens when a girl doesn't develop a solid pelvic floor throughout childhood and adolescence. It can be impacted by genetics, nutrition, and environment (including sports she participated in).
Variations in the amount of injury and potential recovery that occur during and after vaginal birth - factors in this stage are pelvic floor size and shape, as well as strength of the tissue, size of the baby and position during birth, use of obstetrical interventions to assist birth, and amount of time spent pushing.
Deterioration that occurs with advancing age. Again, genetics can come into play at this stage, chronic constipation which increases pelvic floor stress and strain over time, obesity and/or higher BMI, steroid treatments, medical diagnoses such as diabetes, hypertension, or connective tissue disorders; occupations involving heavy lifting, chronic coughing, estrogen loss, younger age at first birth and number of pregnancies reaching full term; history of eating disorder, history of pelvic surgery.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is not just something women have to "deal with" as they get older.
All of these symptoms have a significant impact on a woman's mental health and physical well being. It is a sensitive topic and embarrassing which causes many women to avoid discussion. While these symptoms are very common, they are not inevitable nor are they untreatable.
Treatments to improve pelvic floor function can be provided by a Pelvic Health PT.
Some strategies used are:
Connect breathing to understand the breath body connection and the "cylinder" that is formed by the core muscles to create and maintain appropriate intra-abdominal pressure with varying activities.
Pelvic floor endurance exercises which are isolated exercises held for a longer duration of 6-8 sec/rep to address the slow twitch muscle fibers which make up approximately 70% of pelvic floor musculature.
Pelvic floor exercises for strength which address faster contractions to build strength that can be used in daily life and exercise routines. This is performed by integrating quick, intense pelvic floor contractions in conjunction with a daily task or exercise.
Be Brave.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is not just something women have to "deal with" as they get older. Be brave and reach out to address pelvic health issues with either your MD, gynecologist, or pelvic health PT.
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