Improve Pelvic Floor Health
A Guide to Physical Therapy and Stretches
It’s a common misconception that pelvic floor physical therapy is only for women with urinary or fecal incontinence. Pelvic floor dysfunction can also affect men, and it may be caused by prostate surgery, bladder stones, diabetes, obesity, pregnancy and aging. Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Greenville SC experts will explore the different types of physical therapy treatments as well as stretches you can do at home to improve your pelvic floor health.
The first thing to do is to find a pelvic floor physical therapist. Your physician will likely be able to help you with this, or you can search for one on your own using the American Physical Therapy Association’s website .
Once you have found a pelvic floor physical therapist they may perform some of the following treatments:
Electrical stimulation – In which an electric current stimulates muscles and nerves in order to relax them. This treatment has been shown effective at improving bladder control as well as sexual function after prostate surgery or other types of bladder problems such as urinary tract infections .
Biofeedback – This therapy helps patients learn how to contract and relax their sphincter by teaching them how much pressure is necessary when opening and closing it during urination and bowel movements.
If you are experiencing incontinence, physical therapy is likely to begin with bladder training. There are three types of bladder training:
Continent – This means that the patient can hold their urine for as long as they wish before releasing it. The most common type of continent training for pelvic floor dysfunction is called Uro-Kegel exercises in which patients learn what muscles contract when trying to stop urinating and start again after finishing .
Intermittent – Here the patient has a predetermined time frame where they try not to void (pee) during this time period. An example would be having them refrain from peeing every hour on the hour while awake or stopping themselves at certain points throughout the day if possible so that by nighttime.
