According to the Royal College of Obstetricians & Gynaecologists:
Statistics show that ‘over 60% of UK women have at least one symptom of poor pelvic floor health.’
And ‘nearly one in four women have never done pelvic floor exercises that can prevent and improve symptoms.’
But let’s take a deeper look at why…
What is it?
The human body has a group of organs categorized under the term ‘pelvic viscera’ – consisting of the bladder, rectum, genital organs and lower part of the urethra.
The area where these organs are situated is termed the ‘pelvic cavity’, and this pelvic cavity sits right down low on the lower section of your pelvis. Think below your belly button, down to your pubic bone and you are in the right area!
We have lots of muscles that make up the ‘walls’ as such of this pelvic cavity, including muscles on the lateral and posterior sides of the pelvis.
However, today’s focus is to help explain the real-life importance of the anatomy and the function of the muscles that make up the bottom part or ‘floor’ of this pelvic cavity and why they just might be playing a factor in your urinary troubles…
Put simply, the pelvic ‘floor’ is the term given to the muscle and ligament structures that make up the bottom of your pelvis. These muscles must be able to contract to maintain continence, and to relax to allow urination and bowel movements (and in women, sexual intercourse)
Fig. 1.
Source: Dalton Myoskeletal.
The question right now is, are you struggling with urinary incontinence or have done in the past, and you feel lost about how to manage it?
Keep reading and see how the clinical team at Remedy may just be to help…
Pelvic Floor Dysfunction – How does this show up?
This refers to a range of signs and symptoms that you could encounter depending on which part of your pelvic floor is not functioning as it should.
Primarily, in women, these muscles support the urethra, vagina and anal canal and therefore weakness and/or excessive tension in these muscles can result in a loss of support and cause symptoms such as:
- Urinary incontinence
- Faecal incontinence
- Pelvic pain
- Sexual dysfunction
- Genitourinary prolapse
Key risk factors include:
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Chronic straining and constipation
- Obesity
- Aging and menopause
- Chronic coughing
- Prior pelvic surgery and/or trauma
Now, it is incredibly important to note that these issues are COMMON and not something that anyone should feel like they can’t speak to their health care provider about.
As you can see in bold – urinary incontinence right up there at the top of the list of symptoms that you may be struggling with, and the big question is what can you do to fix this?
The interesting fact here is, that having weakness and/or excessive tension in the pelvic floor muscles and very likely the surrounding hip and thigh muscles that attach to those pelvic floor muscles is MODIFIABLE with accurate assessment, hands-on treatment and rehabilitation exercises.
This is fantastic news for anyone who thought that they had been through discussions of these symptoms with their GP, only to be told there are very little treatments they can offer!
Let us give you an example:
Your inner thigh muscles (adductors – see fig. 1.) share muscular attachments with your pelvic floor muscles. Excess tightness of the adductors will occur alongside extra tight pelvic floor muscles as a defense mechanism to avoid urinary leakage and urgency.
Think every time you cough or sneeze and are worried about urinary leakage, so you tense up all the surrounding muscles extra hard to avoid any leakage! Over time, this becomes a chronic muscular negative adaptation to stress.
Therefore, it is of great clinical importance that your manual therapist addresses this muscular tightness and coaches you through the correct methods to restrengthen those pesky adductors.
Hands on manual therapy and tailored rehabilitation exercises to address these imbalances are very helpful in rebuilding your confidence in this area of your body.
This is just one example of a muscle group that can be involved in pelvic floor dysfunction, but there are lots more possibilities that can be deducted as problematic through assessment.
Ready to take the next step towards improving your pelvic health?
Our team of highly trained chiropractors and physiotherapists at Remedy offer in depth assessment and treatment for these issues, in a simple and comfortable manner that suits you and your needs.
References:
Betts, J. G., Young, K. A., Wise, J. A., Johnson, E., Poe, B., Kruse, D. H., Korol, O., Johnson, J. E., Womble, M., & DeSaix, P. (2013). Anatomy and physiology. OpenStax.
Smith M Russell A Hodges P 2006 , Australian Journal of Physiotherapy 52:11-16 D Wise, R Anderson: “A Headache in the Pelvis”