The program you have booked into is called “Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation or Re-education.”
Your pelvic floor needs to be cared for and maintained throughout your life.
The aim is to help you manage pain or reduced bladder/bowel control or prolapse through restoring connection and function of your pelvic floor muscles.
At the same time lifestyle changes to toilet, eating, drinking may be discussed.
The treatment plan depends on a thorough assessment, the nature of your problem, your needs, abilities and lifestyle.
Thorough assessment of your pelvic floor muscles may include urine, urine flow test, abdominal ultrasound and physical examination.
For some people, the program will be curative, for others it will offer significant improvement.
For some the journey may require other options and health professionals along the way.
However there is always a gain, as pelvic floor exercises are an integral part of every person’s health.
Once assessment is complete an exercise programme is discussed and practised.
The aims of the exercise could be one of the following
- Learn to locate and move your pelvic floor muscles.
- Learn to move your muscles and breathe without extra local muscle involvement.
- Learn to relax and lengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
- Strengthen your pelvic floor muscles adding seconds and repetitions
- Increase low level endurance pelvic floor muscle holds adding seconds and repetitions
- Train pelvic floor responsiveness, adding speed and repetitions.
- You can decide to attend regular group exercise in our Exercise Rehab Studio.
- Train your pelvic floor in positions relevant to your goals.
- Train practical control during situations needing relaxation or a quick lift.
- Set up and monitor a maintenance pelvic floor exercise programme once you have achieved control that matches your current lifestyle.
- Embed pelvic floor care into your lifestyle, similar to caring for your teeth.
To a large extent, the success of your treatment will depend upon your ongoing motivation and adherence to the program.
Please do not hesitate to ask any questions as understanding helps motivation.
Women can click here to read about evidence for some of our treatments we offer.
The number of visits you require will vary depending on your problem.
Just like any other fitness programme, you may require between 4-8 sessions of treatment over 3-12 month period.
This will be to initiate, monitor and adjust your exercise program, depending upon your rate of improvement.
In between appointments telephone appointments might also be useful to help you maintain motivation and confirm progress.
Your physiotherapist is like any other coach, when you succeed and reach your goals, we succeed.
At Innerstrength Healthcare we wish you well in your treatment