How to Do a Kegel: Different Positions Can Improve Your Performance

by KegelsPelvic Floor MusclesPelvic Floor Weakness

This blog is an addendum to our 11-part article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. We thought it relevant to add this blog post since the first 2 New Year’s Resolutions are all about Kegels and pelvic floor muscle exercises! Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

How to do a Kegel for Newbies
There are tons of articles out there that talk about how you can do Kegels while waiting in line at the grocery store, while driving car, or while sitting at your office desk. Yup, even we have been guilty of writing those types of articles. We talk about doing Kegels in these various places because we want to emphasize the fact that adding Kegels and other exercises for your pelvic floor muscles does NOT have to be difficult, complicated, or impossible. We try to emphasize that Kegels can be done whenever you have a spare minute or two, with the goal of encouraging more women to do Kegels for their pelvic health.

But here’s the thing … for the woman who has never done Kegels or the woman who is not doing a Kegel correctly, trying to do these exercises while sitting in a car or standing in the grocery line is going to be next to impossible. For these women, it is best to start doing Kegels from positions of less resistance, such as lying down or lying on her side. If you think about it, doing Kegels in these positions make sense. After all, in both sitting and standing positions gravity exerts a strong downward pull on everything, including the pelvic floor muscles. Since the goal of Kegels is to pull the pelvic floor muscles upward and inward, any woman in a sitting or standing position has to work against the force of gravity … which is no small force! If a woman has never done Kegels or has difficulty doing Kegels, fighting gravity while doing these exercises just doesn’t make sense!

Best Positions for Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises
Now that we’ve established that doing pelvic floor muscle exercises, such as Kegels, while sitting or standing is not ideal for beginners or women struggling with these exercises, let’s talk about strong positions for these women. The best positions for these women to start practicing Kegels are supine and side-lying. In regular human words, supine and side-lying mean this:

  • Supine: This just means that you lie on your back with your legs stretched out in a relaxed position (you can do this on your bed or on the floor, whichever is most comfortable for you)
  • Side-Lying: As the name implies, you lie on your side with your legs bent at a relaxed and comfortable angle (again, on the bed or floor)

With either of these positions, feel free to use a pillow to support your neck if necessary (our goal is your pelvic health, not to give you a pain in the neck!). The side-lying position offers the least resistance, but can also be a bit awkward for some women. Try both positions and see which one seems more comfortable for you. In fact, you might try both positions and try to do a Kegel contraction in both. Also remember that if you want to troubleshoot  your Kegels, you’ll need to be able to place one hand between your legs.

We suggest that you try doing Kegels in the supine position first. If you continue to have trouble doing a correct Kegel , then move to the side-lying position and try the contractions again there. If you are new to doing Kegels or are not sure you are doing them correctly, please check this post  to test yourself. If you continue having trouble doing a correct Kegel contraction in either the supine or side-lying positions, then seek the help of a specialist in women’s pelvic health.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

How to Do a Kegel: Do You Know How?

by KegelsPelvic Floor MusclesPelvic Floor Weakness

This blog is an addendum to our 11-part article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. We thought it relevant to add this blog post since the first 2 New Year’s Resolutions are all about Kegels and pelvic floor muscle exercises! Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Do You Know How to Do a Kegel, Really?
For many women, this sounds like a silly question. Of course women know how to do a Kegel. After all, women are often handed direction sheets on how to do a Kegel–whether post-partum or as an alternative therapy for symptoms such as urinary leakage. Just in case you’re not sure about the vocabulary we are using here, a Kegel is a pelvic floor muscle contraction developed by Dr. Arnold Kegel to help women improve their pelvic floor.

So who doesn’t know how to do a Kegel, right?

Wrong.

It turns out that about 50% of women cannot do a Kegel (or contraction of the pelvic floor muscles) correctly. What do these women do wrong?

  • contract the wrong muscles (such as the thigh or buttock muscles)
  • contract no muscles (including the pelvic floor muscles)
  • forget to release the muscles between contractions
  • push the pelvic floor muscles downward and outward rather than pulling them up and in

And these are just a few of the possible problems that women could encounter when learning how to do a Kegel based on written instructions alone. The negative result is that women who do Kegels incorrectly then assume that Kegels do not work for alleviating symptoms of urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, or decreased sexual sensation. They could not be more wrong! If you don’t believe us, check out the statistics on how well Kegels work to alleviate these types of symptoms.

