By Kelsey Max, DPT, PT

Urinary incontinence is an area of health that many women do not feel comfortable talking with their spouse, friends, or medical provider. Many women choose to suffer in silence, and accept this is just part of getting older. Main stream media has normalized wearing pads daily if you struggle with this problem.  Although, urinary incontinence and pelvic pain are common in women, that does not mean it is normal.

Women’s health has been a growing area in physical therapy as more women are seeking medical help to improve urinary incontinence. In my 5 years of working at Gothenburg Health, my cliental has increased as well as women are being educated in options and feeling more empowered to improve this problem without medicine or surgeries.

Physical therapy is a noninvasive, individualized treatment plan that will be created with you and your physical therapist after a comprehensive evaluation.

Generally, urinary incontinence can be classified in two ways, stress and urge. Stress incontinence causes leaks when you sneeze, laugh, jump, etc. due to a weakened or uncoordinated pelvic floor. Physical therapy may include strengthening the pelvic floor and other core muscles to prevent his from happening.

Urge incontinence occurs when women lose urine with a strong and frequent urge to urinate. This could be due to a weak pelvic floor but also could be due to the pelvic floor being too tight and the urine breaks through. It is common in both types to have women develop poor core compensations and bathroom habits that tend to make incontinence worse.

In addition to improving urinary incontinence, many women find physical therapy can improve pelvic pain, low back pain, and lateral hip pain as we incorporate core stabilization and strengthening exercises.

If pelvic floor physical therapy interests you then all that needs to be done is to visit with your medical provider to obtain an order and you can contact a physical therapy clinic that provides this service. I offer physical therapy for pelvic floor at Gothenburg Health.