Physical Therapy Department Treating Women’s Pelvic Floor Disorders

 

Are accepting referrals from primary care providers

 

Farmington¾

 

Two Franklin Memorial Hospital (FMH) physical therapists, Rebecca Gagnon-Pillsbury, MSPT, ATC, CLT; and Heather Patterson, PT; recently completed an extensive three-day course in Pelvic Health Physical Therapy, level 1, offered by the Section on Women’s Health of the American Physical Therapy Association. As a result, they are accepting referrals from primary care providers to treat female patients who have pelvic floor disorders.

 

Through the normal movement and stresses associated with daily living, a woman’s pelvic floor can weaken or carry undue stress, resulting in urinary or bowel urgency, incontinence, constipation, pelvic pain, back pain, or pain with intercourse. Physical therapy can break into those dysfunctional cycles through education, behavior modification, and exercises to facilitate normal coordination of pelvic floor muscles.

Patients seeking treatment will have an initial evaluation that includes an extensive history interview, examination of the spine and lower extremities, biofeedback assessment of the pelvic floor muscles and abdominal muscles, an internal pelvic floor assessment, and education and initiation of a home program of exercises.

 

“We are very excited to have our physical therapy department add the treatment of pelvic floor disorders to the services we provide,” said Susan Loughrey, FMH interim director of physical rehabilitation & sports medicine. “Many women suffer from urgency, urinary and stress incontinence, back pain, and pelvic pain that can have a great impact on their lives. A woman who suffers from these symptoms should talk to her doctor about it; incontinence can be treated.”

 

Patterson and Gagnon-Pillsbury plan to also complete levels 2 and 3 offered by the Section on Women’s Health of the American Physical Therapy Association, which will result in a Certificate of Achievement in Pelvic Physical Therapy (CAPP). The CAPP is awarded to physical therapists who complete three courses of training in pelvic physical therapy, pass written and clinical testing requirements at each level, and successfully complete a written case report.

 

Other women’s health services offered by the FMH Physical Therapy department include: treatment for back pain related to pregnancy and post-partum issues; lymphedema; post-operative breast care; treatment of lower back pain; and osteoporosis.