How to Do a Kegel Correctly
So if at least 50% of women are doing Kegels incorrectly based on written instructions alone, what should those women do? Simple: troubleshoot the Kegel. This exercise for your pelvic floor muscles is simple to troubleshoot if you can create about 45 minutes of quiet time in your house … alone! Do whatever you have to do to get the kids, hubby, and pets out of the way. Turn off your phone ringers and pager sounds. This may seem like a lot of work just to troubleshoot the Kegel, but you’ll find this small investment of time well worth it!

Once you’ve created an oasis of quiet in your home, follow these steps to troubleshoot your Kegel. Be aware that you will need to be willing to touch yourself in your pelvic region. If you are unwilling to do this, then please refer to our blog post on getting help from a physical therapist specializing in women’s pelvic health.

How to Do a Kegel

  1. To prepare yourself, wash your hands thoroughly, and then remove your pants and underwear (if you feel comfortable doing so). Lie on your bed (or the floor, if you prefer) face up with your legs straight out in a relaxed position. You may want to cover yourself with a light blanket for comfort.
  2. Place two fingertips of one hand between your legs on the perineum, which is the space between your vagina and your anus. You will be using these two fingers to feel whether your pelvic floor muscles pull up and in when you do a Kegel. Place your other hand under your buttock, slightly toward the outside edge. With this hand, you will be testing whether you tighten your buttock muscles when you do a Kegel contraction. Note that you want to avoid tightening your buttock muscles when you do a Kegel.
  3. Now do a Kegel (or pelvic floor muscle contraction). Not sure how to do this? No worries. Just picture that you are in a crowded elevator and you have intestinal gas. To prevent yourself from passing gas, you tighten certain muscles in your pelvic region, right? These are the same muscles you tighten to do a correct Kegel. As you do so, feel whether there is an inward and upward contraction where you have your two fingers (on the perineum). If you are doing a correct Kegel, you should feel this slight “in and up” sensation. At the same time, you should feel NO tightening of your buttock muscles. Now release the contraction. Releasing your muscles between contractions is VERY important because a lack of release can lead to over-tightening of the pelvic floor muscles, as well as pelvic pain and other unwanted side effects.
  4. Now repeat the process, this time moving the hand that was on your buttock to your inner thigh. Keep your other hand on your perineum, between your legs. Do another Kegel contraction, checking again that the perineum has a slight inward and upward pull, while your thigh muscle remains relaxed. Release the contraction.
  5. Finally, move your hand from your inner thigh to your abdomen. Repeat the process and ensure that your abdominal muscles do not push outwards as you do your Kegel. Again release the contraction.

If you were able to follow these instructions on how to do a Kegel without tightening your thigh or buttock muscles, and without pushing out your abdominal muscles, during each contraction, then you DO know how to do a Kegel. If, on the other hand you felt your thigh or buttock muscles tightening (or your abdominals pushing outward), you need to slow down and retrain yourself how to do a Kegel.

Taking Your Time Doing Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises
If you found yourself doing your Kegels incorrectly based on the above instructions, then you have two options: you can retrain yourself to do a correct Kegel or you can get help from a specialist in women’s pelvic health. If you want to try to retrain your pelvic floor muscles yourself, simply follow the instructions given above. As you do each Kegel, consciously focus on contracting your pelvic floor muscles while keeping your thigh and buttock muscles relaxed. If you tend to push your abdominal muscles outward, focus on using them to help you pull your pelvic floor muscles inward and upward.

Take your time practicing these contractions. You may need to move your hand from thigh to buttock to abdominal muscles. Touching these muscles can help you consciously relax them even as you tighten your pelvic muscles. At first it may take you up to 10 slow practice contractions to do a correct Kegel. Don’t worry. Be patient with yourself. Remember that you don’t spend a lot of time thinking about your pelvic floor muscles, so it may take a while for your brain and body to make the proper connections necessary to do a correct Kegel.

If you try to retrain your pelvic muscles yourself but are unsuccessful, we suggest you seek the help of a women’s pelvic health specialist  right away. Not only will this save you a lot of frustration, but getting help means that you will have far less to “unlearn” than if you keep trying to troubleshoot the Kegel by yourself.

Don’t worry! Learning how to do a kegel isn’t rocket science … sometimes you just need to take a little time to learn how to do it right or get some help. Either option is perfectly wonderful, and we applaud you for your focus on your pelvic health!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Pelvic Floor Exercises: How a Physical Therapist Can Help Improve Your Results

by KegelsPelvic Floor MusclesPelvic Floor Weakness

This blog is part of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Get this: 50% of women cannot identify or contract the appropriate muscles to do pelvic floor exercises correctly by following only written results.

That’s right … we said 50%! No wonder there are so many women out there who think that pelvic floor exercises (also called Kegels) don’t work. Chances are that at least 50% of these women are not contracting their pelvic floor muscles properly, or not even contracting their pelvic floor muscles at all. In fact, women commonly contract other muscles–such as thigh or buttock muscles–instead of pelvic floor muscles. The result is that their thighs and buttocks are nicely toned, but their pelvic floor muscles remain neglected and out-of-shape! The other result is that if you have a New Year’s resolution to improve your pelvic health, you won’t achieve your goal if you are exercising your pelvic floor muscles incorrectly.

Do You Know How to Do a Kegel?
This might be a difficult question for you to answer. After all, if you are following written instructions on how to do a Kegel, you might THINK you are doing the exercise correctly, but how do you really know? One of the best ways to find out whether you are exercising your pelvic floor muscles correctly is to have a specialist test you.

Examples of specialists include physical therapists specializing in women’s pelvic health, urologists, and ob/gyns. All of these medical professionals will test the strength and correctness of your Kegel by asking you to tighten your pelvic floor muscles around a finger inserted into your vagina. While this does not sound like the most fun experience in the world, this test WILL help you determine whether you have been properly exercising your pelvic floor muscles … or just wasting your time!

If you have been wasting your time, the good news is that your specialist can either help you correct the way you do your Kegels, or recommend someone who can work with you. For instance, many women who cannot do a correct Kegel are referred to physical therapists who specialize in women’s pelvic health.

Do You Need a Physical Therapist to Help You Correctly Exercise Your Pelvic Floor Muscles?
Physical therapists specializing in women’s pelvic health work with women over a number of sessions to locate and properly contract the correct pelvic floor muscles. What can a physical therapist do for you that you can’t do for yourself? A physical therapist can help you in many ways.

First, the therapist will most likely take a “hands on” approach, which means that they will put their hands in various areas of your pelvic region to help you “feel” when you contract the correct pelvic floor muscles, as well as helping you “feel” when you are contracting the wrong muscles, such as your buttock or thigh muscles. Just having the sensation of a therapist’s hands in your pelvic region can help your brain make the connection to the correct pelvic floor muscles for a Kegel.

Second, your specialist has tools that you don’t that can help further help you identify and contract the right pelvic floor muscles. Two commonly used tools include biofeedback machines and electrical stimulation devices. Biofeedback machines are simple devices that give you either visual or auditory feedback when you contract the right muscles. This additional feedback helps you learn to contract the right muscles more quickly. The electrical stimulation device involves placing electrodes in your vagina or rectum for short periods of time. The device delivers very mild electrical stimulation, which actually lightly contracts and tones the correct pelvic floor muscles. This form of stimulation is especially useful for women who have little or no sensation in their pelvic floor muscles, and are thus unable to contract those muscles. Your specialist may also have you use vaginal weights, which are weighted plastic cones inserted into the vagina for short periods of time. As you hold the weights inside your vagina to prevent them from dropping out, you tighten and tone your pelvic floor muscles. As your muscles become stronger, your specialist will increase the weight until you can hold heavier weights.

The third way your specialist can help you is by designing a pelvic floor muscle exercise program customized to your current level of pelvic fitness. This prevents you from exercising your pelvic muscles too little or too much. Too much exercise can lead to excessive tightening of your pelvic floor muscles, which can result in pelvic pain and other unwanted side effects. Doing too few contractions means that your pelvic floor muscles won’t get toned, and you won’t get the results that you want.

By working with a custom program, you exercise your pelvic muscles at just the right level. As your muscles get stronger and have more stamina, your specialist will change your program to match by increasing the number of contractions or the length that you hold each contraction. With this kind of customized support, you are much more likely to achieve the results you want, whether that means alleviating symptoms of urine leakage, reducing signs of pelvic organ prolapse, or improving your sexual sensation.

Women’s Pelvic Health and Your New Year’s Resolution
Is women’s pelvic health still a New Year’s Resolution? If so, good for you! And, if you have are having difficulty achieving the results you want by doing pelvic floor muscle exercises at your home, it may be time to get help from a specialist. A women’s pelvic health specialist can teach you how to do a Kegel correctly, can design a custom program just for you, and has a wide range of tools that can help you achieve lasting results. You may need to get a referral for this kind of specialist from your family doctor, urologist, or ob/gyn, so we encourage you to call for an appointment to get the ball rolling right away!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to check out our book, leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercises That Actually Work

by KegelsPelvic Floor MusclesUrinary Incontinence

This blog is part of an 11 article series of 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. Get the full list of all 11 New Year’s resolutions HERE.

Pelvic floor muscles … those mystical muscles we women have “down there,” which we can’t see and which do so much for us. What do our pelvic floor muscles for us? A bunch. Here’s a short list of the important roles they play in our anatomy:

  • support pelvic organs against the effects of gravity
  • prevent urinary leakage and allows urination when needed
  • keep pelvic organs from sagging down and out
  • control the tightening and relaxation of urethra, vagina, and anus as needed
  • contribute to pleasurable sexual sensation

And that’s just the short list of what our pelvic floor muscles do for us every day, all day (and all night). As you might have guessed, keeping these very important muscles fit and toned is important for our quality of life.

Pelvic Floor Muscles: Do Kegels Work?
Surprisingly, many women have heard of the term “Kegel” but don’t really know what it means. Or, a woman might have a vague idea of what a Kegel is, but not really know how to do a Kegel (or how to do a CORRECT Kegel). So what is a Kegel? The word “Kegel” was a term first coined in 1948 by Dr. Arnold Kegel. He introduced the Kegel as an exercise for the pelvic floor muscles, in which these muscles are alternately contracted and relaxed. The goal of doing Kegels is to strengthen and tone the pelvic floor muscles so that they can provide passive support all day long (such as keeping the pelvic organs in place) as well as offer active support (such as keeping urine in the bladder when you sneeze). The term Kegel has become so popular that some people now refer to the pelvic floor muscles collectively as the Kegel muscle.

Now that we’ve answered the question, “What is a Kegel?” the second question is, “Do Kegels work?” The answer is “Yes”–provided that these pelvic floor muscle exercises are done correctly. What do we mean when we say that these exercises must be done correctly? We mean that when you do a pelvic floor muscle contraction, you contract only the pelvic floor muscles without contracting other muscles such as the abdominal, thigh, or buttock muscles.

If you are not sure whether you know how to do a correct Kegel, you can easily troubleshoot this exercise with our no-cost downloadable ebook, “What’s Up Down There?” Just go HERE to download the ebook.

Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercising at Your Level of Fitness
Another important note when beginning a pelvic floor muscle retraining program is to ensure that you exercise according to your level of pelvic fitness. In other words, you want to exercise your pelvic floor muscles just enough that you begin to tone and strengthen them, but not so much that you overtire them or actually begin to contract them tightly all the time. If you try to do too many pelvic floor muscle contractions, your muscles will begin to tire and you will start using other muscles (buttock, thigh, or abdominal) to compensate. This will decrease the benefits of your exercise program. The other danger of doing too many contractions for your level of fitness is that you may actually begin to hold your pelvic muscles in a contracted state all the time, which can lead to pelvic pain and other unwanted side effects.

In our practices, we have women test their level of pelvic muscle floor fitness before designing a custom program that matches their level of fitness. If you would like to test yourself and start a home pelvic floor muscle retraining program, check out the detailed step-by-step plan outlined in our book. This program is a definite no-brainer if you are a “do-it-yourself” kind of gal!

Pelvic Floor Muscles: Exercising Them Really Does Work
If you have heard rumors that Kegels are ineffective for improving pelvic health, or if your own experience shows you that pelvic floor muscle exercises don’t work, we urge you to review the research. Studies show that, when done correctly, pelvic floor muscle retraining really does improve women’s pelvic health. These exercises can improve symptoms of all types of urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. These exercises can also improve your sexual sensation and pleasure. Check out the research in THIS blog post.

