Blog Archive
Bowel health is something we tend to take for granted until it stops working. Rarely does anyone teach us the mechanics of emptying out bowels. When we have difficulty evacuating our body’s compensatory strategy is often to strain. This places a lot of undue stress on your pelvic floor, often...
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is urinary leakage that occurs with physical activities such as coughing, exercising, laughing, sneezing, etc. It is actually quite common, affecting 40% of women in the United States. This type of urinary incontinence tends to occur with weakened pelvic floor muscles. Your pelvic floor muscles may...
Pelvic floor exercises, also called Kegel (kay-gull) exercises after Dr. Arnold Kegel who developed them, strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles play a role in supporting the bladder ad urethra. Weak pelvic floor muscles may contribute to incontinence. Exercises to strengthen theses muscles may help improve urine control. How...
Sacral Neuromodulation Therapy (SNT) is a surgical therapy designed to help women with symptoms of overactive bladder, urinary retention, and fecal incontinence. These symptoms often develop when there is a miscommunication between the brain and the sacral nerves that control the bladder and bowels. SNT targets the nerves that control...
New Treatments for overactive bladder Millions of women in the United States suffer from overactive bladder (OAB). Symptoms of OAB include a sudden and severe urge to urinate, leaking urine when the urge to urinate is felt, urinating frequently during the day, and waking up multiple times throughout the night...
Is your daily schedule controlled by your bladder? Do you know where every single bathroom is within a 20-mile radius of your home? If you answered yes to either of these questions, you may have symptoms of overactive bladder (OAB). What are the symptoms of OAB? Urgency: “I have...
I have pain down below, what can I do? Vulvodynia is defined as pain or discomfort of the vulva that lasts longer than three months. The vulva is the external genital area of a female. About 16% of women in the United States have vulvodynia. It affects ethnic and racial...
Have you heard of the movie “constipation?” No? That’s because it hasn’t come out yet. (Do you find that you are spending more time on the toilet than you would like? Are you even considering replacing your toilet seat with a soft cushion because of the time you feel like...
It’s likely that you have never heard of lichen sclerosus before. However, this skin condition is not uncommon. It is a chronic inflammatory skin disease that typically affects the genital region and can affect women of any age. Although it is more often found in postmenopausal women. Serious disease can lead to...
Accidental bowel leakage affects a significant part of the population — 1 in 10 people at some time in their lives — and is much more common in women than in men. It’s a difficult topic that many are embarrassed to discuss, but it can affect women of all stages...
There’s one very important muscle that most gym trainers don’t mention: Your pelvic floor. Like any muscle group, your pelvic floor requires routine exercise to stay strong and function properly. And for women, the pelvic floor serves a pretty important function: It’s the sheet of muscle that supports the bladder,...
The female pelvic system is a complex network of muscles and nerves, so it’s hardly surprising that giving birth can have lasting effects on the body. Luckily, as the field of urogynecology grows, doctors are better able to understand just how the pelvic system is impacted by pregnancy and childbirth,...
It’s not something your friends and family are likely to bring up at your baby shower, but urinary incontinence is a common (and annoying) side effect of pregnancy and childbirth. Here are five things you need to know about what to expect, and how to regain bladder control after you’ve...
As we’ve covered in previous posts, the pelvic floor is a complex system of muscles with two major functions: supporting the vagina and pelvic organs, and maintaining urinary and bowel continence. But when those muscles are damaged (especially after childbirth), bladder, rectal, or uterine tissue may begin to bulge into the vagina....
Urinary leakage is a surprisingly common health problem, affecting 40 percent of women in the U.S. every year. For many women, it’s not uncommon to leak urine when laughing hard, coughing, sneezing, or exercising. For some, it’s a once-in-awhile embarrassment, but for others it can be a messier daily dilemma. But the...