Continence and Your Pelvic Floor

• Do you sometimes leak when you cough, sneeze, lift something heavy or exercise?
• Do you feel like you are always rushing to the toilet?
• Do you feel like you haven’t emptied your bowel or bladder properly?

1 in 3 women suffer from urinary incontinence at some point in their life. Incontinence can range in severity from ‘just a small leak’ to complete loss of bladder or bowel control. The good news is incontinence can be treated, managed and in many cases, cured.

There is a common belief that continence problems are inevitable after having a baby or as you age, and that it just needs to be tolerated. However, advice and support from a physiotherapist can lead to symptom improvement and even sometimes complete resolution. You can take steps to improve your life and daily routine without needing to wear continence pads or worry about leaking when you are out and about.

Common Symptoms

Some common symptoms of continence problems include:

• Needing to urinate more than twice at night
• Soiling with exercise
• Needing to use the toilet more often than in the past
• Feeling like you haven’t urinated or emptied your bladder properly
• Leaking when there are ‘triggers’, such as opening the front door when you come home from work
• Abdominal pain or straining with a bowel motion, including feeling like you haven’t emptied your bowels properly
• Frequently passing wind

How can we Help?

Your Anchala Rehabilitation Women’s Health physiotherapist will conduct a detailed assessment of your problems and symptoms. Using this information, we will help you to understand the causes of your symptoms and work with you to develop a treatment plan that takes into account your lifestyle, goals, leisure activities and general health.

Treatment commonly includes learning how to correctly activate your pelvic floor muscles, teaching you good bladder and bowel habits, sharing strategies that can help manage leakage and teaching you an exercise program that will not only help with your bladder and bowel control, but also improve your general health and well-being.

What to Expect From my Appointment?

• Detailed Interview to fully understand your symptoms, medical and surgical history and your specific goals.
• Physical Assessment of your body, and pelvic floor using the latest technologies.
• Targeted Treatments which may including real time Ultrasound to facilitate pelvic floor muscle activation, manual therapy and comprehensive advice and education.
• Progressive Exercise Program to assist you not only with your pelvic floor strength and endurance, but with your general fitness, health and well-being.
• Communication and Collaboration with your specialists and General Practitioner to keep them informed of your progress and to support your care.