Women's Health and Incontinence
Incontinence, urinary/faecal urgency, prolapse, pelvic girdle pain and pain with sex are just a few of the common issues experienced by women and can occur in by women of all ages, whether you’ve had children or not. Many women don't realise that there is treatment available for these issues and it should never be something you just put up with.
At Formotion Physio we work closely with CrossFit athletes, gymnasts, weightlifters and runners and we love to see women of all ages training and performing at their best in high intensity sports like these without being held back by these issues.
Our Scope
We are not specialised Women’s Health Physiotherapists (WHPT), however we collaborate closely with them and work to help women return to high intensity sports without leaking or risking prolapse.
We do this by teaching you techniques to apply pelvic floor training to these sports.
If we think your issue is too severe or out of our scope we will refer you on to a WHPT, but for mild cases these are a few of the things we can help you with:
Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI)
SUI is a pelvic floor issue can result in leaking during high intensity/high impact sports as well as during coughing, sneezing or laughing. It can be caused by a pelvic floor that is either too weak, uncoordinated, or in some cases too tight to be able to perform it’s function of keeping the urinary and/or anal sphincters closed during times of increased pressure (like those things mentioned above).
It is especially common during sports activities that involve a lot of jumping, bouncing or lifting heavy weights. While it is common, it shouldn’t be considered normal and it can usually be treated through strengthening and retraining of the pelvic floor muscles.
For athletes experiencing exercise induced SUI you can read more about this here.
It’s also important to note that this is something that also affects men as well and is treated in a similar way.
Pelvic Pain & Pain with Sex (Dypareunia)
Pain during sex or penetration caused by involuntary contraction or spasming of the pelvic floor muscles is referred to as vaginismus.
In mild or uncomplicated cases this can be treated by teaching you techniques to relax tight pelvic floor muscles.
In some cases the cause of the spasming might be related to previous trauma, childbirth, emotional or arousal issues during sex, endometriosis, recurrent urinary tract infections or other health or mental health issues.
For any of these issues, as well as other painful sex issues (dyspareunia) we would highly recommend seeing your GP or a Women’s Health Physiotherapist for these and are happy to put you in touch with someone who can help you.
Pelvic Organ Prolapse
Your pelvic organs (bladder, uterus and bowel) are held in place by tissues called 'fascia' and 'ligaments'. These supporting tissues help to join your pelvic organs to the bony side walls of the pelvis and hold them inside your pelvis.
Your pelvic floor muscles also hold up your pelvic organs from below. If the supporting tissues are torn or stretched, and if your pelvic floor muscles are weak, then your pelvic organs might not be held in their right place and they may bulge or sag down into the vagina.
In most cases this is something you will need to first see a Women’s Health Physiotherapist for, however once it has been addressed to a point that they are satisfied we can help you return to high impact sport, like weightlifting, running and skipping safely.