By Melinda Fontaine When you hear mention of “the talk” do you also picture a red faced kid and an adult with sweaty palms talking awkwardly around the topic of the birds and the bees? Thinking back on my childhood, I have to give credit to my parents and teachers for attempting this […]
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: […]
By Shannon Pacella, DPT, PHRC Lexington First things first: if you haven’t already read the Part 1 to this post, please do so first! There are a few updates since my first post regarding laws and legislature for marijuana (cannabis) use throughout the United States. Updates Currently, 29 states plus Washington, D.C. have legalized […]
By Guest Blogger Jessica Drummond MPT, CCN, CHC One of the reasons that relieving pelvic pain is so challenging is that pain in different systems within the pelvis can overlap. For example, in rats where experimental colitis (colon irritation) was induced, many of the rats also experienced bladder and urethral pain (Yoshikawa et […]
Throughout my years of practice I’ve treated many women with vulvodynia. I’ve noticed that it’s rare for women to return to 100% solely with physical and occupational therapy treatment; even though their musculoskeletal impairments may have returned to normal, some women continue to feel pain. In my experience, it takes a team of practitioners […]
For those of you following our journey through the 3rd World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain (#WCAPP17), here is another light-bulb lecture explaining the interconnections of chronic visceral pain. The presenter, Melissa A. Farmer, PhD, is a researcher at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University with a long-standing relationship with the […]
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 […]
By Katie Hunter I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Kenneth Peters’ lecture on the role of the Peripheral Nervous System(PNS) in the development and management of pelvic pain. Kenneth Peters, MD is a urologist practicing at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oaks, MI, who specializes in treating complex pelvic pain including interstitial cystitis. […]
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 […]
By Elizabeth Akincilar Understanding and effectively treating chronic pain continues to challenge the medical community. Now more than ever, there is a sense of urgency to treat this disease. With the astounding reports of opiate addiction and opiate related deaths in this country, we now know that throwing drugs at chronic pain is […]
By: Jandra Mueller, DPT, MS, PHRC Encinitas In our second post of our series covering the Third World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain, I will cover the lecture titled Endometriosis-associated pain, why should we consider the central nervous system? If you missed our first post, click here. This year at the annual […]
By Stephanie Prendergast Last month, pelvic pain enthusiasts traveled from all over the globe to attend the 3rd World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain in Washington, DC. The World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain is joint scientific meeting between the International Association for the Study of Pain Special Interest Group on […]
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 […]
By Diane I suffered with pelvic pain for years. I want to share my story, so others won’t have to suffer needlessly. It started in February 2009 when I tried having sex with my boyfriend. Intercourse was extremely painful, and each time, my perineum tore a bit. I’d be sore for days afterward. […]
By Jessica Newman, LMHC Living with persistent pelvic pain is, by definition, painful physically. What can be hard to talk about (especially for folks with pelvic pain) is just how emotionally distressing the pain is. And because the mind and body are a functional whole (think: a Mobius strip) emotional distress can trigger or […]
“Share the load” – Samwise Gamgee “It’s all about the base ” – Meghan Trainor “Drop it like it’s hot” – Snoop Dogg Some different quotes from last time, but after reading today’s post you’ll understand how Samwise, Ms. Trainor and Dr. Dogg are all talking about posture and the pelvis, and they […]
By Elizabeth Akincilar-Rummer As we learned in a recent previous post by Stephanie Prendergast, the vast majority of women are not well informed when it comes to their pelvic floor, pregnancy and childbirth. In fact, 93% of women felt like they were insufficiently informed about their pelvic health! Unlike the rest of the […]
By Melinda Fontaine The majority of women experience some emotional fluctuations known as the Baby Blues in the first three weeks after they give birth, and it is natural. A smaller, but still significant percentage of women will experience Perinatal Mood and/or Anxiety Disorders (PMADs) before or after giving birth. There is a pressure […]
It is now the six week mark and you are at your postpartum check up and are told by your doctor, everything looks great, you can resume having sex. You’ve finally hit this goal that everyone talks about- “six weeks.” But what does that really mean? Does it mean that everything ‘down there’ is back […]
By Stephanie Prendergast, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles Who doesn’t love a crowning baby cake? If our image didn’t catch your eye the title of this post probably did if you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant. Last week we presented a pelvic health quiz about the role of the pelvic floor muscles play […]
By Stephanie Prendergast, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles Recently, a number of studies were published on what women do and don’t know about their pelvic floor muscles, childbirth, and longer-term pelvic health. How much do you actually know? Take our quiz and find out! If you do not know the answers, don’t fret. […]
