Women's Health Physiotherapy
Urinary Incontinence:
1 in 4 women are affected by urinary incontinence.
1 in 4 women are affected by urinary incontinence (accidental leakage/loss of urine), in those who have had children the number of women affected increases to 1 in 3!
There are different types of urinary incontinence:
- Stress Urinary Incontinence: where there is leakage with any activity that increases intra-abdominal pressure (i.e. the pressure from above onto their bladder). Common activities for this type of leakage are coughing, sneezing, laughing, walking, running, jumping or lifting.
- Urge Urinary Incontinence: where leakage occurs in conjunction with a strong and sudden urge to urinate that cannot be deferred. Common triggers for this type of sudden urge to urinate can include running water, putting the key in the door or getting out of the car.
- Mixed Urinary Incontinence: stress urinary incontinence in combination with urge incontinence.
Urinary incontinence greatly impacts a person’s quality of life. Those who suffer from incontinence consistently report lower levels of well-being and emotional health, they describe feelings of social embarrassment and will avoid and limit their participation or activities. Unfortunately, 70% of those with urinary leakage do not seek advice and treatment even though their symptoms could be reduced or even cured with non-invasive management strategies.
Prolapse:
4 in 10 women are affected by pelvic organ prolapse at some stage in their life. The bladder, uterus and rectum are pelvic organs that are supported in the pelvic cavity by ligaments and fascia (connective tissue). When these supportive tissues are weakened or stretched, the pelvic organs are not as strongly supported and can push down into the vaginal wall. This bulging or sagging of the pelvic organs into the vagina is called prolapse.
The pelvic floor muscles also support the pelvic organs from underneath, weakness in the pelvic floor muscles also means there is less upward support for these pelvic organs which can often allow the prolapse to worsen.
Women will often report prolapse as a dragging, bulging or heavy sensation in the vagina. There may be a lump or bulging in the vagina or just beyond the entrance of the vagina. It may also affect emptying the bladder or bowel or create symptoms during sex.
Prolapse is common in women who have had a baby, particularly if you have had more than one baby, if your baby had a bigger birth weight or if your pushing phase was prolonged or very short. Family history, lifestyle factors like excessive heavy lifting or manual labour and other medical conditions like chronic constipation or chronic coughing (in people with emphysema or asthma) can also increase your likelihood of prolapse too.
Overall Women’s Health Physiotherapy can play a large role in reducing the symptoms of incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. In fact:
- Pelvic Floor Muscle Training with a Physiotherapist is the recommended first line treatment for incontinence. With those who complete pelvic floor training, 17 x more likely to leak less often and leak smaller amounts!
- Pelvic Floor Muscle Training has been shown to significantly reduce the symptoms of prolapse when compared to people who only received lifestyle modification advice.
We work with women of all ages, to help them change their current pelvic floor function and achieve greater freedom in work, sport and leisure activities.
At Fit and Flow Physiotherapy we work with women of all ages, to help them change their current pelvic floor function and achieve greater freedom in work, sport and leisure activities. We want women to return to activities that they love or even complete their day-to-day activities, without feelings of fear or embarrassment!
Because pregnancy, labour and child-birth increase the risk of incontinence and prolapse, we recommend all women have a post-natal physiotherapy assessment in an effort to support a safe return to exercise /sport, for more information see Pre and Post-natal page.
About Fit and Flow
Extensive experience in musculoskeletal and sports injuries, adolescent injuries, pre and post-natal physiotherapy, women's health and surgical rehabilitation.
Tell us more about your injury
Tell us more about your injury. Not sure whether physiotherapy can help wth your current injury or limitation? Fill out the questionnaire with some background information and we can contact you about your specific injury!
Strength training is an essential supplement to a runner's training workload, as strong muscles, ligaments and tendons help to guard against impact, improve form and decrease the risk of injury! 🤕
On the next few slides, our Physio Emma demonstrates the following three exercises:
1. Bent knee calf raises - this exercise strengthens the calf muscle towards the bottom of your leg (the soleus). It can be particularly helpful in preventing achilles pain!
2. Decline squat - this exercise builds strong quads which can help guard against knee pain. If you're doing a lot of downhill running, this exercise is especially important.
3. Single leg deadlifts - this exercise is great for building hamstring strength, while also increasing core strength and stability.
If you're struggling with an injury or need help with building your strength for running, our physio's are well equipped to give you the guidance you need! 😃🏃🏾
Click the link in our bio, or give us a call on (02) 8544 3680 to schedule an appointment!
Jessica* was keen to return to run club after her second pregnancy🤰🏼
She was diligent with her rehab and had achieved her goal of running run club 2-3x week by 16-weeks post-partum.
Everyone's timeline for returning to running is different, just like their pregnancy, birth and post-partum recovery is different!
If you are keen to return to running post-partum, chat to your physio about a realistic return to running plan during your pregnancy... then commit to the process post-partum and don't compare yourself to those around you (or on social media)!📱
Our patients are often very focused on their pelvic floor strength and abdominal control (or abdominal separation) for their return to running (or the gym)...but have you considered some other basic strength work to ensure your legs are ready for running? 💪🏼
Based on our clinical guidelines for returning to running post-partum, here are some baseline measures that you should be able to tick off before considering running (bear in mind that depending on your level of running and your goals, these measures may be too easy and we would give you come harder ones to achieve!!)
1. 20 x reps of single leg calf raises
2. 20 x reps single leg glute bridges
3. 20 x reps single leg sit-to-stand to a chair
4. 20 x reps sidelying leg lifts
Often these single leg exercises are too difficult in the early post-partum, so along with your pelvic floor and/or abdominal exercises, your physio will start you on the right level of strength exercises for your body. Make sure to ask your physio for some strength exercises for your legs if your goal is to return to running! 😄
Happy World Physio Day! 🥳🎉
At Fit and Flow Physiotherapy, we believe that everyone should be supported and guided to achieve their goals and become the best version of themselves😄
We are passionate in supporting you on this journey - as physios, athletes, mums and active individuals - we understand what it’s like to feel limited, and for your body to not allow you to achieve your best 🤽🏽♀️🚴🏻🏌🏾♂️🏂
We want to help every member of your family to achieve their best... whether it's your bub 👶🏼 who isn't rolling yet, your teen who is getting knee pain with oz-tag 🏃🏾♀️, a mum who is returning to the gym 🏋🏼♀️ or running post-partum or even just your everyday person who wants to walk around the block easily each morning!
On behalf of our team, thank you for choosing us to be your physio providers! 💜🤍💙
"Women's Health Week is a nation-wide campaign of events and online activities – all centred on improving women's health and helping you to make healthier choices."
Now in it's 8th year in Australia, Women's Health week promotes women making choices to better their physical and emotional health and wellbeing.
With all that has been going on in 2020/2021... now more than ever we encourage women to visit the Women's Health Week website and subscribe to take part in online events and activities to learn more about their health! Click the link in the bio to find out more:
https://www.womenshealthweek.com.au/about/