By Stephanie Prendergast, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Pasadena Urinary leaking during sneezing and coughing is common. Constipation affects millions of people. Irritative bladder symptoms plague women at multiple points in their life for a number of reasons, and bother men too. If one stops to think about orthopedic surgeries for broken ankles and shoulder dysfunction, why isn’t pelvic floor physical …
10 Common Behaviors that Can Lead to Pelvic Pain
By Elizabeth Akincilar, MSPT, Cofounder, PHRC Merrimack Pelvic pain is a complex condition that can have various causes, including medical conditions, injuries, and certain behaviors. In this blog, we will discuss 10 common behaviors that can potentially lead to pelvic pain(and potentially chronic pelvic pain). It’s important to note that while these behaviors may contribute to pelvic pain, they …
Urination Nation: How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Eliminates Urinary Incontinence
By Kim Buonomo, DPT, PHRC Lexington We often see patients who report urinary incontinence as a symptom of their pelvic floor dysfunction. Incontinence is defined as the lack of voluntary control over one’s urination or defecation. Sometimes this is not the reason they seek treatment, but rather a secondary finding. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard something …
Gotta Go Right Now: Urinary Urgency Explained
By: Melinda Fontaine, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek You know that feeling when you just drank the equivalent to a big gulp and you haven’t had a bathroom break in over four hours. That sensation of your body telling you to get to the bathroom ASAP is called “urgency.” In case you wonder if urgency and the frequent need to urinate …
Will a menstrual pad help when urine need?
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 little one or laugh when …
What is the Knack and why does it work to prevent urine leakage?
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 as when a person experiences …
Stress Urinary Incontinence in Athletes: Why You Leak When You Exercise
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, such as running, jumping, lifting, …
Diaphragmatic breathing, pelvic pain, peeing and pooping
Diaphragmatic breathing aka deep belly breathing – how is that an exercise? Many of my patients are surprised when I prescribe and emphasize diaphragmatic breathing in their home exercise programs. Historically, they have associated physical therapy and/or exercise with strengthening, stretching or the need to get the heart rate up. However, with the pelvic floor muscles, especially for …
Your pelvic floor: what is it good for?
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington The pelvic floor is a phrase used very frequently here on the blog as well as in our clinics, but to those unfamiliar with this area of the body, it may still be this illusive mystery. I want to break down the pelvic floor into each of the muscles it is comprised of, …
How PT can help with Anal Cancer Treatment
At PHRC we treat a wide variety of patient populations. One population that we’re beginning to see more often is patients undergoing treatment for anal cancer. Recent research has shown that the incidence of anal cancer, which is linked to the human papillomavirus (HPV), is on the rise, especially among men and women under the age of 45. Although we’re …
Sit yo’ a** down! The importance of sitting on the toilet
Sitting on the toilet!! Actually sitting, skin to porcelain. No more hovering! Even in public restrooms. I know, it’s going to be a tough paradigm shift since this issue is ubiquitous; one study, done in the UK, surveyed 528 women at a gynecology clinic and found that 85% reported that they crouched over public toilets while …
It’s National Bladder Health Week!
It’s National Bladder Health Week and we want to dedicate this blog post to our favorite (and only) urine collecting organ! The bladder is a vessel that sits on the pelvic floor and its primary function is to collect and hold our urine. It is made out of a hollow muscle called the detrusor which stretches to allow urine to …
The Case of Post-prostatectomy Urinary Incontinence
Patient History Ted is a 67-year-old male with a primary concern of stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and secondary concerns of erectile dysfunction. Ted reports he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in September 2013 and underwent a “bilateral nerve-sparing radical suprapubic prostatectomy”, a procedure in which the nerves must be cut in order to remove the cancerous tissue, later that fall. …
Did I really Just Pee my Pants?
If you’ve read any of my past blog contributions, you know I’m someone who has managed pelvic pain for the past decade, (if you haven’t read them, feel free to check them out here, here, and here) and while I was confident that in that time I had gamely faced and overcome all of the issues, big and small, that …