A Simple Guide to Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Diagnosis, Treatment and Related Conditions

This book describes Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Diagnosis and Treatment and Related Diseases"The Pelvic Floor is the support for all your abdominal organs and weight""Being aware of your pelvic floor and its intricate connection to your health is essential to your well being"--Keira BrownPelvic floor dysfunction is the inability to regulate the muscles of the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is the collection of muscles and ligaments in the pelvic region.
The pelvic floor functions like a hammock to support the organs in the pelvis such as the bladder, rectum, and uterus or prostate. Contracting and relaxing these muscles permits the patient to control:1. The bowel movements, 2. Urination, 3. Breathing4. For women particularly:a. Sexual intercourseb. Pregnancy and childbirth. Pelvic floor dysfunction induces the patient to contract the muscles rather than loosen them.
As a result, the patient may have difficulty passing a bowel movement. If left untreated, pelvic floor dysfunction can cause:1. Discomfort, 2. Long-term colon damage, or3. Infection. Pelvic floor dysfunction is a common disorder where the patient is unable to correctly relax and coordinate the muscles in the pelvic floor to urinate or to have a bowel movement. If the patient is a woman, the patient may also feel pain during sexual intercourse.
If the patient is a man the patient may have difficulties having or maintaining an erection (erectile dysfunction or ED). If the patient thinks of the pelvis as being the base to house organs such as the bladder, uterus (or prostate in men) and rectum, the pelvic floor muscles are the base's foundation. These muscles function as the support structure maintaining everything in place within the body.
The pelvic floor muscles provide support to the organs by enclosing around the pelvic bone. Some of these muscles maintain more stability by forming a sling around the rectum. The pelvic organs are:1. The bladder (the pouch holding the urine).2. The uterus and vagina (in women).3. The prostate (in men).4. The rectum (the area at the end of the large intestine where the body stores solid waste). Normally, the patient is able to go to the bathroom without difficulty since the body contracts and relaxes its pelvic floor muscles.
This is just like any other muscular action, like contracting the biceps when the patient lifts a heavy box or clenching the fist. When the patient has pelvic floor dysfunction, the body continues to tighten these muscles instead of relaxing them like it should in normal settings. This tension indicates the patient may have:1. Trouble evacuating (releasing) a bowel movement.2. An incomplete bowel movement.3.
Urine or stool that leaks. Pelvic floor dysfunction has also conventionally been depicted as happening from laxity or poor tonus of the pelvic floor musculature and ligaments. Injury of this nature normally happens from aging, straining, or trauma and produces urinary or fecal incontinence and organ prolapse. More awareness is directed now on detecting and understanding so-called "high-tone" PFD, a product of hyper-clonic or spastic musculature, resulting in symptoms such as:1.
Urinary urgency-frequency, 2. Constipation3. Vulvar pain4. Dyspareunia, 5. Orgasmic dysfunction. Using the hands, the doctor will check for spasms, knots or weakness in these musclesA method placing electrodes on the perineum and or the sacrum can find out if the patient can contract and relax pelvic muscles. Therapy may be external, as in muscle training or internal, through massage of the ligaments and biofeedback.
TABLE OF CONTENTIntroductionChapter 1 Pelvic...