This is the first pelvic floor health book aimed at ALL women, including trans women, outlining the importance of understanding your pelvic floor and how it impacts on overall health, fitness and wellbeing for life - not just around pregnancy and childbirth. This book outlines symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction, and shows you how to fix them. What is pelvic organ prolapse - which 50% of women will experience - and can it be prevented? Urinary incontinence is treatable with physio. Women on average suffer symptoms for 7 years before going to a healthcare professional which has a huge effect on mental health. Pelvic floor issues are often only talked about in relation to pregnancy and childbirth. This is not just a "mum issue": high impact exercise (running, HIIT, CrossFit) affect the pelvic floor. Young athletes/gymnasts who have never had children are highly likely to suffer from incontinence. Women should not accept dysfunction as a "normal part of being a woman", but instead need to prioritize their pelvic floor health - this book shows that it is never too early and, crucially, never too late to do so.

Your Pelvic Health Book is a guide to better understanding your pelvic floor, bladder, bowel, and sexual health, as well as changes that can occur during menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. This book contains tips for people with vaginas and/or uteruses through various ages and stages. This book is written by a pelvic floor physical therapist, Jen Torborg, who has a passion for sharing conversational-style general pelvic health tips. Topics include: Anatomy and physiology of the bladder, bowel, and sexual/reproductive systems as it pertains to vaginas and uteruses. The pelvic floor: why it is important, and how to contract, relax, and lengthen the pelvic floor muscles to your advantage, how the pelvic floor is coordinated to your breathing, posture and movement patterns. How product choices can affect your pelvic health. Bladder health: healthy bladder habits and how to treat urinary frequency, urgency, and leakage. Bowel health: healthy bowel movement patterns and how to address bowel dysfunctions (such as pain, constipation, IBS, gas or fecal incontinence) Sexual health: safe and healthy sex experiences and how to treat unwanted pain with sex The physiology behind menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause, and the difference between normal changes and treatable symptoms How physical therapy and other resources can help before and after pelvic and abdominal surgery, and with pelvic organ prolapse or diastasis recti abdominis.

Incontinence affects four out of 10 women, about one out of 10 men, and about 17% of children below age 15. The most common reason for admitting a family member to a nursing home is the family's inability to cope with incontinence. It is estimated that in the US incontinence costs 26 billion dollars a year.While it is common to exercise many parts of the body to stay fit, very little attention is paid to exercising the pelvic floor. Many exercises exist for the general fitness of the body, strengthening of the arms and legs and the abdominal and back muscles. Finding fun exercises for the pelvic floor involves searching through a great deal of literature; finding exercises suitable for men, women, and children that are fun and effective appears to be impossible. This book should provide therapists with treatment ideas and encourage patients to ask for help. It focuses on exercises and discusses other treatment options.

Pelvic Floor Re-education encompasses a variety of techniques for increasing the strength of, and control over, the pelvic floor muscles. These techniques are now emerging as an effective and viable alternative to surgery in the treatment of urinary incontinence and related conditions. This volume presents a reasoned, scientific approach to the use of pelvic floor re-education. Starting with the latest theories on anatomy, pathophysiology and possible causes of pelvic floor damage, the text then describes the importance of pelvic floor evaluation in determining the type of treatment required. A number of re-education techniques are assessed including isolated muscle exercise, vaginal cones, biofeedback control and electrical stimulation. Recent research work is also reviewed which allows the reader to evaluate the different modalities advocated in the management of pelvic floor dysfunction.

This textbook provides a comprehensive, state-of-the art review of the Overactive Pelvic Floor (OPF) that provides clinical tools for medical and mental health practitioners alike. Written by experts in the field, this text offers tools for recognition, assessment, treatment and interdisciplinary referral for patients with OPF and OPF related conditions. The text reviews the definition, etiology and pathophysiology of non-relaxing pelvic floor muscle tone as well as discusses sexual function and past sexual experience in relation to the pelvic floor. Specific pelvic floor dysfunctions associated with pelvic floor overactivity in both men and women are reviewed in detail. Individual chapters are devoted to female genital pain and vulvodynia, female bladder pain and interstitial cystitis, male chronic pelvic and genital pain, sexual dysfunction related to pelvic pain in both men and women, musculoskeletal aspects of pelvic floor overactivity, LUTS and voiding dysfunction, and anorectal disorders. Assessment of the pelvic floor is addressed in distinct chapters describing subjective and objective assessment tools. State of the art testing measures including electromyographic and video-urodynamic analysis, ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging are introduced. The final chapters are devoted to medical, psychosocial, and physical therapy treatment interventions with an emphasis on interdisciplinary management The Overactive Pelvic Floor serves physicians in the fields of urology, urogynecology and gastroenterology as well as psychotherapists, sex therapists and physical therapists.

This excellent textbook provides up-to-date information on all aspects of pelvic floor disorders. After an opening section on anatomy and physiology, it explains the methodology, role and application of the integrated imaging approach in detail, including the most advanced 3D, 4D, and dynamic ultrasound techniques, illustrated with hundreds of images. It then discusses in depth the epidemiology, etiology, assessment, and management of the full range of pelvic floor disorders from multidisciplinary and practical perspectives. The book also provides information on the various forms of obstetric perineal trauma, urinary incontinence and voiding dysfunction, anal incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, constipation and obstructed defecation, pelvic pain and sexual dysfunction, and fistulas, and includes treatment algorithms as well as helpful guidance on what to do when surgical treatment goes wrong. The authors are leading experts in the field from around the globe. Since the first edition from 2010 (more than 200,000 chapter downloads), the book has been extensively rewritten and features numerous additional topics. The result is a comprehensive textbook that is invaluable for gynecologists, colorectal surgeons, urologists, radiologists, and gastroenterologists, beginners and veterans alike.

Bridging the gap between evidence-based research and clinical practice, Physical Therapy for the Pelvic Floor has become an invaluable resource to practitioners treating patients with disorders of the pelvic floor. The second edition is now presented in a full colour, hardback format, encompassing the wealth of new research in this area which has emerged in recent years. Kari Bø and her team focus on the evidence, from basic studies (theories or rationales for treatment) and RCTs (appraisal of effectiveness) to the implications of these for clinical practice, while also covering pelvic floor dysfunction in specific groups, including men, children, elite athletes, the elderly, pregnant women and those with neurological diseases. Crucially, recommendations on how to start, continue and progress treatment are also given with detailed treatment strategies around pelvic floor muscle training, biofeedback and electrical stimulation. aligns scientific research with clinical practice detailed treatment strategies innovative practice guidelines supported by a sound evidence base colour illustrations of pelvic floor anatomy and related neuroanatomy/ neurophysiology MRIs and ultrasounds showing normal and dysfunctional pelvic floor