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Women’s Pelvic Health: 11 New Year’s Resolutions That Actually Work!

by Decreased Sexual SensationGeneral Urinary IncontinenceOveractive BladderPelvic Organ ProlapsePOPStress Urinary IncontinenceUrge IncontinenceUrge Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare
Happy New Year! The New Year is always a great time to give thanks for all the gifts in our lives, and also the perfect time to look at ways in which we could improve certain areas of our lives. Hence the practice of making New Year’s resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions can be great motivators, especially when it comes to life goals or lifestyle changes. Many people look forward to making New Year’s resolutions with joy and hope. But for those whose resolutions have failed to live up to expectations in the past, there can be some anxiety about setting yet another resolution that might not work.
But don’t worry … be happy this New Year, especially if you are a woman and suffer from any symptoms of poor pelvic health! Why? Because in the coming days we are going to give you 11 New Year’s resolutions that actually work and WILL improve your pelvic health. These simple lifestyle changes can improve symptoms of all forms of urinary incontinence, as well as symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse and decreased sexual sensation. Plus, we will help you set yourself up for success with extra tips and techniques for staying focused on your resolutions throughout the year.
Sound good? Then listen up — here are the 11 lifestyle changes that we will be discussing in the next days and weeks:
1. At-Home Pelvic Floor Retraining
2. Pelvic Floor Retraining with a Physical Therapist
3. Keeping a Bladder Diary and Bladder Retraining
4. Smoking Cessation
5. Timed Fluid Intake
6. Diet Modification — Avoiding Certain Foods and Beverages
7. Diet Modification II — How to Avoid Constipation
8. Diet Modification III — What to Do When You Go Off Your Diet Plan
9. Weight Loss and Management
10. Acupuncture as a “Middle of the Road” Solution
11. Percutaneous Nerve Stimulation and Other Conservative Measures
Have a great New Year’s Day and keep your eyes and ears open for blogs and video blogs on these great upcoming New Year’s resolutions!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Women’s Pelvic Health: The Best Gift You Can Give Yourself!

by Decreased Sexual SensationGeneral Urinary IncontinencePelvic Floor MusclesPelvic Floor WeaknessPelvic Organ ProlapsePOPWomen's Healthcare

When it comes to women’s health, pelvic health is often a matter of “out of sight, out of mind”! Unlike saggy underarms, facial wrinkles, or body fat, our pelvic organs do not act as visible motivators for us to change our lifestyles to improve our health. But women’s pelvic health does matter–a lot! This is especially true since poor pelvic health can lead to women’s urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, or decreased sexual sensation.

The fact of the matter is that you may have poor pelvic health and not even know it until symptoms show up suddenly in your life!

Women’s Pelvic Health: Treat Yourself Right This Holiday
In our fast-paced world, we are often advised to “treat ourselves right” by meditating, getting a massage, or reading a good book. In other words, we need periods of time in which we slow down and smell the roses if we want to stay healthy and fit. These are considered little gifts that we give to ourselves so that we can remain vibrant and healthy in our lives.

All of these are great gifts, and we would like to suggest one more to consider: get a pelvic exam!

While shoving one’s legs into those metal stirrups for a pelvic exam does not SEEM like a great gift to yourself (who actually enjoys that kind of experience?), this kind of preventative exam can really be a gift that keeps on giving. A pelvic exam can determine whether all of your pelvic organs are still in place or whether they have “fallen” or prolapsed. This kind of exam can also determine what type of urinary incontinence you have if you have started experiencing some urinary leakage on occasion. If your sex life isn’t what you want it to be, a pelvic exam can also reveal whether your pelvic floor muscles are weak, thus decreasing sexual sensation and enjoyment.

“But I don’t have any problems down there!” you wail, hating the thought of those cold stirrups. The truth is that you may or may not know about problems in your pelvic area. Only a thorough pelvic exam can reveal the state of your pelvic health. For instance, a high percentage of women (some experts estimate more than 70%) have prolapsed organs and don’t even know it. Other women experience less-than-pleasurable sex because their pelvic floor muscles lack tone and strength. But these women would not KNOW that they had a problem without a pelvic exam.

Women’s Pelvic Health: The Gift That Keeps on Giving
If you really want to treat yourself right this holiday season, give yourself the gift of pelvic health. Call your ob/gyn or urologist to schedule a pelvic exam for the first of the year. The exam, uncomfortable as it might be, will tell you what you need to know about the state of your pelvic organs. Depending on what is revealed, the exam can also inspire you to set some worthy New Year’s Resolutions that will benefit not only your pelvic health, but your whole life. Examples include weight loss, smoking cessation, avoiding certain foods or beverages, and getting toned and fit all over (inside and out).

