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Orthopedic • Cardio Pulmonary • Neurology • Geriatric • Women's Health |
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Women's Health Physical Therapy The Women's Physical Therapy Program at Medically-Based Fitness is designed to evaluate and treat female clients to promote and enhance health throughout her life span. MBF Women's Physical Therapy Program Includes:
Treatments Include: Your evaluation findings, lifestyle, and personal goals help to guide our therapist in designing your specific treatment plan. Your treatment may include a combination of the therapies listed below:
The emphasis of the health sciences on fitness and wellness has brought to women's awareness a need to pay closer attention to their bodies during recreation, work, and throughout daily life. Women's Health Physical Therapists have specialized training which will benefit women with a variety of medical conditions. Women are unique in many ways. At the most fundamental level, women's bodies are structured to give birth and supply early nutrition to the next generation. Whether or not a woman decides to have children, her reproductive system affects her body throughout her entire life. While changes and stages of the maturing female body are natural, there may be times when a woman needs extra help to cope with today's demands – including athletics, later childbearing years, career stress, menopause and a myriad of other life situations. What to Expect Your First Visit During your evaluation, you will discuss your symptoms and impairments with a female physical therapist that has been trained in women’s health issues. The forms that you will fill out prior to your visit will be reviewed and discussed to make sure we have a good understanding of your needs and how we can best help you. After the initial discussion, you will be examined in standing, sitting, and lying down positions to assess the alignment and function of your muscles and joints. Following the musculoskeletal exam, you will be asked to undress from the waist down and cover yourself with a sheet. An internal pelvic floor exam allows the therapist to specifically test muscle strength, function, and relaxation ability of the pelvic floor muscles that may be interfering with your normal functioning. An internal exam in never performed during pregnancy and with some painful conditions. The exam is different than what you receive at the gynecologist and a speculum is not used. Muscles are tested with both biofeedback and manual examination. If you are uncomfortable with an internal evaluation, a lot of information can be gathered about you and your body with an external examination of the pelvic floor. The important thing is that you are comfortable with the examination. If you are uncomfortable being alone during the examination it is your right to bring someone with you or we will have an additional staff member enter the room during that portion of the exam if requested. Please let your therapist know what we can do to make you more comfortable! What is the Pelvic Floor? The pelvic floor is one of the four components of the “Core”. It is composed of three distinct layers of muscles.
Mobility vs Stability Your organs and outlets need to expand and be mobile in order to function correctly. Too much mobility can cause prolapse or incontinence, too much stability can cause pelvic pain. (APTA Section on Women’s Health Gynecological Manual) Supportive Dysfunction: (laxity and weakness) occurs when there is a loss of nerve, muscle, ligament, or fascial integrity of the pelvic floor. This will include diagnoses of urinary incontinence, prolapse, and neurological and musculoskeletal dysfunction. Hypertonus Dysfunction: Excess tone in the pelvic floor muscles usually creating pain and/or urogynecological symptoms. Incoordination Dysfunction: Difficulty in the contraction or relaxation sequencing of pelvic floor muscle contractions or abdominal/pelvic floor incoordination difficulties. This can be from neurologic or functional and habit coordination. Visceral Dysfunction: includes Interstitual Cystitis, IBS, and dysparuenia For further information or questions about our Women’s Health Therapy, please contact Katie Dickelman Women's Health Therapist kdickelman@medfit.net Before your first appointment please print and fill out the following documents. If you are not being seen for incontinence you can skip the Bladder Function Log Vulvar Pain Functional Questionaire Pelvic Floor Consent For Evaluation and Treatment |