How Can Physical Therapy Help With Pelvic Pain?

Among the many types of pain you can experience over a lifetime, pelvic pain is one of the more common pain complaints. In fact, around 20% of the adult population has pain in the pelvic region at some point in their lives.

Is that you right now?

Are you having challenges with your bladder?
Pelvic pain and pressure?
Do you feel pain during sex or while sitting on hard surfaces?

In this blog, we explain why pelvic pain occurs and how we treat it and prevent it from reoccurring using physical therapy. We also have a limited-time offer for you at the end of the blog to book a free, no obligation Pelvic Floor Analysis with one of our Women’s Health Specialists.

Many patients with pelvic pain and pelvic floor tension find that pelvic floor physical therapy helps to relieve their symptoms and treats the condition successfully. 

But the term physical therapy concerning the pelvic floor conjures up many different images, making them feel uncomfortable about undergoing a detailed physical examination. 

As a result, men, but more commonly women with pelvic conditions, avoid seeking treatment for their pelvic pain issues and prolong recovery, often worsening things. 

 However, pelvic floor physical therapy has a much broader scope as it deals with the muscles, nerves, connective tissues, and joints in the pelvic area that extends much further than the pelvic floor itself. 

Therefore, pelvic floor therapy works with the whole body to address issues relating to the functioning of your pelvic floor, bowels, bladder, and sexual well-being.

How Does Pelvic Floor Therapy Help With Pelvic Pain?

Pelvic floor tension can occur due to or might even be the cause of the pain and discomfort in your pelvic region. 

You need a physical therapist to find your true root cause for you. But irrespective of the reason, the pelvic floor muscles and pelvic floor tension will likely play a role in your pelvic pain symptoms. 

Even without an underlying condition, if your pelvic floor muscles are too tight, it can become a serious problem if you don’t seek treatment. 

So, even if the condition causing pain does not directly originate in your pelvic region (which we establish during your first PT session), the excess tension that things like lower back issues cause can intensify pelvic pain. 

But the good news is that pelvic floor physical therapy patients find relief from their pelvic pain symptoms. Why? Because pelvic floor physical therapy teaches you how to relax and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles to reduce tension and decrease pain and other symptoms.

How Physical Therapists Treat Pelvic Pain

There are various methods physical therapists use during pelvic floor physical therapy sessions, which are all based on the specific root cause and symptoms that you present with. But pelvic floor physical therapy usually includes:

Building Muscle Strength in the pelvic and abdominal region:

This process involves building up the ligaments and muscles in your pelvic floor that provide support to the various organs in your abdomen and the pelvic floor muscles. To do this, we work on building muscle strength to treat bowel and urinary incontinence that may be weak, which results in better control over these functions.

Relaxing and Stretching Muscles:

For the pelvic floor to function correctly, the pelvic muscles need to relax and stretch comfortably without any tension. While a certain level of muscle tension is required for the proper functioning of the organs, if they become excessively tense, the pelvic floor muscles can cause incontinence and/or constipation, disrupting nerve functions and reducing circulation in the pelvic region. We decrease the risk of this dysfunction with pelvic floor stretching and relaxation techniques.

Coordination Exercises:

For every muscle group to function optimally in the pelvic floor region, the coordination of the muscles needs to work well. However, coordination of the pelvic floor muscles can take a lot of work to accomplish. But we know that for the pelvic floor and all the organs in the abdominal region to function properly, there must be coordination, so it’s an important skill to learn. We teach you how the abdominal and pelvic floor muscles function in sync with the diaphragm and back muscles. We also guide you through various techniques of muscle coordination. These are based on your specific medical requirements and presenting symptoms. In many cases, we combine coordination and functional activities with exercise movements. These exercises ensure that you naturally move well in your daily life with correct coordination and relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles.

Biofeedback:

If you have weak or tense pelvic muscles, biofeedback is an effective technique to evaluate which muscles are too weak and which might be too tense. To do this, we apply body sensors externally that record the contractions of your muscles and help us identify the areas that aren’t functioning properly. Biofeedback is useful for you to recognize whether you are doing pelvic floor exercises correctly and whether you’re targeting the correct muscles. This mode of treatment also assists us in determining the efficacy of our treatment sessions.

Electrical Stimulation:

If you’re one of the many people that experience frequency and urgency in urinary functions, electrical stimulation treatment is one of the more unique ways to deal with the condition. The process involves transmitting painless low-frequency electrical signals to the pelvic floor region. The signals stimulate the muscles that help you regularly contract your pelvic floor muscles. Carrying out this treatment over several sessions helps to strengthen weak pelvic floor muscles.

How Can I Get Pelvic Pain Relief?

Book A Pelvic Floor Analysis If you suffer from pelvic pain during sex, while sitting, with tampons, or have challenges with your bladder – like urgency or urinary stress incontinence. Don’t worry. We can help. 

We know how limiting it can be in relationships and life when you have issues with pelvic pain and your pelvic floor. It affects your capacity for intimacy, which has a knock-on effect on desire.

It also reduces your desire to take part in sports and other activities. But perhaps most importantly, severe pelvic pain and pelvic floor tension can even prevent necessary gynecological health exams.

Women often tell us that they put off seeking treatment for pelvic floor issues because they were embarrassed or believed that with rest and time that their pelvic floor issues – like pelvic pain, painful intercourse, and bladder spasms would go away on their own. 

But sadly, in most cases, they don’t. In fact, they can and do get much worse. Sometimes leading to the development of pelvic organ prolapse – where the pressure becomes too much for the pelvic floor to hold and the pelvic organs bulge into or out of the vagina or rectum, or worse, still worsening symptoms that require surgery to correct the issue. Don’t let that be the outcome for you.

Instead, apply for a free Pelvic Floor Analysis at our Louisville Physical Therapy Clinic. These 100% free, no obligation Pelvic Floor Analysis sessions help our patients understand “what” is happening to cause your pelvic pain, but also “why” this pain occurs and what we can do to resolve it and prevent it from reoccurring in the future.

After the session, if you decide we are a good fit for you, we create an individualized treatment plan that is specific to your needs and health and fitness goals. How does that sound? 

If you’re ready to take the next steps to get out of pain and get back to living a good life, please click the button below and complete the form. One of our Women’s Health Specialists will contact you within 24 hours to arrange your free pelvic floor analysis