If you are still not convinced that a pelvic exam is a great gift for yourself, consider these benefits. A pelvic exam can:

  • open the door for you and your doctor to have an honest discussion about your pelvic health
  • reveal any potential problems with your pelvic organs
  • help you handle any potential problems before symptoms, such as urinary leakage or serious prolapse, occur
  • inspire you to exercise your pelvic floor muscles, which can improve your experience in the bedroom
  • assist you in resolving any symptoms of poor pelvic health that may have already appeared (such as light urinary leakage)
  • give you a baseline against which you and your doctor can compare future exams, ensuring your future pelvic health
  • motivate you to live a healthier lifestyle

Those are seven great reasons to make an appointment for a pelvic exam. These seven great gifts will keep your pelvic organs healthy as you move through many more holidays, especially as you experience life changes such as pregnancy, aging, travel, getting serious about exercise, and so forth.

So have yourself a happy holiday and give yourself the gift of pelvic health (or at least an appointment to check your health) before the New Year arrives … that way you will definitely have something to celebrate when you ring in the New Year!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

Did You Know Your Ankle Bone is Connected to Your Bladder?

by Overactive BladderUrge IncontinenceUrge Urinary Incontinence

For those of you familiar with the song “Dry Bones” by the Delta Rhythm Boys, this may sound pretty funny! After all, the song never mentions the bladder. In fact, the song is all about bones and has lyrics more like this:

“Well, your toe bone connected to your foot bone
Your foot bone connected to your heel bone
Your heel bone connected to your ankle bone
Your ankle bone connected to your leg bone
Your leg bone connected to your knee bone
Your knee bone connected to your thigh bone
Your thigh bone connected to your hip bone
Your hip bone connected to your back bone”

You’ll notice that this song is all about bones … not a single mention of the bladder at all. But for women with urinary incontinence, you could say that the ankle bone is connected (sort of) to the bladder. Really!

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Ankle Bone and the Bladder
By now you are probably wondering what we’re talking about when we connect the ankle bone to the bladder. It turns out that there is a nerve in your body, called the percutaneous tibial nerve, that is located just above your ankle bone. This nerve is part of the nervous system that controls the action of your bladder. By using a therapy called percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, which sends a gentle electrical current into the nerve, doctors have been able to alleviate symptoms for women with overactive bladder or urge urinary incontinence.

More About Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimulation
This conservative therapy is a wonderful option for women with overactive bladder or urge incontinence, especially those women who have not had much luck with behavior modification or drug therapy. Usually performed by a urologist, this therapy can also be delivered by nurses or physician assistants who have received the appropriate training.

For the procedure, your doctor will have you elevate your leg while in a sitting position. A very fine needle is then inserted just above the ankle bone into the percutaneous tibial nerve. A mild electric current is delivered via this needle for 30 to 60 minutes per session. Don’t be surprised if your toes or foot flex gently during the treatment as this is perfectly normal. You may also feel a mild tingling sensation in your foot or around your ankle. Most doctors recommend four treatments per week, with the total therapy lasting between eight and twelve weeks.

Two studies (the OrBIT trial and the SUMiT trial) have shown that tibial nerve stimulation is effective in decreasing the frequency of urination by 20% in women who need to urinate at least eight times every 24 hours. In addition, women report a 36% reduction of the severity of their symptoms, as well as a 34% improvement in the quality of life. Other improvements as a result of this therapy include reductions in urinary leakage accidents, frequency, and urge. Those are pretty solid success rates, so if you have overactive bladder or urge incontinence, you may want to ask your doctor about this form of therapy.

So you see? The ankle bone is indeed connected to the bladder!

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: What Does Your Heath Insurance Cover?

by GeneralGeneral Urinary IncontinenceWomen's Healthcare

When you get that giant packet of coverage information in the mail from your health insurance company, do you roll your eyes and stuff the entire packet into the back of some file drawer? If so, then you are among the majority! While much of the information in the packet is important, wading through all of those pages when you need just one specific bit of information isn’t easy. In fact, tracking down coverage information can be downright frustrating!

But guess what? If you suffer from women’s urinary incontinence you may actually want to spend the time and effort to find out what your health insurance covers.

