Pelvic Floor Therapy | St. Peter's Health

Pelvic floor therapy specializes in assessing and treating problems that arise from the group of muscles within the pelvis that support your organs and create the base of your core muscles. The pelvic floor muscles primarily support the bladder and bowels and function of these systems.

Pelvic floor dysfunction can occur when muscles in the pelvic floor and lower abdominal cavity are not working correctly. This can be due to lack of coordination, weakness or increased muscle tension.

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Symptoms

Pelvic floor conditions can have isolated symptoms, such as incontinence or prolapse. Pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms are usually accompanied by a history of low back, hip, sacroiliac joint or abdominal pain.

Sometimes there is a known cause for pelvic floor dysfunction symptoms, such as side effects related to cancer treatment, trauma, childbirth or surgery. Other times, the cause is unknown and symptoms can worsen over time.

St. Peter’s Approach to Pelvic Floor Therapy

Your pelvic floor physical therapist at St. Peter’s Health can help you identify the source of your problem, decrease your symptoms and prevent them from re-occurring.

Your pelvic floor therapist will conduct a thorough evaluation, paying attention to your privacy and comfort.

Your therapist will teach you appropriate pelvic floor strengthening to combine with weight–bearing exercises. These will improve the health and strength of your pelvic floor. This not only prevents common symptoms such as incontinence, but it also relieves back, muscle and tissue pain. We also use biofeedback to re–train muscles in some cases.

Conditions Treated

Constipation
Diastasis Recti (Abdominal Separation)
Dyspareunia (Pain with Intercourse)
Fecal Incontinence
Interstitial Cystitis
Pain During and After Pregnancy
Pelvic Inflammatory Disease
Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Pelvic Pain
Pudendal Neuralgia
Tailbone Pain or Pain with Sitting
Urinary Incontinence
Vaginismus
Vulvar Vestibulitis
Vulvodynia

Treating Incontinence with Pelvic Floor Therapy

A common condition we treat is urinary incontinence, or accidentally leaking urine. Incontinence can occur following pregnancy or after delivery or as part of aging; however, it should not be considered inevitable.

People experience urinary incontinence when working out, lifting, sneezing or laughing. Eighty percent of women experiencing these symptoms can cure or significantly improve their incontinence through regular, targeted exercises.

The majority of incontinence patients begin to notice changes after two treatments. Most complete their treatment plan in four to five sessions.