what is pelvic floor dysfunction exactly?

[kim mondro]

i went to my urologist appointment on mon june 1st and she told me that i had ic plus ibs plus pelvic floor dysfunction. i read a little bit on pelvic floor dysfunction but what is it really? how do we get it? is it like ic and you just dont know where it comes from? or is it a cause from ic? im kinda confused. can someone clarify? i also go to physical therapy on wed for biofeedback.
kim

[Katrina]

I am far from the expert but IC most likely caused yours. I don't know all of your medical hysterory so can't be certian.

http://www.ic-network.com/guestlectures/rhondatranscript.html

This guest lecture to ICN talks about it and will talk about it relating to IC. Hope it helps you.

Hope you feel better.
:kiss:

[MakinIT]

I'm no expert but since I spent months with a PT trying to relax my muscles from the vaginal muscles out, I asked ALOT of questions. Basically, you have pain from the IC. that causes you tense up the muscles. (Think of a headache, you hurt and the muscles tighten through your scalp and neck) So with Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, your muscles are constantly tightening to protect your bladder from pain. Unfortunately, all that tightening causes spasms, so your PT has to go in and find "trigger points" in you vagina and relax them ...much as a chiro does with pain on your back. (I just know my chiro isn't gonna do trigger point therapy in my vagina. He would not really know where to start and his wife would have a fit, since she works in the office accross the hall!!!)

I had a good experience getting the trigger points out...unfortunately,I had a car accident about 3 weeks ago that causes pain to start all overrr in my pelvis...so, i may have to go back. boo.

Gotta run...hope it was helpful...think of it as a cycle. More pain from IC, more PFD.....lessen your IC symptoms you can start to work on lessoning your PFD symptoms.


Bye

Tracey

[Rachael]

:hi:

Hi,

I'm new to this board. It's great to hear your success with the PFD therapies -- but I'm sorry to hear about your accident. I hope you weren't set back too far and that you can quickly get back to feeling better.

I have PFD and have undergone internal and external physical therapy for about the past 8 months. I do not have IC, but my mother does so I understand your pain somewhat. I developed PFD over time from my sacro joints becoming malaligned, which made my pelvic floor muscles so completely out of whack -- too tight. In any case, the PFD-specific physical therapy has been the only thing that has helped -- tremendously -- to ease the tension/pain when I sit. I'd been through other traditional PT which actually made me worse.

I must say though, that while this therapy is great, you really need to learn how to do at-home therapies to be successful. This takes a lot of dedication! Doing the internal massage yourself when you need it, doing relaxation techniques and massage techniques with a partner are also really important. My fiance has learned A LOT about this problem and has been very helpful along the way. My therapist has taught him a lot. If anyone is in the Philadelphia area and needs to know a great therapist for PFD, let me know. She and her team are on the cutting edge of developing therapies for PFD and IC, and they work with Christine Whitmore's urology/IC team at Graduate Hospital.

Anyway, I'm really glad I found this board b/c it's so great to know other people are going through this! Oh - I also have IBS which started about 3 years ago. Under control now for the most part, but it's interesting how all of these things might relate to one another....

[Katrina]

Hi Rachel, just want to welcome you to the board. I have IBS, IC, and PFD along with a lot of other things too. Hope to see you around more.:welcome: :welcome: :welcome: