The first thing to know when talking about pelvic health is to understand what the pelvic floor actually is. The pelvic floor is a group of muscles and connective tissue that helps support all of your pelvic organs. Everyone has a pelvic floor and pelvic health is important for people of all ages and genders. The pelvic floor is important not just for keeping all of our organs where they need to be, but also for helping us stay continent (not having urinary or bowel leakage), allowing for safe and enjoyable sexual activity, and making sure we can do all of our daily activities without pain or fear of losing our balance. It keeps the pressure in our abdomens in-check and turns it into a usable source of stability (we’re going to talk a lot more about your “core” in future posts, so stay tuned!). It gives us the proper control of our legs and hips that reduces knee and ankle strain. It allows us to go to the bathroom without pain. It supports both us and baby during pregnancy and helps guide baby into the world during delivery. The list goes on.
“Pelvic floor dysfunction” is the broad term we use when some component of the pelvic floor is not working as it should. Signs of pelvic floor dysfunction include pain in the pelvis, low back, or abdomen; urinary or bowel leakage; constipation; prolapse (when organs that should be inside our bodies start making their way out through the vagina or rectum); or pain with sexual activity. Often when our society pictures a person with pelvic health issues, they think of someone who has just delivered a baby (and that’s assuming they know what the pelvic floor is in the first place!). While yes, this person would likely benefit from pelvic floor care, the population of people in need of pelvic health care is so much broader. Pretty much, the list of symptoms of pelvic dysfunction are just as long as the list of functions of the pelvic floor. It’s time we broadened the conversation and included everyone.
The good news is awareness of and access to pelvic health care is improving. There is an increasing number of providers who focus on pelvic health and a growing number of quality products available to help individuals reach their own pelvic health goals. On the flip side, though, there are more and more providers and devices jumping into the pelvic health world who are, at best, not helping. We’ll be going into this more in future conversations, but the most important thing to look for in finding a pelvic health provider is whether or not they even check your pelvic floor before giving you care. Unfortunately, we cannot tell what exactly is going on with the pelvic floor unless we see a specifically trained pelvic health provider and participate in an internal pelvic floor exam. Symptoms of drastically different pelvic health concerns can mimic each other in remarkably similar ways. If we take a guess as to what is going on without checking, we can actually make the situation worse. Checking the pelvic floor directly is invaluable in identifying the problem and figuring out a path ahead.
This word of caution applies to information provided by the Pelvic Health Fund as well. We will be giving overviews of options of care and products available, but insist that you work with a pelvic health provider to identify what is going on with your own, individual, pelvic floor before selecting which of our guidance best fits your situation. If you need help finding a provider in your area or are not sure where to begin looking, reach out via the contact form on our website and we will gladly help!