Women's Health Physiotherapy
Can a Women’s Health Physio help me?
​
Our experienced women’s health physiotherapist can help you get back to feeling like you, if you are one of the one in three women who experience pelvic problems, such as:
-
Incontinence which might mean you are constantly going for a wee (increased urinary frequency) or needing to get to the toilet urgently (urinary urgency).
-
You feel a bulge in your vagina or have been told you have a vaginal prolapse.
-
You have pelvic pain, this might feel like comes from the bones or joints that make up your pelvis, or it may come from the tissues inside your pelvis, such as your vagina or your pelvic floor.
The NICE guidelines actually advise seeing a women’s health physiotherapist before considering seeing Consultant Urogynecologist for most of these problems!
Our women’s health physiotherapist can also help if you have pregnancy-related problems such as back or pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy and problems with scar tissue or separation of the tummy muscles post-natally.
Women’s health physiotherapy can also have a positive impact on some of the issues caused by aging & the menopause such as sexual discomfort and dysfunction.
What to expect during your first appointment with our Women’s Health Physio
The appointment will start with a detailed chat about your problem so that we cover all of the symptoms you are experiencing and how these are affecting your life and activities.
We will also ask about your medical history, and what you would like to achieve from physiotherapy. You will then be offered an examination. The nature of the examination will depend on the problems you are experiencing. It may involve an external examination where we will look at your back and pelvis, or if you are experiencing pelvic problems such as continence issues or pelvic pain, you will be offered an internal examination. The internal examination enables a more comprehensive assessment of the vaginal wall and pelvic floor muscles, how well they are working and whether any prolapse is present.
For many patients, there is plenty to work on, without needing to do the internal examination in the first session, however, If an internal examination is recommended your physiotherapist will firstly discuss what it involves. You will then have the choice of whether to have the examination or not. After your assessment, your physiotherapist will discuss their findings and propose a treatment plan to help you achieve your goals.
What does treatment with a women’s health physio involve?
​
Treatment varies depending on the individual patient’s goals and the findings on assessment, however some of the treatment techniques a women’s health physio uses are:
-
Advice and education about how to perform your daily activities without aggravating your problem, whether that is pain, incontinence or prolapse.
-
Individualised, progressive pelvic floor exercise programmes to correct any weakness or asymmetry of the pelvic floor.
​
-
Internal manual therapy and or self-treatment to release and relax the pelvic floor, where it is over-active or causing pain.
-
Bladder retraining advice and techniques if bladder control is a problem.
-
Modifications to fluid balance if this is contributing to incontinence.
A variety of hands on treatment techniques as used by musculoskeletal physios, to treat aches and pains externally, such as low back pain or pelvic girdle pain in pregnant or post-partum women.