By: Rachel Daof, DPT People often ask me what symptoms men present with that land them in pelvic floor physical and occupational therapy. The truth is, men suffer from similar issues as women when it involves their pelvic floor: bowel, bladder, sexual dysfunction, and/or pain in the pelvic region. Furthermore, it’s not only the […]
By: Rachel Gelman, DPT Michelle is a 30 year old female referred by her gynecologist to us for pelvic floor physical and occupational therapy following the birth of her first child. Michelle had her son via vaginal delivery and she was roughly five months postpartum at the time of her evaluation with me. She reports […]
By Morgan Connor, DPT, PHRC Los Gatos Since I am sure you haven’t memorized the PHRC staff bios, I’ll give you a little background on myself: Last year I got into triathlons and now spend a lot of time riding my bike. This past spring I finally bit the bullet and decided to get a […]
When I first discussed sharing Tyler’s story on this blog, we talked about why men are not aware of pelvic floor PT. We talked about how most websites list “chronic prostatitis” or “male pelvic pain syndrome” to define his symptoms. He shared with me what men are most likely typing into Google when looking for […]
By Sigourney Cross, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek Vaginismus is characterized as an involuntary spasm or contraction of the muscles around the vagina. This makes it very difficult for women to insert tampons, receive pelvic exams by their doctors and can also make sexual intercourse nearly impossible and painful. It can affect women anywhere from their […]
By Sigourney Cross, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek A rectocele, also known as a posterior wall prolapse, is one of the main types of pelvic organ prolapse (POP). As explained in some of our prior posts, a POP occurs when tissue and muscles can no longer support the pelvic organs and they drop down. For a […]
By: Rachel Daof, DPT Los Angeles PHRC members, Stephanie Prendergast, Courtney Edgecomb, and I, Rachel Daof, went to a dinner to discuss Intrarosa with guest speaker Dr. Irwin Goldstein. One of the major points of the night was this: menopause is a chronic progressive, degenerative condition, and it does not improve without treatment. This hit […]
By Courtney Edgecomb, DPT In Part 2 of my 2-part post I will cover different therapeutic strategies for postpartum pain. As a new mom, self-care and appropriate medical attention is critical to ensure you stay as healthy as possible for your little one. I am sure it is daunting to find time for yourself at […]
By: Courtney Edgecomb, DPT Postpartum Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy is increasingly utilized to help new moms recover from pregnancy and delivery. Is pain normal after giving birth? Of course that is an extremely open-ended question and I would get different answers from almost every single mom (and from each of her pregnancies). But […]
By: Maryssa Steffen, DPT, PHRC Berkeley If you experience pelvic pain, are you aware of how your sleep quality may play a part? A 2015 national poll by the National Sleep Foundation found that “64% of those suffering chronic pain, and 54% of those with acute pain, report co-occurring poor sleep quality.”1 Everyone needs seven […]
By: Rachel Daof, DPT Here at PHRC we see conditions that affect that dreaded time of the month: our periods. As we have written before, conditions like endometriosis can directly affect menstruation. Other menstrual related issues include period cramps, nausea, bowel movement issues, headaches, and many other symptoms all driven by our cycle. To many […]
By: Courtney Edgecomb, DPT It’s needless to say that getting into a car accident is scary. Adding in any form of injury on top of an accident can be life-changing. I have become more cognisant of such life-changing accidents since I started my physical and occupational therapy career in Los Angeles a few years ago. […]
By: Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington Who doesn’t love a leisurely bike ride? People with pelvic floor dysfunction! While biking is great cardio, there are a lot of aspects that make it not very pelvic floor friendly. Most of this comes down to blood flow to the pelvic floor, which is what I want to […]
By Morgan Conner, DPT, PHRC Los Gatos Let’s set the stage here, you just peed your pants. I’ll let you fill in the details of the backstory, but here are a few possibilities. Maybe you just gave birth last week or perhaps six months ago (or six years ago!) and whenever you pick up your […]
The saying “getting the knack of it” refers to acquiring a skill to perform a specific task. In the world of pelvic floor rehabilitation, the Knack refers to performing a pelvic floor muscle contraction prior to an increase in intra abdominal pressure. This technique is most commonly used to prevent stress urinary incontinence (SUI), such […]
May is Pelvic Pain Awareness Month At PHRC we want to do our part to help people better understand pelvic pain syndromes and more importantly, help people suffering with these diagnoses get the help they need to recover. Since knowledge is power, we created 5 videos and blog posts that we hope people find useful. […]
May is Pelvic Pain Awareness Month and at PHRC we want to do our part to help people better understand pelvic pain syndromes and more importantly, help people suffering with these diagnoses get the help they need to recover. Since knowledge is power we created 5 videos and blog posts that we hope people find […]
By: Dr. Kandyce Mutter, BScKin, DC ICPA Webster Certified There’s no question that a woman goes through tremendous changes during the nine months of pregnancy. The most obvious physical changes that are likely to affect the spine will begin to occur during the second trimester. As the uterus grows to accommodate the fetus, the lumbar […]
By Sigourney Cross, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek Pelvic and low back pain during pregnancy affects up to two-thirds of women and can start anytime from the first trimester to months after giving birth.1 This is due to a couple of reasons. First, there is a change in your hormone levels. Increased levels of the hormones […]
You may have heard murmurings at practice, the gym, in yoga, or maybe you’ve got your own experiences to share, of people describing incidences of urine loss while exercising. This is called Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and is described as a loss of urine associated with a stress to the body causing increased intra-abdominal pressure, […]
By: Rachel Daof, DPT “Imagine the following: You feel a sudden new, surprising and sharp pain in your thumb while you’re at the office. You look at it and inspect the thumb. You touch it and feel around to see if there is anything out of the ordinary. You move it around. You discuss it […]
