What is pelvic health?

Hi! I’m Nathalie, a physiotherapy student completing my Masters in one of my last internship placements. As a physiotherapy student I’ve dedicated countless hours to learning about the human body and becoming knowledgeable about how to help patients treat and manage a huge number of conditions and diagnoses.

EVEN with a deep understanding of how the human body works, there’s one topic I find is poorly discussed and wildly misinformed. This is our pelvic health! Even as a health care professional in the making, the reality is that I, like many of the clients that arrive here, didn’t realize how important pelvic health is. I was even responsible for spreading common misconceptions about pelvic health! In the past I used to think that the pelvic floor’s only role was to help strengthen the core. I thought pelvic floors were weak in most people, so Kegels were my usual go to exercise to prescribe. Now I realize there’s SO much more to the pelvic floor than just Kegels. I’ve decided to share with you what I’ve learned so far.

Pelvic health

Pelvic health is a topic that has been gaining more of a voice over the years (thank goodness!). I don’t know how many times I’ve been told by the women in my family “Enjoy playing sports while you can because one day when you give birth, you won’t be able to without wetting yourself!” or “Ugh, I need to use the bathroom again! That’s what happens when you get older”. These are all misconceptions drilled into our minds (mine included!) from early on!^[1] This type of language is SO misleading and SO common to hear and it needs to be redefined. Bladder leaking, urinary frequency, constipation, uncontrollably passing gas, pain with intercourse, abdominal separation, and pelvic pain are all TOTALLY treatable things that we, as woman, have been told are “normal” things we will just naturally have to live with throughout our life!^[2-4]

My goal is to share with all you lovely ladies my newfound understanding about the anatomy and physiology of our pelvic floor, common issues and dysfunctions that can happen with our pelvic floor, and what a pelvic health physiotherapist can do for you.

References

1. Almousa S, Bandin van Loon A. The prevalence of urinary incontinence in nulliparous female sportswomen: a systematic review. J Sports Sci. 2019;37(14):1663-1672. doi:10.1080/02640414.2019.1585312
2. Nygaard I, Barber MD, Burgio KL, et al. Prevalence of symptomatic pelvic floor disorders in US women. JAMA. 2008;300(11):1311-1316. doi:10.1001/jama.300.11.1311
3. Dumoulin C, Cacciari LP, Hay-Smith EJC. Pelvic floor muscle training versus no treatment, or inactive control treatments, for urinary incontinence in women. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2018;10(10):CD005654. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD005654.pub4
4. Bø K, Frawley HC, Haylen BT, et al. An International Urogynecological Association (IUGA)/International Continence Society (ICS) joint report on the terminology for the conservative and nonpharmacological management of female pelvic floor dysfunction. Int Urogynecol J. 2017;28(2):191-213. doi:10.1007/s00192-016-3123-4

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