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 blog …
Posture and the Pelvis: Part One
By Admin “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 the structure …
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 since …
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 …
THINKING OUTSIDE THE GUT: Could Endometriosis be the culprit behind your Constipation or Bloating?
By Iris Kerin Orbuch, MD Did you know that Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms are as common as gynecological symptoms in women with endometriosis? Do you suffer from bloating and/or constipation? Endometriosis may be the cause of your bloating and/or constipation. Over 90% of women diagnosed with endometriosis actually present with GI symptoms as their initial symptoms. Before we delve into why …
Love and Vaginismus: Mary’s story of personal growth
By Melinda Fontaine Mary is an amazing story because in a matter of months, she went from not having any penetrative sex for many years to having unrestricted intercourse with her partner. When Mary was a young woman, she saw a gynecologist for a routine exam. Now, lying on the exam table with your butt almost falling off the …
Period Drama: Endometriosis Diagnosis and Treatment
By Stephanie Prendergast Severe menstrual pain is not normal. If you experience severe pain during your period it is possible you are suffering from an underdiagnosed disease called Endometriosis. Endometrial tissue lines the uterus. In response to hormonal influences, the endometrium of a healthy uterus thickens and then sheds through the cervix, through the vagina and out …
Sitting on painful fascia: connective tissue and pelvic pain
By: Admin If you’ve recently been to your physical therapist, massage therapist, personal trainer, or body worker and heard the words “fascia” and “manipulation” in the same sentence, you are not alone. Fascia has become quite the buzzword for treating everything from chronic neck pain, ACL repair surgery, plantar fasciitis, and yes—even pelvic floor dysfunction. But what …
Pelvic floor physical therapy for vulvodynia: a clinician’s guide
By Stephanie Prendergast Recently I was asked to write an article about pelvic floor physical therapy for the treatment of vulvodynia, which will be published later this year as a tool for gynecologists. Since our blog readers are a combination of clinicians and people with pelvic pain I figured I would share it here too. Warning: it is …
What Hollywood Didn’t Teach Me About Sex
By Admin Art imitates life, though Hollywood’s imitation of sex is often a crude copy. Now, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a good rom-com, and I may or may not be on my second viewing of True Blood, but sometimes I just don’t get it. The sex on TV is not the sex in real life, …
Contracture: Can it occur in the pelvic floor?
By Rhonda Kotarinos, PT, DPT In this week’s post, guest author and pelvic floor expert Rhonda Kotarinos shares a controversy from the 2016 International Pelvic Pain Society conference. In October I had the privilege of presenting at the International Pelvic Pain Society’s annual meeting. During one of the presentations, a discussion ensued regarding the term contracture. The discussion was centered on …
Midlife Sex Crisis: What Are My Perimenopause Options?
By Nicole Davis You hit your 40s or 50s and all of the sudden things start spiraling: Your period is out of whack, your undergarments are damp with urine after a one mile walk with your dog, and you can no longer wear your favorite jeans because they’re irritating to your lady parts. As if that wasn’t …
Happy New Year from PHRC!
By Stephanie Prendergast After a fun holiday season the crew at PHRC is back at work and excited to start the new year. In this week’s post we take a grateful look back on 2016 as we start working on our goals for 2017. Last year, We published our book….. On January 16, 2016, Pelvic …
The Hemorrhoid: The World’s Biggest Pain In The Butt
By Malinda Wright Hemorrhoids. About 75% of us will have one at some point in our lives,1 and half of us will have had one before the age of 50.2 Surprised? It’s not the kind of thing we like to discuss with our friends – until you actually have one, that is. Then you find out your buddy …
Tech-ual Arousal: The Future of Technology and Sexual Health
By Rachel Gelman We live in a different time. I remember when chat rooms and meeting people from the internet was the plot line for a Lifetime movie. Now, we get in cars driven by strangers and fall in love via sophisticated algorithms and profile pictures. What a time to be alive! It is pretty apparent that technology …
Diastasis Recti: Closing The Gap Between Research and Function
By Admin During pregnancy and the postpartum period, many women suffer from both functional and cosmetic issues caused from the widening of the abdominal wall from stretch and pressure generated from the growing uterus. This stretching can result in a separation of the rectus abdominis muscle, known as a diastasis recti (DR). Diastasis recti occur in approximately 66% of …
Oh coccyx, my coccyx!
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 me, it’s one of the …
Is your internal thermometer working correctly? Persisting pain and your thyroid
As a physical therapist 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 to the blog post Pain as the …