Service
Pelvic floor disorders happen when the muscles, ligaments, and tissues that support the pelvic organs become weakened, stretched, overly tight, or injured. They can affect the bladder, uterus, vagina, and rectum, and can make everyday life harder.
Common pelvic floor concerns include urinary incontinence, such as leaking with a cough, sneeze, or exercise (stress urinary incontinence), pelvic organ prolapse, and pelvic pain.
Many things can contribute, including pregnancy and childbirth, pelvic surgery or radiation, chronic coughing, chronic constipation, heavy lifting, high-impact exercise such as running, trauma to the pelvic region, and changes with age.
Pelvic floor physical therapy works on the pelvic floor together with the abdominal muscles, back, and diaphragm. Your therapist uses exercises to strengthen, relax, and retrain these muscles, along with hands-on care to ease tight tissue and tender areas.
Pelvic health does not always require internal treatment. Many concerns can be addressed with external, non-invasive approaches, and any internal assessment or treatment is used only when it is appropriate for your condition and you agree to it.
KOH Physical Therapy Lab offers pelvic floor physical therapy for women and men at our clinics in Irvine, in Orange County, and in Long Beach. Treatment is often alongside other treatments such as shockwave therapy, kinesiology taping, fascia stretching, and cold laser therapy. The details on this page focus on women; men can find more on our Pelvic Health for Men page.
Benefits
Who it is for
Your visit
Your first visit is a one-on-one evaluation with a pelvic health specialist in a private room, starting with a conversation about your symptoms and goals.
Your pelvic health specialist explains each part of the assessment in advance. It may include looking at and gently examining the back, pelvis, hips, abdomen, and pelvic floor muscles for tone, flexibility, and tenderness, and it may include an internal assessment.
Any internal assessment or treatment is discussed first and done only with your consent. You can decline or stop at any time, and many concerns are treated with external approaches.
Your plan usually combines hands-on care with exercises for the pelvic floor, core, back, and diaphragm, plus home exercises so you can keep making progress between visits.
Causes
Pelvic floor disorders can affect both women and men. They develop when the structures that support the pelvic organs are weakened by age or injury. Surgery or radiation that affects nerves and tissue in the area, regular heavy lifting, and hereditary factors can all raise the risk.
FAQ
Related care
Pelvic floor care often connects with core recovery after pregnancy and with pelvic pain in men. These pages cover related topics.
Pelvic Health for Men →Diastasis recti and postpartum core rebuilding →
Related
We specialize in pelvic health physical therapy for men. A pelvic floor specialist works with the pelvic floor muscles and the muscles around them to address problems such as urinary incontinence, pelvic pain, and sexual dysfunction.
Scheduled for surgery? Pre and post-surgical rehab is physical therapy before and after an operation, to help you go into surgery as prepared as possible and recover strength and movement afterward.
Request an appointment online, or text our scheduling team. Text is the fastest way to reach us.
