Pelvic floor physiotherapy - has anyone had success?

[HowToBeZen]

I think I might I have pelvic floor dysfunction and am honestly feeling so much dread at trying to treat it, but figure I should possibly consider at least an assessment to see what's going on.

The problems are tightness in the whole pelvic region, including lower back aching at times and I have had vaginismus in the past which does flare at times so there's a tendency there for muscles to be dysfunctionally tight.

I'm wary and tense at the idea of going - my last smear test I explained that I have vaginismus and the doctor doing it just said to make "an effort" to relax and went faster than I was comfortable with. It hurt for the rest of the day, not a lot but pissed me off as the person who did the previous one managed to not hurt at all.

Has anyone had treatment with a pelvic floor phsyio (for any type of problem) and did it resolve things in the long term? How do you find somebody you are comfortable with and trust to not make things worse?

I did for stress in incontinence, and no it didn’t help. I found her quite annoying as she just kept giving me more pelvic floors to do, no other options when I said I wouldn’t want surgery.

Yes and it was well worth it. I can't say I did much research into it, I just googled and went to the place that is quite literally around the corner. However I can't say enough good things about it. Maybe find somewhere local and at least go for an initial chat to see if you feel comfortable.

I had similar to you about 10 years ago, hypertonic pelvic floor. Pelvic floor physio was life changing for me. Weird at first but so effective and my problems never came back after a course of treatment. I went to a womens health physio in Barnes, London

Yep. I attended for around a year for pelvic floor dysfunction and I couldn't recommend it highly enough. At the beginning, the vaginismus was so bad she could barely do the muscle release on me, but it really improved. I am fairly sqeamish about these things but never felt uncomfortable with her. Do find a physio who specialises in this area, so to speak!

I did pelvic floor exercises that didn’t seem to help much, but when I started HRT there was a huge improvement, despite the fact that I’d given up doing the exercises. There’s a vaginal oestrogen cream available too, if you’re not at the stage of needing HRT - I don’t know much about the cream.

Bit of a bladder prolapse after DC1. Saw an NHS physio who was amazing. Finally understood how to do pelvic floor exercises! I've now got a 2nd baby of 3 months and returned to running with not too much trouble - I put this down to the physio.

Has anyone had treatment with a pelvic floor phsyio (for any type of problem) and did it resolve things in the long term?

My gynaecologist told me my prolapse would have to be repaired surgically because physio wouldn't fix it. I insisted on trying, but he was right.

DH had pelvic radiation damage following successful cancer treatment; and he's had good results from the kegel excercises taught to him by his physiotherapist.
The training sessions were done with her finger up his bum to teach him what to squeeze when, but he says it was worth it. :-O

Yes amazing. I was religious in using the Squeezy app and also had the pelvic floor toner and it made a huge difference.

Best of luck OP💪

I swear by Pilates for the pelvic floor, but not quite for the same pelvic floor issues as you. It’s been amazing though. Might be worth a look, it’s not invasive in any way.