By Stephanie Prendergast 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 order, here’s what happened …
Positive Affect Helps Mitigate Chronic Pain: Building a Positive Piggy Bank
By Nicole Davis Many patients find that managing chronic pelvic pain conditions can sometimes be difficult. Oftentimes there is no one “thing” or pathology that symptoms can be tied to which, understandingly, can be frustrating or overwhelming. More accurately, chronic pelvic pain is a complex interaction of both physiological and psychosocial components. It is not only the body …
Urologic Chronic Pelvic Pain & Manual Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
By Shannon Pacella While attending the 3rd World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain organized by the International Pelvic Pain Society, I had the privilege of listening to Rhonda K. Kotarinos, DPT, MS give a lecture on the topic of urologic chronic pelvic pain and manual physical therapy. Rhonda K. Kotarinos, DPT, MS is a Doctor of Physical …
Autonomic Features of Chronic Pelvic Pain
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 not the answer. So what …
Endometriosis: Beyond the lesions
By Jandra Mueller 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 meeting of the International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS) …
3rd World Congress on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain Pain Updates, Part I
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 Abdomino-Pelvic Pain, Convergences in pelvic-Perineal …
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 …
How to Stop Worrying and Obsessing About Pelvic Pain Symptoms
By Lorraine Faehndrich If you’re suffering with pelvic pain it’s very likely that you’ve spent a lot of time worrying and obsessing about your symptoms. Maybe you’ve spent hours online searching for answers, reading stories of others’ experiences with pelvic pain, or participating in “support” groups that leave you even more stressed, worried and fearful than you already …
How Diane beat Vulvodynia
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. Eventually I’d heal, but …
Solving Female Sexual Dysfunction
By: Dr. Lisa Valle What if the cure for adding more luster to your life is a fulfilling, sex life? But what happens when a woman feels distress about her sex life? Or she experiences sexual pain? Is there anything that she can do about it? The answer is an emphatic yes! There is an …
Tips for Coping With Persistent Pelvic Pain
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 amplify physical pain and …
Posture and the Pelvis: Part Deux
By Britt Van Hees “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 didn’t …
Foul! What the Media Got Wrong about Women’s Health!
By Rachel Gelman 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 …
Reducing perineal trauma during labor and delivery
By Stephanie Prendergast 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 in childbirth. This week we share the answers …
Brace yourselves: protecting your pelvic floor during CrossFit and loaded exercise
If you are a male and either currently participate in CrossFit workouts or another form of Olympic weightlifting, and have developed one or more of these symptoms: perineum pain with sitting, lower abdominal pain with intense activity or ejaculation, testicular pain that radiates to the abdomen or the vice versa, and urinary hesitancy with urgency and frequency, this …
Posture and the Pelvis: Part One
By Britt Van Hees “In all nature structure determines function” – William Herbert Sheldon, father of somatotyping “Form and function are a unity, two sides of a coin” – Ida P. Rolf, biochemist and fascial genius “Conjunction junction, what’s your function?” – Schoolhouse Rock, how us 30+s learnt grammar Structure and function are intricately connected. Our posture is …
I insist! My pelvic pain is my Tarlov cyst!!
By Elizabeth Akincilar-Rummer For the average person, the words Tarlov cyst mean absolutely nothing. For the average medical professional, they mean little to nothing. So why are we devoting an entire blog post to these cysts that no one seems to care about? Full disclosure, personally, I was curious what the literature had to offer on Tarlov cysts …
The Female Prostate: Fact or Fiction?
By Stephanie Prendergast Do women have a prostate? Where is the female prostate and what does it do? I have been a pelvic floor physical therapist for 17 years and, until recently, had never heard of such a structure. Last month, Dr. Irwin Goldstein, urologist, sexual medicine enthusiast, and International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual …
The Liver and Hormone Connection
By Dr. Thalia Farshchian It can be both a beautiful and frustrating thing that the body is so interconnected. In some respects, it is fascinating and comforting and in other ways, it can feel so complicated. The more I study medicine, the more in awe I become of how it all works. As a doctor, I focus on …
Check Yourself Before You Stress Yourself
By Malinda Wright Stress: I’m all too familiar with it. As I write this blog I feel the stress of the deadline rapidly approaching. Writing is not my forte, so I tend to start writing assignments at the last minute, which puts me under pressure and causes, well…stress. I can feel the heaviness in my chest, the adrenaline …
The Scoop on Poop: More than Constipation
By Rachel Gelman Everybody poops! I hope that everyone reading this blog accepts this reality. At PHRC, we spend a lot of time talking to our patients about the importance of proper pooping. Often, this discussion is uncomfortable. I get it. No one is keen to bond with their bowel movements. Poop has a bad reputation, which …