It’s National Bladder Health Week and we want to dedicate this blog post to our favorite (and only) urine collecting organ! The bladder is a vessel that sits on the pelvic floor and its primary function is to collect and hold our urine. It is made out of a hollow muscle called the detrusor which stretches to allow urine to …
Gwyneth’s Goop and the Pelvic Floor: What They Missed
By Stephanie Prendergast Last week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s popular newsletter featured an article on pelvic floor muscles, which prompted numerous emails and tweets in my direction. Apparently this is a topic that makes my friends and colleagues think of me. While pondering why everyone, except for me, seems to be reading Goop, I took a look. I am glad to see …
Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections: the proverbial ring of fire
Urinary tract infections (UTI) are considered to be the most common bacterial infection in humans, costing the US health care system about $1.6 billion dollars per year. These infections plague millions of people at some point or another throughout the lifetime. In fact, some research suggests that a female’s lifetime risk of getting one is as high as 1 in …
Is it still Prostatitis if my cultures are negative?
Chronic Prostatitis! It’s not something discussed at a baseball game or at a family gathering. However, it is estimated that between 2-14% of men worldwide are diagnosed with chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS)1. But what exactly is CP/CPPS? According to the National Institutes of Health, CP/CPPS, also known as category III prostatitis, is characterized by pain in the pelvic …
Where’s the Yeast? When pelvic floor dysfunction mimics yeast infections
Vaginal yeast infections aka candidiasis, are an uncomfortable and common issue that many women find themselves dealing with at some point. Three out of four women will experience at least one vaginal yeast infection in their lifetimes-many will experience two or more. If you’ve had one you know that the symptoms can be enough to drive you crazy: -severe vaginal/labia …
Our FAVE Pelvic Health Resources, Products!
By Gabriella Chavarin Our FAVE Pelvic Health Resources, Products! It’s that time of year when we all make “New Year’s resolutions.” If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably resolved to sleep longer, be more active, and eat healthier. But what about your pelvic health? One of the questions I’m asked most often at PHRC is: “Do you have any recommendations …
Did I really Just Pee my Pants?
If you’ve read any of my past blog contributions, you know I’m someone who has managed pelvic pain for the past decade, (if you haven’t read them, feel free to check them out here, here, and here) and while I was confident that in that time I had gamely faced and overcome all of the issues, big and small, that …
Q&A: What could be Causing my Penile and Perineum Pain?
…Should I Continue with Biofeedback and E-stim? …If Kegels are bad, then what are we supposed to do for urine leakage? …Why is yoga making my pelvic pain worse? These are the reader questions we will be answering and in this Q&A blog post. So read on, and if you have any questions of your own, ask away in the …
The Case of PT for Urge Incontinence
At our weekly staff meetings at PHRC, us PTs take turns presenting patient case studies to our colleagues. Our M.O. in presenting these case studies is to cover each of the patient demographics we see here at the clinic: female pelvic pain; male pelvic pain, postpartum and pregnancy issues; and incontinence and prolapse. (Obviously, there is some overlap, especially with …
Why Kegels are Bad for your Tight Pelvic Floor
Note to Readers: Yesterday we posted a blog summarizing an article titled “Stop Doing Kegels: Real Pelvic Floor Advice for Women (and Men)” written by Nicole Crawford and published on BreakingMuscle.com. There was some confusion that resulted from the post about when kegels are and are not appropriate. The article advises that women (and men) should never do kegels. I …