What is Women’s Health Physio?
There is so much a women’s health physiotherapist can do. Helping girls and women at all different stages of their lives. It can start with bed wetting as a young child, giggle incontinence as a child/teenager, pain and fatigue with endometriosus, pregnancy pain and incontinence, post-natal abdominal separation, healing with caesarean scars or perineal tears, stress incontinence, urgency, frequency, prolapse symptoms, pessary fitting, pain with sexual intercourse or tampon insertion. Over the next three week’s we will educate about how women’s health physio can assist in different stages of life. This week…
Menopause
Once a woman reaches menopause, there are many physical changes that can take place. The elasticity of the structures that hold up your organs like your bladder, cervix or rectum is decreased. This can increase the susceptibility to prolapse or stress incontinence. A vaginal prolapse is where one of your organs is pushing against the vagina so you can feel a heaviness there or a lump in the vaginal opening.
The ageing process further amplifies these body changes which can decrease a woman’s muscle strength and bulk. This can lead to further stress incontinence, prolapse or urgency.
A physiotherapist can help with these issues. A muscle strengthening program can be prescribed as well as education given about the factors that may be contributing to these issues. For a prolapse, a pessary can be fitted to support the organs that are falling down.
Please do not suffer in silence. There is help out there. Many people delay seeking treatment as they feel it is such a private, embarrassing issue. Bo, a women’s health physiotherapist at Inspired Physiotherapy, understands this and is sensitive to a person’s feelings. She will make the consultation process as comfortable and easy as possible. She is eager to get someone back to living as fully as possible without these limitations. But the first step must come from you.