Pelvic Pain And Prostatitis
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Relief is possible
Restore your pelvic health so you can move freely and live fully.
Pelvic Pain
Pain in general is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong and pain in the genitals and surrounding area is often emotionally distressing and embarrassing, limiting a person’s willingness to discuss it, even with your partner. This can often lead to a feeling of being isolated, alone, and maybe even helpless. These feelings can often increases your pain as you withdraw from social activities, work, and intimacy.
Solution: The good news is that pelvic physical therapy is here for you! I often see people with pelvic pain that is caused by a pinched nerve known as pudendal neuralgia, caused by tight muscles or other tissues in the area. It can often be confusing to a person because the pain may only be on one side, radiate to half the genitals, and be sporadic with no rhyme or reason as to what sets it off. This can lead to a life of fear as you struggle to avoid the pain, as well as lose sleep at night from the aching, burning sensation. Similar to sciatica, pelvic physical therapy can help to decompress the nerve, allowing it to heal and you to get back to your normal life!
Prostatitis
Are you being plagued by an achy feeling “down there”? Nothing too severe yet, or maybe you have already been to your doctor because of the pain in your genitals, or behind the scrotum? Prostatitis is an inflammation of the prostate, but rarely is the reason for the inflammation due to an infection. If you have ever had tennis elbow or a sprained ankle, there has been inflammation but no infection. It is quite common for the prostate to become inflamed from physical stress through the pelvic floor region, often due to personal stress and anxiety, or even physical activity. This can lead to an inflamed prostate, a condition known as prostatitis. This can also manifest as painful erections, painful ejaculations, and/or poor ejaculatory quality.
Solution: Hands-on manual therapy, stress management including meditation, gentle guided stretching, and sometimes electrical stimulation are used. I also use electromyography guided biofeedback to give you control of your pelvic floor muscles, whether I need to teach you how to relax them, or how to strengthen them.
Only 5% of prostatitis cases are caused by an infection yet antibiotics for 2-6 weeks is the first intervention used.
Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy (BPH)
Do you pee in Morse Code? Then this section is for you! For those with a prostate, it is approximately 20cc’s (the size of a walnut) in our 20’s but often grows to the size of a golf ball by the time you reach your 50’s, and in extreme cases, the size of a tennis ball or larger. This can make it more difficult to start your urine stream, empty your bladder and can cause interrupted sleep from multiple bathroom trips. The good news is there are several options you can discuss with your doctor ranging from medications to relax the prostate, to simple procedures to open up the urethra in the prostate, as well as minor procedure of “debulking” the prostate. The value of pelvic physical therapy is in “prehab” where you and I get your muscles tuned up prior to you having any prostate procedures, whether a T.U.R.P. or other intervention. This would be no different than seeing a physical therapist for your knee prior to knee surgery.