Pelvic Floor Therapy

What is the Pelvic Floor?

The pelvic floor is composed of the deepest muscle layers and ligaments of the core and these muscles act as the foundation for all body movements. Everyone has pelvic floor muscles!

The pelvic floor muscles, along with offering foundational support and stability during body movements, have many other important roles. These include providing pelvic organ support (bowel, bladder, intestines to name a few), maintaining continence (of urine, gas, feces), lymphatic pumping (contracting and relaxing helps with lymph fluid movement in and out of pelvis), and sexual function (contracting and relaxing pelvic floor muscles allow for blood flow in and out of the pelvis which allows for arousal, orgasm and ejaculation).

Dysfunction of the pelvic floor can be seen in various capacities. Pelvic floor dysfunction can arise from pregnancy, scar tissue restrictions (following surgeries of back, abdomen, hip, pelvis), poor bowel or bladder habits, chronic constipation, chronic lower back or hip pain, chronic stress, tailbone injury, pelvic organ prolapse, straining during high demand fitness pursuits, heavy lifting, and cycling.

Pelvic floor muscles are much like other muscles in the body in their response to physical therapy. Physical therapy techniques can help to release muscles that are tight and painful and strengthen muscles that are weak. Pelvic floor physical therapy involves patient education to help empower the patient in their self care and during their rehabilitation process.

What Are Common Pelvic Floor Problems?

  • Urinary incontinence (losing control of urine with activity, coughing, laughing, sneezing, strong urgency)
  • Urinary frequency (urinating more than 7-9 times per day)
  • Gas incontinence (losing control of gas when not preferred/expected)
  • Fecal incontinence (losing control of feces)
  • Incomplete bladder or bowel emptying
  • Muscle dysfunction causing voiding difficulties due to chronic constipation
  • Pelvic pain – perineal pain, rectal pain, groin pain, pubic pain
  • Chronic non-bacterial prostatitis
  • Interstitial cystitis
  • Abdominal adhesions
  • Abdominal pain, pressure, or heaviness
  • Coccyx or Tailbone pain
  • Sacral pain and sacroiliac joint dysfunction
  • Erectile Dysfunction
  • Urinary incontinence post prostatectomy
  • Penile or testicular pain
  • Pelvic Organ Prolapse – uterus, bladder, intestines, rectum
  • Vaginal, vestibule or vulvar pain
  • Pain with intercourse
  • Inability to orgasm
  • Pain and restrictions along C-section or episiotomy scar

Services

A pelvic floor therapist works directly with patients and physicians to establish clear treatment goals and a customized plan of care. Therapy sessions may include the following techniques:

Manual Therapy

  • Internal vaginal or internal rectal muscle release
  • Neural & joint mobilization
  • Myofascial release
  • Positional release
  • Trigger-point therapy
  • Soft tissue mobilization
  • Connective tissue mobilization
  • Scar tissue massage
  • Visceral mobilization

Education

  • Dietary/Fluid modifications
  • Relaxation & breathing techniques
  • Urge suppression techniques
  • Bladder and bowel retraining
  • Biofeedback utilization to improve awareness and function of muscles
  • Kegel Training / Pelvic floor muscle strengthening
  • Prenatal and Postnatal Exercises
  • Self-treatment techniques to utilize at home

Therapeutic Exercises

  • Improve strength, endurance, coordination, and flexibility of pelvic floor muscles along with other core and hip muscles
  • Establish a home exercise program
  • Postpartum rehabilitation to improve overall activity level and care-taking abilities

What is a Pelvic Floor Therapist?

A Pelvic Floor therapist has received specialized training on pelvic anatomy, symptoms and treatment associated with the pelvis, abdomen, hip and lower back. Pelvic floor physical therapists are trained to perform external evaluations as an orthopedic physical therapist along with specialized training to perform internal vaginal and internal rectal assessments and treatments. Therapists provide one-on-one patient interactions, in a private treatment room, to provide confidential treatments based on the newest research and techniques. Each treatment is individually designed with a focus on improving quality of life.

At Grayslake Rehabilitation, Physical Therapy and Wellness, the pelvic floor therapist is Kristin Kenny, PT, DPT.