By Admin If you don’t know what or where your coccyx is, count yourself lucky. This little bone can make quite a ruckus when it’s not happy, often called coccydynia. The coccyx, or tailbone, is our little vestigial tail, after eons of evolution. It is often ignored and forgotten by most, but to […]
As a physical and occupational therapists specializing in pelvic floor disorders, specifically pelvic pain, I have noticed a strong correlation between chronic pain, the thyroid, and the endocrine system. I wanted to explore what hormonal imbalances can do to chronic pain. I won’t go into too much detail about persistent pain here, instead please refer […]
By Stephanie Prendergast, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles Urinary tract infections hurt. It hurts as your bladder fills, you constantly feel the need to pee and when you do it feels like knives are coming out of your body. You do not experience post-void relief and immediately feel like you need to pee […]
Photo: David J Laporte By Melinda Fontaine Peaceful labor? Comfortable delivery? Calm childbirth? Do these sound like oxymorons? It’s true! Jane was a young woman who saw a segment on TV about HypnoBirthing. She saw pregnant women who looked like they were concentrating really hard on an abdominal workout or […]
By Elizabeth Akincilar-Rummer How many times have you heard a journalist say something like, “Researchers report a significant breakthrough…”, “Groundbreaking research shows… “, or “According to a new scientific study…”? The news constantly bombards us with “research” or “studies” to provoke an emotional response, whether it’s fear, excitement, or surprise. The point is, […]
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington Medical marijuana. You’ve probably heard of it. You’ve maybe even used it. But what you might not know about is the tug-of-war going on between researchers and lawmakers, and how this impacts the ability of this stigmatized substance to be studied – potentially missing out on an alternative […]
By Melinda Fontaine, DPT, PHRC Walnut Creek Meet Paul and Ashley. Paul and Ashley have an active sex life. They are taking the time to get to know each other’s bodies and pleasures as well as their own. They are trying new ways of being intimate and using toys. They are having fun […]
By Jandra Mueller In my last blog, One and Done: The IUD and the Future of Birth Control, I talked about how the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) are recommending long acting reversible contraceptives (LARC) as their preferred contraceptive option. The two main forms discussed were the implant and the IUD. In […]
By Jandra Mueller Are you currently on birth control? Have you used birth control in the past? These are common questions I ask when doing an evaluation of a female patient who is experiencing painful intercourse, also known as dyspareunia. Most women I see are currently, or have been in the past, on some […]
When I was younger, the phrase “You are what you eat,” totally confused me. Doughnuts are so delicious and sweet, therefore if I eat a half dozen of glazed old fashioned doesn’t that mean that I would also be sweet and highly desirable? Obviously, I now know that my logic as a kid was inaccurate, […]
By Admin The Kegel, the black box of the exercise world. Are you really doing it right? In today’s post we are going to review some simple exercises to help get to know the pelvic floor muscles. Now, I strongly recommend going through my past post “Exercises for Short/Tight Pelvic […]
People recovering from pudendal neuralgia will tell you there is a lack of understanding about this diagnosis and treatment options in the medical community. Week after week, our blog, How do I know if I have PN or PNE, is one of our most read posts. Recently there has been discussion about cryotherapy treatment for […]
Image permission via Cosmopolitan By Stephanie Prendergast The Facts 21% of women undergoing vaginal delivery had levator ani avulsion1 29% of women undergoing vaginal deliveries had pubic bone fractures2 60% of postpartum women reported Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)3 64.3% of women reported sexual dysfunction in the first year following childbirth4 77% of women […]
By Allison Wells, MD Chronic pelvic pain is at a difficult intersection of anatomical pain generators and mood disorders like depression and anxiety that are coincident with or caused by the pain itself. To effectively relieve chronic pelvic pain you need a treatment that addresses the pain and the mood disorder issues. Ketamine […]
A tampon is “a mass of absorbent material, primarily used as a feminine hygiene product.” The word tampon originated from the medieval French word “tampion,” which literally means a piece of cloth to stop a hole, stamp, plug, or stopper. Let’s break this down. The average woman menstruating for five days a month and approximately […]
By Elizabeth Akincilar-Rummer, MSPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles When is the last time you heard a little voice inside you that tried to give you advice or warn you of danger? Some describe it as ‘butterflies,’ others a ‘gut feeling.’ That feeling can be attributed to the extremely extensive network of over 100 […]
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into […]
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. Lorem Ipsum has been the industry’s standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. It has survived not only five centuries, but also the leap into […]
Here at PHRC we are not Medicare providers, for good reasons; you may remember that PHRC published a blog post about them. Still, we receive calls almost daily from Medicare patients enquiring about treatment from us, and unfortunately we have to turn them down: the law says, oddly, that we cannot provide treatment to Medicare […]
By Melinda Fontaine Julia called me yesterday to ask some questions about pelvic pain and pregnancy. She was 38 weeks pregnant and getting ready to give birth. She had a history of some pain with intercourse prior to getting pregnant and was surprised to feel some vaginal pain at her last OB appointment as […]
As many of us reading this blog can attest, pelvic pain can be an issue that leaves us feeling not only physically uncomfortable, but emotionally/mentally drained and isolated. Often, by the time many people get seen by a physical and occupational therapists, they have been mismanaged by other providers, leading to increased frustration among other […]
