Welcome back to season 2 of PT Elevated where we are broadening our topics to include more researchers but still focusing on topics that you can use in your clinic every day.
On our second episode of season 2 Jenn Stone, PT, DTP, OCS, PHC, joins our hosts Kory Zimney and Paul Mintken discussing her specialty area of pelvic health, but specifically for non-pelvic health clinicians.
Here are some of the highlights:
“The most common things I treat that have a pelvic floor component are things that you probably treat too. Low back pain, hip pain, I work with a lot of people pre and post-pregnancy but other conditions we treat include constipation, pain with some type of intimacy and that can happen no matter what your genitalia are. We work with folks that have erectile dysfunction, because that’s mostly musculoskeletal believe it or not. We work with individuals that have organ prolapse. Even chronic pain conditions such as endometriosis or polycystic ovarian syndrome can have some musculoskeletal components to them.”
Clinicians are often already seeing pelvic floor patients; they just may not be able to identify them or provide them with the optimal care to get them better.
There are many treatment options to care for patients with pelvic floor concerns, where your patient won’t have to take any clothes off.
Studies suggest that patients don’t bring up issues with incontinence or issues with sexuality in clinical settings, because they are afraid they will embarrass their healthcare provider. It’s up to the clinician to ask those questions, even if it’s just on the intake paperwork.
Use the word leakage instead of incontinence, because people relate to having leakage more readily than the word incontinence.
The pelvic floor is one component of motor control for the trunk, the abdomen and the pelvis.
Leaking typically comes from overutilization or underutilization of the pelvic floor muscles.
Some of the top mistakes that clinicians make with patients that need pelvic floor treatment is not asking them questions, making assumptions about which patients need pelvic floor care, pushing off pelvic floor patients to specialists, overprescribing kegels and not paying attention to the patient’s breath control when they are doing exercises.
Jenn Stone’s Clinical Pearl: Looking at patients like they are whole people is incredibly important. Talk to your patients about stress management, mindfulness, fluid intake, fiber intake in addition to exercise, motor control training and musculoskeletal techniques. These extra pieces will help you look at the patient as a well-rounded individual instead of zooming in on them as a hip patient. Our patients are our best teachers.
Helpful research and training:
‘The core’: understanding it and retraining it in individuals
Certificate for Advanced Musculoskeletal Management of the Pelvic Girdle
Connect with us on socials:
@ZimneyKJ on Twitter
@PMintkenDPT on Twitter
