Pelvic Floor Issues Are Common

When you are dealing with pee leaks, prolapse, painful sex, and pelvic pain, life can get really difficult!

Pelvic floor issues affect your ability to move your body, which will in turn affect every aspect of your life.

Especially in motherhood!

Picking up toddlers, carrying babies, hauling car seats and strollers around while dealing with pee leaks or organs falling down (and out...yikes) is a crazy thing for us to expect from moms.

Your ability to participate in regular physical activity, which can help regulate your hormones, mood, and cultivate a healthy body can be limited, affecting your ability to show up for kiddos and often your mental health.

So are there really that many people living with these types of issues?

Yes.

Who Gets Pelvic Floor Issues?

At least 32% of women and 16% of men will suffer from pelvic floor muscle dysfunction in their lifetime.

But those are just the statistics we know.

Let's take a look at more numbers.

One large study performed in the US found that half of women in their 30's suffer from urinary incontinence!

Side note: many women think it's normal to leak pee now and then, but the truth is it's not normal and it can be fixed without surgery or medication!

A study performed in New Zealand found that over half of their participants experienced pelvic pain in the last year.

A study published in the ACOG in 2002 found that 46% of women 36 weeks postpartum, after giving birth to their first child, had pelvic organ prolapse.

A study from 2017 found that one in five women will undergo surgery for pelvic organ prolapse by the time she is 80.

A study published in 2019 found that 25% of women with no tearing during delivery experienced pain with sex one-year postpartum, and 53% of women with larger tears experienced pain with sex postpartum.

NONE of these conditions are things that have to be endured as the result of childbirth or gender.

In summary, many women will experience some kind of pelvic floor dysfunction in her life, regardless of whether or not she has given birth.

I advocate for clients to get pelvic floor physical therapy when they are considering getting pregnant, continue your therapy through pregnancy, and make SURE you get your therapy after.

It's important to have a continuous relationship with a pelvic floor physical therapist! Check back in for regular wellness visits, and live your life without pee leaks, prolapse or pelvic pain.

Conclusion

Pelvic floor conditions are really common and have previously been underserved by our medical system.

Pelvic floor physical therapy is here to help. You don't have to live with these conditions. I make it a point to work with my clients before they even get pregnant, during pregnancy, and well after to make sure you have the best pregnancy and postpartum experience possible.

We don't have to live with these issues mama. With the right awareness and education, we can help ourselves and each prevent and recover from pelvic floor issues.

If you are pregnant and ready to take action on your pelvic health, make sure to book your session today!

Not local to Albuquerque? You can still get help. Click here for my online Pelvic Health Coaching Program!

Want to learn more about Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy? Check out our blog on The Ultimate Guide to Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy here!

1. Nitti VW. The prevalence of urinary incontinence. Rev Urol. 2001;3 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S2-S6.

2. Righarts A, Osborne L, Connor J, Gillett W. The prevalence and potential determinants of dysmenorrhoea and other pelvic pain in women: a prospective study. BJOG. 2018;125(12):1532-1539. doi:10.1111/1471-0528.15247

3. Hallock JL, Handa VL. The Epidemiology of Pelvic Floor Disorders and Childbirth: An Update. Obstet Gynecol Clin North Am. 2016;43(1):1-13. doi:10.1016/j.ogc.2015.10.008

4. Eddie H.M Sze, Gordon B Sherard, Jeanette M Dolezal, Pregnancy, labor, delivery, and pelvic organ prolapse1 1The authors thank Frederick Naftolin, MD, PhD, for his assistance in revising the manuscript., Obstetrics & Gynecology, Volume 100, Issue 5, Part 1, 2002,

5. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/pelvic-floor-issues-arent-just-a-womans-health-condition-kegels-can-work-for-men-too/#:~:text=Statistics%20show%20that%2032%25%20of,identified%20with%20pelvic%20floor%20disorders.