What is Women’s and Pelvic Health Physiotherapy?

Women’s health through the life stages emphasises on conditions such as pregnancy, postpartum recovery, and menopause.

Pelvic health considers female pelvic floor dysfunctions such as incontinence, bowel dysfunctions, and sexual health dysfunctions.

Women’s and Pelvic Health Physiotherapy therefore focuses on assessing and managing conditions for those assigned female at birth

How is this relevant to me?

At puberty, anyone assigned female at birth experiences significant physical changes because of oestrogen and progesterone. These hormones continue to affect women through their life stages, including during pregnancy, postpartum, and perimenopause/menopause.

Not only do these hormones have an influence on menstruation and fertility, but they also affect women’s connective tissues e.g. ligaments and tendons. This is why pregnant women may be more likely to experience musculoskeletal conditions such as pelvic girdle pain during pregnancy, and perimenopausal/menopausal women more susceptible to conditions such as gluteal tendinopathy.

Female hormones can also affect the function of the pelvic floor, such as increasing bladder urgency during menopause.

The function of the female pelvic floor is also linked to conditions such as low back pain. In fact, a 2018 study by Dufour et al. found that 95.3% of 85 participants with low back pain had at least 1 sign or symptom of pelvic floor dysfunction!

Women who have a history of low back pain that has not improved significantly regardless of Physiotherapy management should consider seeing a pelvic health Physiotherapist to assess for pelvic floor dysfunction.

What can a Physiotherapist do?

Our Physiotherapist, Ming, is trained in women’s and pelvic health and can perform a thorough assessment, which may include the use of specialised questionnaires, and external and internal pelvic examinations.

Conditions that can be assessed for include:

• Diastasis rectus abdominis (DRA)

• Pelvic girdle pain in pregnancy/postpartum

• Low back pain in pregnancy/postpartum

• Urinary and/or faecal incontinence

• Pelvic organ prolapse

• Bladder urgency

Ming can also support women through their pregnancies by providing advice and exercises for pelvic floor relaxation and labor and birth, as well as women through perimenopause by providing advice and exercises for their pelvic floor muscles.  

If you would like to find out more, contact us here, or click below to book your Pelvic Health appointment with Ming!