Incontinence refers to any unwanted loss or leaking of urine or feces. There are two types of urinary incontinence: stress and urge. Both are a little awkward and can be somewhat embarrassing, but they’re also both quite manageable!
Prevent Stress Incontinence
Stress incontinence happens when there’s pressure on the bladder. It’s usually the result of poor coordination between several groups of muscles, including the pelvic floor. Pelvic health physio will help you retrain these muscles, and give you strategies to manage high-stress moments.
Curb Urge Incontinence
If you feel a frequent need to empty your bladder, even when it’s not full, you might have urge incontinence. The cause is often behavioural– a result of unknowingly having “trained” your bladder to be the boss! Pelvic health physio will help learn to “hold it” for longer.
Manage Fecal Incontinence
Fecal incontinence isn’t just about uncontrolled leaking. Difficulty wiping, unwanted or messy gas, and “skid marks” can all mean that things aren’t working the way they should. Pelvic health physio will help you retrain your body, and give you back your confidence.
Incontinence Support
Book Individual Physiotherapy
A private, 1:1 appointment with Cheryl; a certified pelvic health professional who can give you the answers and strategies you need
Join Pelvic Health Group Classes
One size doesn’t fit all– but Core & Pelvic Health classes come close. This program can help you understand and manage incontinence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily. Not everyone needs to have an internal pelvic health physio exam because we can make very accurate assumptions about the issue by taking an in-depth history. Also, many GP’s are now doing more of an exam instead of just doing a pap test, so there’s no need to duplicate.
But, if you do need an exam, know that it’s a totally normal part of our day. It can even be a good experience! 98% of women comment that they’re very happy having had an exam, because they feel better knowing what’s going on with their Pelvic Floor. Many women say they would prefer not to have an exam initially, but once they start working on a program, they come back and want to confirm what they’re feeling (or not feeling).
Some things do require a physical exam (like if we want to check for a prolapse, or determine degree of a ligament sprain), but many things do not. As we mentioned above, often a thorough history gives us all the information we need.
If you can’t book an in-person clinic visit right now because of COVID-19 or geographical barriers, we can easily set up a treatment program you can do from a distance, based on your history and what you share with us.
I like to keep things simple and give you all of the education and background you need to fully understand why you’re doing each one, so it’ll be hard to do any of the exercises I give you wrong! During your visit, I’ll teach you the exercises and then get you to explain them back to me, because teaching something is one of the best ways to make sure you really know something.
Once you understand why you’re doing an exercise, you’ll easily know when you’re not getting the results you want.
