What Pelvic Physical Therapy Can Do for You

Pelvic physical therapy is a way to treat problems with the pelvic floor, such as urinary incontinence and prolapse of the pelvic organs.

Physical therapists working with the pelvic floor use various methods to help your pelvic muscles, tendons, and ligaments work again. These include exercises, hands-on therapy, and learning to coordinate your movements.

A pelvic floor is a group of muscles that run from the pubic bone (in the front) to the tailbone (in the back) (back). They work with other small muscles, nerves, and soft tissues to make a sling supporting the bladder, uterus, rectum, and urethra.

When the pelvic floor is weak or hurt, it can cause problems with the bladder and bowels, such as incontinence, painful urination, inability to have a bowel movement, and other symptoms. Physical therapists can help with these problems by strengthening the muscles, which helps support the urinary tract.

Physical therapists working with the pelvic floor can help you strengthen your pelvic muscles in many ways, such as Kegel exercises, toileting mechanics, education, and manual therapy. They may also use biofeedback, which involves putting a small sensor in your vaginal canal or skin and using electrodes to send information about how your pelvic muscles move to a computer. This helps you use reinforcement techniques to take control of your pelvic muscles on your own.

In regular physical therapy, the focus is on restoring function from the feet to the head. In pelvic floor physical therapy, on the other hand, the focus is on strengthening internal muscle groups and getting rid of pain from problems with those muscle groups. This can help women with chronic pelvic pain and painful sexual activity improve the way their bladder, rectum, and uterus work.

Physical therapy for the pelvis can also help men who leak urine or urinate before they should. This treatment helps them better control their bowels and bladders and lowers their risk of prolapsing.

A pelvic physical therapist will examine the back, hips, stomach, and pelvic floor muscles. She will check these areas for tightness or weakness to determine what's wrong.

She will also test the strength of the muscles and treat the pelvic area with trigger point release and visceral mobilization. She will also break up scar tissue in places where stiffness or pain is a problem. She will also show you stretches to make your hips, legs, and back feel less tight.

Pelvic floor physical therapy is a type of physical therapy that focuses on your pelvic area's muscles, bones, and connective tissues. Your bowels and bladder work well because of these muscles.

Many things can make pelvic floor muscles weaker. This can cause pain, problems with the bladder or bowels (like the need to go to the bathroom right away or constipation), and other problems.

Your therapist might write down a list of your symptoms and ask how you feel in different places and when doing different things. This can help them figure out how to help your pelvic floor work better.

Your therapist will give you some exercises to strengthen and relax your pelvic floor muscles and tips on how to do them right. You could also learn about trigger points, which are places in the pelvic muscles where the muscles are tight.

Biofeedback is a non-invasive therapy that measures changes in the way your body works by using sensors. Some of these could be how you breathe, the temperature of your skin, the tone of your muscles, and how your sweat glands work.

During a biofeedback session, your physical therapist or doctor will put a small sensor on your stomach and another inside your vagina or anus. These sensors can tell when your pelvic floor muscles, which control your bladder and bowels, are tight or loose.

This feedback can help you and your PT finds the right muscles to work out, which can help other treatments work better. Then, you can do these exercises at home between sessions to improve your skills and feel better about yourself.

Biofeedback can help people with long-term pain feel like they are in charge of their bodies again. It can teach them how to control their body's automatic functions on purpose, which can help them feel less pain and anxiety.