Hello Friends!
Oh my gosh, if I had a dollar for every time someone said, “YOU DO WHAT??”, when I say I’m a PT who specializes in pelvic health, or women’s health.
When most people think of physical therapy, they think of rehab for a knee or exercises and stretching for your back, or that old shoulder injury, but they don’t often think about solving problems that women experience as a result of being pregnant or postpartum, they don’t often think about physical therapy for incontinence or pelvic pain.
Women’s bodies change throughout their lives. First during puberty, next as they enter, the years of being pregnant and giving birth and then again when they are perimenopausal and menopausal.
Women suffer with issues and assume there is no answer for them, they have to give up activities that they love or tolerate the activity through their pain, or dysfunction.
Which brings up the question I get so often.
YOU DO WHAT?
Women’s health physical therapy is a specialized form of physical therapy that focuses on the issues women experience throughout their lifetime.
Issues related to pregnancy and childbirth, incontinence, prolapse, pelvic pain and trauma.
Issues related to perimenopause or menopause.
At Viva Physical Therapy we treat issues such as:
Pelvic pain
Stress incontinence
Urge incontinence
Constipation
Pelvic girdle pain
Diastasis Rectus Abdominis
Pregnancy related pain
Pre and Postpartum conditions
Painful intercourse
C-section recovery
Lymphedema
Pelvic organ prolapse
Low back pain
SI joint dysfunction
Hip pain
Every patient’s needs are different and each patient’s individual needs direct and guide the evaluation and treatment.
Generally speaking, each patient will give an extensive history, followed by an assessment of their posture, breathing patterns, movement patterns, strength and ROM. After that is completed, if the patient is in agreement, and it is appropriate, an internal muscle assessment will be performed.
Just as we need to know what is happening with the muscles of the shoulder in a shoulder injury, we also need to know what is happening with the muscles of the pelvic floor when there is an issue there.
The pelvic floor, however, does not work in isolation. The pelvic floor may be having symptoms when the problem is coming from the hip or the diaphragm or even the foot.
So as a physical therapist that treat’s patients with pelvic health issues, NOT all of those issues come from the pelvic floor.
I opened Viva Physical Therapy to create a space where women can come for treatment of issues that are sometimes very difficult to talk about. Where they would get to tell their story and be heard, and get the treatment that they need and deserve.
If you would like to learn more about Viva Physical Therapy, LLC or about exactly what the heck we do and how it can help you, you can find me at Enlighten Wellness or you can contact me at 248-318-9722.
