Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is an important component in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain.
Muscles tighten and tense up when they are injured or when we are in pain. This is a normal response in our bodies to prevent more damage from occurring. Our pelvic floor muscles tighten up too when there is something painful in the pelvis. This is why we need Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy.
Our muscles aren’t meant to be tight all the time and after a while, they start to develop trigger points in these muscles. These trigger points cause pain. Trigger points, muscle tightness, and inflammation can irritate the nerves in the pelvis, which can cause pain to continue throughout the pelvis and surrounding areas.
Muscles that become even tighter can spasm, causing sudden stabbing or cramping. These spasms can mimic new painful symptoms, which leads to so many of us thinking something is terribly wrong when we are actually in no immediate danger.
Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy can help not only with pelvic muscle pain but also reduce symptoms of other CPP conditions caused by pelvic floor problems.
Nicole Cozean PT, DPT, WCS, the author of The Interstitial Cystitis Solution explains how the goal of physical therapy is to disrupt this feedback loop at every point they can. Releasing the trigger points in tight muscles can lessen pain and restore normal function to the pelvic muscles.
To do this, a specially pelvic trained physical therapist uses their hands to perform external and internal manipulations of the pelvic floor muscles, which are accessed through the vagina or rectum.
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