“I didn’t know physical therapy could help with that.” This is a phrase that we hear quite often here at Legacy Physical Therapy.
Many people are shocked to learn that physical therapy can help with such conditions as: bladder leakage, painful sex, bowel issues, pelvic organ prolapse, and pregnancy pains (just to name a few).
Read on to learn more about conditions physical therapy can help.
5 Conditions You Did Not Know Physical Therapy Could Help
1. Bladder Leakage
Bladder leakage is extremely common. 1 out of 3 women will experience bladder leakage in their lifetime. This number jumps up to 60% once women reach menopause. As we age, it is more likely that we will experience bladder leakage. Just because many women and men experience leakage does not make it normal. Don’t let anyone tell you that your leakage is normal and the only option is to buy pads. There are things that you can do and often a conservative treatment option like physical therapy can be very helpful for alleviating bladder leakage.
2. Pain With Sex
We work with many people who are dealing with painful intercourse. Some women have always had pain with intercourse. For other the pain starts after they had children, and for others still the pain starts much later in life. There can be many different reasons that cause pain with sex.
One study reported that sexual dysfunction is reported by up to 43% of women when they are asked by their healthcare providers. But, many women often quietly accept the fact that their pain with intercourse is just going to be a normal part of their life. They never bring it up with their provider or their provider doesn’t openly ask them about it. If you take anything from this, know that pain with intercourse is not normal. It is not something that you have to just deal with and there are things that you can do about it. Pelvic physical therapy being one of those options.
3. Bowel Issues
Bowel issues can go into two categories: fecal incontinence or constipation. Fecal incontinence is leakage of gas or fecal matter when you don’t want it to be coming out. Roughly 40,000 women will eventually suffer from some type of fecal incontinence in their lifetime. But often, only a fraction of them will ever bring that issue up with their physician or healthcare providers.
Constipation is a common condition affect many individuals. Many people do not know that things besides their diet affect their bowels. How one sits on the toilet, how one creates a push, and the condition of one’s pelvic floor muscles are just a few things that can affect ones ability to have a good bowel movement. If you are person who is dealing with fecal incontinence or constipation, please know there are things that can be done including pelvic physical therapy.
4. Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Prolapse is when we lose support around any of our pelvic organs. We can have a dropping of our bladder, uterus, or rectum into the vaginal canal and even sometimes out the vaginal canal depending on the severity of it. By age 70, up to 11% of the female population will undergo some type of major surgery for pelvic prolapse and bladder incontinence. It’s a big surgery that’s out there and there are a lot of risks that are associated with surgery. However, there are things that you can do on the conservative side. If you are feeling pressure, heaviness, fullness in the vaginal canal, having difficulty with urination or difficulty with bowel movements, we encourage you to talk to your healthcare provider about it. There are things that you can do to affect your prolapse symptoms and not all of them have to be surgical options. Oftentimes pelvic physical therapy can be a very helpful option.
5. Low Back Pain during Pregnancy
Depending on what study you are looking at, anywhere from 20 to 72% of women report some type of low back pain and pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy. That’s a lot of women in pain during their pregnancy. Unfortunately, lots of women are told that low back pain or pelvic pain is just a normal part of their pregnancy and they have to live with it. This is not true. There are things that you can do to help with pregnancy low back pain. Please do not live with it. We work with women all the time here at Legacy Physical Therapy who are dealing with pregnancy related back pain and there are things that you can do to relieve pain.
There you have it! If you or someone you know is suffering from any of these conditions, we would happy to be a resource and talk to you about what’s going on in order to figure out what the best option is for you. Give our office a call at 636-225-3649 to discuss how physical therapy can help!
