can we talk about pelvic floor please?

[Enko]

After 4 children my pelvic floor has never truly recovered.

I do exercises and I have tried different things to try to make it better. However, in practice, I am finding day to day I am ok, but I suffer from stress incontinence. Usually, I can cope with this but today when out on a run it went past " stress"

I have an elvi pelvic floor exerciser and I will try to use this more. However what else can be done? Will my gp refer to a physio who specialises in this or what?

What have others found that helps this?

My GP did. The physio was good but because of covid it was a phone consultation. In the actual centre apparently they have a machine which tells you if you are doing it right.

She recommended the Squeezy app from the NHS. It's £2.99 but really helpful. I still use it.ody days to maintain the strength I have gained.
I would ask for a referral though as they are very thorough a d give advice on how to build up the exercises. It's really common - my GP says she refers 3 or 4 women a week and she only works part time.

In France all women get 12 sessions of pelvic floor physio after giving birth as a matter of course. It saves loads of money in terms of public health in the long term. Should happen everywhere.

I went to a woman's health physio through the GP and it helped but I'm useless at rembering to do my exercises
I've started swimming and I've noticed my pelvic floor is much better.

I amd waiting to see a specialist nurse (incontinent specialist) and a gynae physio in a joint appt, early September. I've never been pregnant, but when the nurse tested my pelvic floor there was zero movement lol, nothing.

I went to GP for referral after a particularly embarrassing incident. She referred me without an exam as recent smear was agony and I was nervous about the examination. They accepted the referral and tge first specialist nurse appt was about 6 weeks later.

I'll update.

Good idea the French have

Yes. Good idea French people. On a similar note, in Spain women get a full gynae check once a year to preempt problems. I'd love to have this.

I’m in France and although I didn’t do the re-education périnéale (perineal therapy) post-birth, I did it recently aged 48. 12 x 30 minute sessions, a mix of quite intense exercises (guided by the physio) and «biofeedback» which is basically using a «sonde vaginale» (sensor inserted in the vagina) to measure how tightly you can squeeze and electronic stimulation to develop your strength. Plus exercises to do at home between the twice weekly rdv.

It really really works, but does require ongoing-and-forever daily exercises to maintain the benefits.

You have to do it everyday. It’s the consistency that matters and that makes the difference.

I will contact my gp this week and ask for a referral. I do wish we had something like the French or Spanish system here though.

I pay to see a pelvic floor physiotherapist and she's excellent. It's easy to do exercises wrong - also it can be counterproductive to do them if your pelvic floor is tight (it can be both tight and weak at the same time). Both my GP and a urologist were clueless but she understands how women's bodies work. Your issues may be different to mine but I'd recommend specialist physio to any woman with pelvic floor problems, if you could afford it.