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LETO Location In Parsons Green

Parsons Green

3rd Floor Brigade House
8 Parsons Green
London
SW6 4TN

LETO Location in Queen's Park

Queen's Park

2nd Floor
105-109 Salusbury Road
London
NW6 6RG

Beyond Health Location in Queen's Park

Jesse's House

8-10 Heathmans Road
Parsons Green
London
SW6 4TJ

Why Every Woman Needs To Care About Her Pelvic Floor Health

Why Every Woman Needs To Care About Her Pelvic Floor Health

What exactly is the pelvic floor?

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles that sit like a hammock at the bottom of the pelvis, running from the pubic bone at the front, to the coccyx (tailbone) at the back.

We use our pelvic floor muscles to open and close our bladder and bowel when we need to go to the loo. They play a role in supporting our pelvic organs; the bladder, bowel and uterus, and they work with the abdominal muscles to support our spine and core, especially when we’re lifting something heavy.

Not only that, but strong pelvic floor muscles can improve our sexual pleasure by improving sensitivity and grip inside the vagina.

What are the most common symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction?      

If you’ve suffered from chronic constipation or had a baby, if you smoke or are overweight, if you do a lot of heavy lifting or high-impact exercise, or if you’re going through menopause, your pelvic floor muscles may not function at full capacity.

Pelvic floor dysfunction can cause the following symptoms:

How does the pelvic floor impact our overall health?

As you can imagine, any of the symptoms above can have a significant impact on your quality of life. Pelvic floor dysfunction can limit what you do or what you feel confident doing, including exercise, intimacy with a partner, even wearing certain clothes. It can suck a lot of joy out of your life. I’ve seen that the long-term impact on your confidence, mental and physical health can be immense, and yet there’s a lot you can do to either cure, improve or manage the problem.

What are simple preventive measures or practices that women can implement into their daily lives?

There is doing your pelvic floor exercises and then doing your pelvic floor exercises. You need to know how to properly contract and fully relax your pelvic floor muscles. The first step is to find these muscles! I tell patients at the LETO clinic to squeeze their back passage as if trying not to pass wind. Following this, try to pull up the front passage as if stopping the flow of urine. To relax these muscles, imagine a lengthening between your two sit bones and let your back passage relax in the process. Once you have that technique right, try building in time every day to complete some pelvic floor exercises, such as in bed when you wake up or before you go to sleep.

Ultimately, reducing stress on the pelvic floor and maintaining good bladder and bowel health is also key to protecting the pelvic floor. Here are some general recommendations on how to achieve this:

When should I see a pelvic floor physiotherapist?

If you are experiencing any of the following symptoms should seek the help of a specialist pelvic health physiotherapist:

●          leakage when coughing, sneezing running or exercising

●          having to wake up throughout the night to use the bathroom

●          difficulty retaining tampons or having a dragging or heavy feeling in the vagina

●          vaginal dryness or a feeling of ‘looseness’

●          pain during sexual intercourse

●          endometriosis

●          recurrent urinary tract infections

●          sexual difficulties in breast care patients

●          persistent back, hip or groin pain

Discussing pelvic health problems can be difficult. If you are reluctant about seeing a pelvic health physiotherapist, remember we have a special interest and training in pelvic health, we’ve seen and heard it all before, and there really is so much we can do to help.