We’re going to talk more soon about pelvic health care after bottom surgery, but let’s first take some time to discuss the benefits of working with a Pelvic Health Physical Therapist before your surgery. For this article we will be focusing on vaginoplasty, the surgical creation of an internal canal from penis, colon, peritoneum, or other tissue. There are so many different steps and options for gender affirmative care in today’s medical world (thank you science!) and the care for each will differ. Stay tuned for more posts exploring additional topics related to pelvic health and the broad world of gender affirmative care!
Ok, so why is care before surgery even needed?
Great question! In our health care world, we call PT before surgery “prehab” (as opposed to rehab that occurs after surgery). Prehab is an important step for many different reasons.
1) It gives us time to talk! We can go over any of your concerns and answer your questions about expectations, safeguards, and steps you can take to maximize the outcome of your surgery. There’s a lot that goes into care of your neovagina and we want to make sure you are supported and empowered along this journey.
2) We want to make sure your pelvic floor and all the neighboring structures are in tip top shape. The more that we can promote healthy tissue and appropriate control of the pelvic floor and its muscular team, the more prepared it will be for both the healing journey after surgery and for learning how to once again function as a pelvic floor.
If you’ve had pelvic surgeries prior to vaginoplasty, such as orchiectomy (removal of the testicles), it’s even more important to make sure that you have healthy movement of the scar tissue in the area.
3) We want to make sure you feel comfortable with steps for easy, healthy toileting after surgery and with dilation. Dilation is the process of inserting a dilator (rounded cylinder with progressively larger sizes) into your neovagina in order to keep it open. Your surgeon will give you specific protocols, but dilation can still be confusing and daunting when first starting. As dilation is one of the most important steps after vaginoplasty, it’s important that you know how to do so safely and effectively and learn the tips and tricks to reduce any fear or confusion you may have. We’ll go more into dilation in our next post about care after vaginoplasty!
Unfortunately, while prehab is a incredibly important step on your gender affirmation journey, it is often underutilized. You may need to be your own advocate for seeking care prior to your surgery date. If you need any assistance in finding care or have questions regarding what care may entail for your own specific situation, please contact us. We’re here for you.