Pelvic Floor Issues Are Common
Updated: Feb 27
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 is essential when you're a mom.
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... is limited!
It's pretty discouraging to have to change an incontinence pad in the middle of your run...
If you are working, this can present an additional challenge. Especially if you don't have a desk job.
If you are in health care, you might find yourself lifting people out of their chairs and into their beds. Add pelvic pain or pee leaks to that? No thanks.
Imagine you are a having with some issues with prolapse. If you are in a job that requires standing on your feet all day, that's going get uncomfortable.
So are there really that many people living with these types of issues?
Yes.
We are talking 40% of women.
Let's take a look at some statistics.
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, almost half of all women will experience some kind of pelvic floor dysfunction in her life, regardless of whether or not she has given birth.
Many issues will arise during pregnancy and postpartum, and even more will arise post-menopause.
An even better reason to get it fixed postpartum!
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.
Nitti VW. The prevalence of urinary incontinence. Rev Urol. 2001;3 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S2-S6.
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
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
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,