Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center is proud to announce that we now have eight locations across the country. Our newest locations include Walnut Creek, CA, Bedford, NH and Westlake Village, CA. We pride ourselves on our constant commitment to give the best possible care for our patients. Patients suffering from long-standing pelvic conditions are often shuffled around from doctor to …
How Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy Can Serve the Transgender/Gender Non-conforming Population: Part 2
By: Elizabeth Akincilar Last week, Shannon Pacella, DPT, taught us how physical and occupational therapy can benefit transgender individuals prior to gender affirming surgery and for those who choose not to undergo gender affirming surgery. You can read her blog here. This week, I present Part two, where I will explain why physical and occupational therapy for transgender individuals after …
How Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy Can Serve the Transgender Population: Part 1
By: Shannon Pacella Earlier this summer, Dr. Heidi Wittenberg wrote a blog post enabling medical providers to understand transgender healthcare needs, which you can read here. Following Dr. Wittenberg’s lead, I was fortunate enough to attend an educational course focused on the physical and occupational therapy evaluation and treatment of transgender patients, and I believe it is imperative to convey …
Fistula: The other F Word
Image by: erpete By: Kim Buonomo When I was asked to write a blog article, I wasn’t sure what topic I should write about. I read a lot of our previous articles for inspiration and realized a couple things: 1) The women who work here really know their stuff about the pelvic floor; and 2) No one has written an …
Mindfulness Meditation: Is it actually effective for treating chronic pain?
By Elizabeth Akincilar Mindfulness meditation. Even if you’re not exactly sure what it is, I’m going to bet you’ve heard of it. It has gotten a lot of attention recently. It’s everywhere. It’s not like the mediation of 20 years ago. Back then meditation was considered “alternative” or “fringe” that few people practiced, especially in western countries. Now, mindfulness has …
Sex Therapy and CBT for Pain with Sex
In 2012, The Journal of Sexual Medicine published an article, What we don’t talk about when we don’t talk about sex: results of a national survey of U.S. obstetrician/gynecologists. The results from the survey revealed that though Ob/gyns routinely (63%) assess their patients’ sexual activities, only 40% of them ask their female patients about sexual problems. Sexual problems may include …
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: what everyone needs to know
Do you know what the most common cause of female infertility is? Polycystic ovary syndrome, also known as PCOS. It is estimated that 15-20% of women will be diagnosed with PCOS at some point in their lives.1 It is the most common endocrine (hormone) disorder for women of reproductive age.2 Approximately 90-95% of women with anovulation (not ovulating) who attend …
The Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center Turns 12!
By: Stephanie Prendergast On July 17th, 2006, Liz and Stephanie opened the doors to the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco. Their mission was to improve the quality of life of their patients and to contribute to the dynamic growth of their employees and students. They aspired to educate the community and medical professionals about pelvic …
Putting down the prescription pad: The opioid epidemic and pelvic pain
It should be a surprise to no one that we are in the middle of a serious, nationwide opioid epidemic. And to top that off, a crisis on opioid overdose. Did you know that on average 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdose?2 In October 2017, President Trump declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency and has since …
Antenatal and Postpartum Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy as Standard of Care
By Dr. Ann Croghan, PT, DPT, CLC, and CAPP-OB trained with introduction by Stephanie Prendergast, MPT A few months ago I shared a link to an article I was interviewed for in Men’s Health Magazine about postpartum sex on our PHRC Facebook Page. I was disappointed there was not better coverage about postpartum pelvic floor physical and occupational …
Vulvodynia, Vestibulodynia, and Vaginismus: what’s the difference and why does it matter?
By Stephanie Prendergast, PHRC Cofounder As many as 28% of women experience painful sex at some point during their reproductive years and that sucks. Knowledge is power and May is Pelvic Pain Awareness Month so we want to provide women with useful information about the three most common diagnoses associated with painful sex: vulvodynia, vaginismus, and vesitbulodynia. Differentiating …
Childbirth Medical Interventions and Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
By: Admin As a pregnant woman and pelvic floor physical and occupational therapists, I am surrounded by stories, advice, and opinions about the right way to give birth. Most of us know that pregnancy and childbirth often result in trauma to the pelvic floor and perineum, which can lead to incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, and painful sex, among …
Posture Revisited: Sitting and the Pelvic Floor
Photo via Joe Loong via Flickr In previous entries, Britt beautifully took us through all things posture (Posture and the Pelvis Part One and Part Deux). Here are some important takeaways from her posts to consider as we explore how sitting may affect your pelvic floor: The diaphragm, trunk (back extensors, transversus abdominis, obliques, etc.) and pelvic floor muscles are …
Vaginismus: Real Answers for Sexual Pain
Vag·i·nis·mus /ˌvajəˈnizməs/ Noun noun: vaginismus painful spasmodic contraction of the vagina in response to physical contact or pressure (especially in sexual intercourse). What is vaginismus? Above is the definition that comes up when you google vaginismus. You may have seen blogs or posts on social media about vaginismus or painful sex or may have experienced it …
The Most Proven IC Treatment: Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapy
By Guest Blogger Nicole Cozean, PT, DPT, WCS and author of The Interstitial Cystitis Solution Pelvic floor physical and occupational therapy is the most proven treatment for interstitial cystitis. It’s the only therapy given an evidence grade of ‘A’ by the American Urological Association and recommended in the first line of medical treatment. But patients often wonder how …
Autonomic Dysregulation in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders
By Melinda Fontaine, DPT, Walnut Creek At the 3rd World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain organized by the International Pelvic Pain Society, Professor Qasim Aziz spoke about Autonomic Dysregulation in Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders. Qasim Aziz, MBBS, FRCP, PhD is Professor of Neurogastroenterology at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary, University …
When Sex Hurts: A Diagnostic Algorithm
Most people know that I am a fan of sexy science. So when I saw that the World Congress on Pelvic Pain (WCAPP) had an entire section dedicated to sexual dysfunction I was pretty stoked. You may already be imagining some very arousing presentations; or you may think listening to a talk on intercourse would induce the same amount …
This is Us: a look inside PHRC
By Stephanie Prendergast, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles January is often the time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the future. So, in that spirit, we thought it would be fun to dedicate this post to a few top Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center events of 2017….and a peak forward to 2018. In no particular …
Beating Interstitial Cystitis
By Stephanie Prendergast “Thousands of people with Interstitial Cystitis live healthy, pain-free lives and so can you.” – The Interstitial Cystitis Solution, Nicole Cozean PT, DPT, WCS In honor of Bladder Health Month this week’s blog is dedicated to Interstitial Cystitis/ Painful Bladder Syndrome. IC/PBS is a treatable pelvic pain syndrome affecting roughly 3 million men and 9 …
Foul! What the Media Got Wrong about Women’s Health!
Over the last year, the media has come under increasing scrutiny: visit almost any website, and you’ll see that the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” have taken over the headlines and the comments section. Now, I love the people who produce pieces that aim to educate the community, especially when the subject is women’s health and the author is …
C-section Scar Problems and Solutions from a Pelvic Floor Physical and Occupational Therapists
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington If you’re reading this, you probably know what a Cesarean birth (C-section) is,* but what you may not know is what to do once you have had one. Most women post C-section are not given much information regarding their healing incision, except to “keep it clean in order to prevent infection.” …