Physiotherapy NZ
The aim of pelvic floor physiotherapy NZ is to reduce and eliminate your symptoms by improving pelvic floor function through lifestyle changes, exercise, education, and hands-on treatment. This therapy entails evaluating and handling a group of muscles involved in the bowel, urinary and sexual functions. Increased urgency, incontinence and frequency, retention, and pelvic pain can all result from these muscles not working properly.
Here are some facts about your pelvic floor health that you should be aware of.
The Pelvic Floor Is a Component of Your Core.
The core is made up of much more than just the abdominal muscles. The core is a region of the body that extends from the diaphragm to the pelvic floor. As a result, your core muscles encompass your low back muscles, abdominal muscles, diaphragm, and pelvic floor muscles.
These muscles collaborate to support your abdominal contents. As a result, we want all aspects of your core to work properly. We will assess all aspects of the core and work on exercises to improve core function during pelvic floor physio.
It’s Not Just About Kegels.
When your pelvic floor muscles are sluggish, you may feel symptoms like prolapse, incontinence, and urinary urgency and frequency. If the pelvic floor is discovered to be weak, Pelvic floor or kegel strengthening exercises can help alleviate these symptoms. Nevertheless, depending on your signs, kegels may not be the best solution. Also, the pelvic floor muscles, like any other muscle, can become tight.
You may experience signs such as pelvic pain, the sensation of bowel emptying, incomplete bladder, a weak stream, and pain after or during sexual intercourse in this scenario. The important thing is to have a strong pelvic floor rather than a tight pelvic floor. If your pelvic floor muscles are overly tight, relaxation exercises and gentle stretches can help release them, allowing you to improve your signs.
Pelvic Floor Physio Can Benefit Anyone.
Physiotherapy can help anyone who has pelvic floor dysfunction. While certain groups are more likely to experience pelvic floor signs, these symptoms can affect anyone. Here are a few examples of who might gain from pelvic floor physiotherapy NZ:
Post Menopause
Women’s oestrogen levels will drop significantly during menopause. It turns out that oestrogen is essential for maintaining optimal pelvic floor function. As a result, women experiencing menopause may experience symptoms such as bulging, heaviness, incontinence, enhanced frequency and urgency, and pelvic pain. Pelvic Floor Physiotherapy, in conjunction with your doctor’s treatments, can significantly improve these symptoms.
Postpartum and Prenatal
This is among the most common occasions when pelvic floor issues arise. With a growing baby, labour, and postpartum recovery, women’s bodies go through a significant amount of change in a short period. People may experience pain in their tailbone, low back, pelvis, and hips. They may also experience heaviness, incontinence, urgency, and frequency, as well as pain during sexual intercourse. Pelvic floor physio can help with all of these symptoms.
Men
While any male can have pelvic floor signs, the most frequent cause of pelvic floor dysfunction in men are chronic pelvic pain, chronic prostatitis, post-surgical, and post-prostatectomy. Men may experience symptoms, such as incomplete bladder or bowel emptying, a slow or weak stream, pelvic pain, incontinence, and erectile dysfunction. Manual techniques, education and exercises can help alleviate these symptoms.
Post Surgery
It is common to have pelvic floor issues after having abdominal or pelvic surgery. This could be due to the surgical procedure or prolonged catheterization. Typically, post-surgery physiotherapy will aim to reduce pain and improve scar mobilisation.
What Should You Expect from Pelvic Floor Physio Sessions?
Your physiotherapist will take a thorough history during the assessment. This will be accompanied by an external exam, which will typically include a check of your posture, flexibility, and strength in the areas of your hips, low back, and pelvis. Following that, an external and internal exam of the pelvic floor muscles may be performed.
With women, this will be done vaginally and rectally, and with men, it will be done rectally. While an internal exam is likely to be suggested and will offer useful information about your pelvic floor muscles, it is not required if you are in acute pain or are uneasy with the procedure.
An individualised treatment plan will be implemented based on the assessment findings. Treatment may include counselling and education, as well as exercises and manual therapy.
Is it Going to Be Painful?
The physiotherapist’s goal is to enhance your signs, so while some of the treatment approaches may be uncomfortable, the goal is not to generate a painful response.
The physiotherapist will look for what is causing the signs during the assessment. For example, bending over may cause pain in your low back, and the physiotherapist may request to see this motion to assess how your back is moving and why you are experiencing pain with that movement. While some pain symptoms may be reproduced, this must not aggravate your symptoms or cause you additional pain after the session.
