Pelvic Floor Therapy

Common pelvic floor disorders like urinary incontinence or abdominal pain can make it hard to do the activities you enjoy. Aurora BayCare Medical Center’s pelvic floor therapy program helps men, women and children overcome the challenges of pelvic floor disorders with individualized treatment plans.

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: Why Choose Aurora BayCare Medical Center?

Our pelvic floor physical therapy program offers:

• Specialty expertise: Skilled physical therapists have specialized training in pelvic floor treatments. They understand pelvic anatomy and the symptoms and challenges of pelvic floor disorders. You receive compassionate care from experts in their field.
• Complete care: Pelvic floor problems don’t just affect women. We offer a full range of physical therapy services for men, women and children who have weak or damaged pelvic floor muscles.
• Range of treatments: Aurora BayCare has comprehensive urogynecology and urology programs, providing all the care you need from one source. A multispecialty team offers surgical and nonsurgical treatments for any pelvic floor disorder.

Our Services for Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

Your pelvic floor physical therapist works with your gynecologist, urologist or primary care provider to plan a treatment program tailored to your needs. We may recommend:

• Biofeedback therapy: We measure the strength of your pelvic floor muscles with real-time electronic feedback.
• Electrical stimulation: Electrical therapy can help control pain or strengthen weak muscles.
• Lengthening exercises: Targeted stretches can help relieve discomfort caused by tight pelvic floor muscles.
• Manual therapy: Therapists use hands-on techniques such as pelvic soft tissue mobilization to improve muscle and bone alignment.
• Pelvic floor exercises: We provide exercise instructionsthat teaches you to contract and relax your pelvic floor muscles.

Conditions We Treat

Your pelvic floor muscles support organs in the lower abdomen including the bladder, uterus (in women), urethra and rectum. Many factors can weaken your pelvic floor muscles, including:

• Age
• Childbirth
• Excess weight
• Injury
• Pregnancy

Our therapists create individualized treatment plans that address the unique needs of women, men and children.

Pelvic floor disorder symptoms that affect women include:

• Diminished orgasm
• Dyspareunia (pain during sex)
• Pelvic pain
• Vaginismus, or spasms of the pelvic floor muscles

Symptoms that can affect men include:

• Chronic prostatitis, inflammation of the prostate gland
• Interstitial cystitis (chronic bladder pressure or pain)
• Pain in the abdomen (belly) or lower back
• Pain or burning during urination

In children, pelvic floor disorders may cause bedwetting in addition to the other symptoms.

Benefits of Pelvic Floor Therapy

Our trained specialists focus on retraining and strengthening your pelvic muscles for better pelvic organ support. Benefits of pelvic floor therapy include:

• Better bowel and bladder control
• Decreased pelvic pain
• Greater tolerance for sitting and walking
• Improved sexual function
• Reduced risk of pelvic organ prolapse (pelvic organs that shift out of position)