Pelvic health challenges may be difficult to diagnose and embarrassing to talk about but chronic pelvic pain and incontinence affect millions of people. You are not as alone as you might feel. Did you know:
- 1 in 4 women experience chronic pelvic pain.
- 9% of men experience chronic pelvic pain.
- 10% to 55% of women ages 15–64 experience urinary incontinence.
- 11% to 31% of men experience urinary incontinence.
Pelvic pain can manifest as tightness and pain in the abdomen, perineum, rectum, and tailbone. Bladder dysfunction might prevent you from traveling, or purposefully dehydrating yourself before going to the movies.
Your physician may diagnosis your condition as:
Pelvic health medical providers
The International Pelvic Pain Society provides a database of medical providers who are members of IPPS. It doesn’t represent all providers who specialize in pelvic pain, but it is a good place to start.
If you are in the Boston area, I offer physical therapy downtown at Flourish Physical Therapy. In my clinical practice, I integrate several styles of manual therapy, corrective exercise, biofeedback, yoga, and address pain with neuroscience education.
Other pelvic health resources
For more information about pelvic health, check out these resources:
“I had never heard (or could have imagined) that there was such a thing as pelvic floor physical therapy. I had no idea what to expect and had so many questions. Once pelvic floor physical therapy started, I found that I really didn’t care so much about the what/how/why of it all… Physical therapy was really helpful to relieve the pelvic pain I was experiencing.”