The High Cost of Women’s Urinary Incontinence
Did you know that a woman with urinary incontinence in the U.S. spends an average of more than $1,000 per year doing extra laundry and buying disposable pads or diapers? This number is only an estimate because women’s urinary incontinence tops the list as one of the “most embarrassing” topics women refuse to discuss with their doctors–or anyone else, for that matter! Other estimates put the figure as high as $1,500 per year. Plus, this figure doesn’t even include the cost of other products, such as special wipes, creams, deodorants, and plastic bags (for carrying around soiled clothing).

The fact of the matter is that most women with urinary incontinence have never sat down with their checkbook and calculator to total up the financial cost of “coping” with their condition on their own. They would be shocked if they did. In addition, few add up the social costs associated with this condition, which can include a shrinking social life, lack of exercise and sex, and the hyper-vigilance of looking for bathrooms all over town.

What Does Your Health Insurance Cover for Women’s Urinary Incontinence?
If you don’t know that answer to this question, and have been coping with your urinary incontinence on your own, the time is right to get some information from your health insurance company. If digging through all that paperwork seems like too much work (and it can be!) then simply pick up the phone and call your insurance company. Most companies are more than happy to look up the information you need. You might be surprised at how much coverage you actually have. Many insurance companies will cover some or all of the cost of:

  • absorbent pads or adult diapers
  • one or more appointments with your family doctor
  •  one or more appointments with specialists such as urologists or ob/gyns
  • medication for urinary incontinence
  •  medical tests associated with urinary incontinence
  • several visits to a physical therapist specializing in women’s pelvic health
  • catheters
  • surgeries for urinary incontinence or pelvic organ prolapse

That’s a pretty long list! If you have good health insurance coverage, there’s really no need for you to pay the entire cost of coping with your condition–that’s why you have insurance. However, for your insurance company to help you financially, you will almost certainly need to get a specific medical diagnosis of your condition from a healthcare practitioner approved by your insurance company. What a great excuse to call your doctor!

We know … talking about urinary incontinence with your doctor (or anyone else) can be embarrassing. But isn’t a little embarrassment worth it if you can get the financial and medical help you need to cope with, decrease, or even eliminate your symptoms of urinary incontinence? From the stories that we have heard from our women patients with urinary incontinence, the trade off is definitely worth it!

When it comes to getting help from your health insurance company and doctor for your women’s urinary incontinence, follow Nike’s slogan: “Just do it!”

If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to leave a comment, contact us, download our free ebook, or interact with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Women’s Urinary Incontinence: The Power of Knowing Yourself

by General Urinary IncontinenceOveractive Bladder

When you experienced your first symptom of women’s urinary incontinence, how did you react? Did you try your best to ignore the whole event? If you pulled the “ostrich act” then you are in the majority. More than 50% of women who have urinary incontinence don’t seek help and do their best to act like “nothing is wrong.”

Whether or not something is actually “wrong” is perhaps debatable, but what isn’t up for debate is that fact that you will have to cope with your symptoms of urinary incontinence. Coping with your symptoms may mean wearing absorbent pads, carrying around a change of clothes, or making note of the location of every bathroom in town! These are helpful ways to deal with your symptoms, but you can do one thing that will help even more:

~~ Know thyself! ~~

The Power of Knowing Yourself
All women who have urinary incontinence suffer from one of three forms: stress, overactive bladder/urge, or mixed. Getting an accurate diagnosis is the best way to figure out which type of urinary incontinence is affecting you. However, if you are not quite ready to get help from your doctor, you can still take an empowering step towards coping with your symptoms by learning more about your own condition.

When you know the specifics of your condition, you can better anticipate when urinary incontinence symptoms will occur, which will help you cope with those symptoms. For instance, here are some aspects about your condition that you may want to know:

  • What triggers your urinary incontinence?
  • Do you suffer from frequency, urinary leakage, or both?
  • How often do you feel the urge to urinate?
  • Do you feel the urge to urinate at night? How many times per night?
  • When you leak urine, how much do you leak?
  • Will absorbent pads prevent leakage accidents from showing, or do you need to carry a change of clothes with you?
  • When you feel the urge to urinate, how much time before urine starts to flow?
  • Do certain foods or drinks worsen your symptoms?
  • Does doing a correct pelvic floor muscle contraction (Kegel) delay urge or urinary leakage?

These are just a few of the aspects of your condition that can help you anticipate and even prevent symptoms. To best understand your condition, keep a journal of your symptoms for a week or two. Just toss a notepad and pen into your purse, and jot down symptoms as they occur. You might be surprised at what you discover. For instance, one woman was surprised to discover that she felt the urge to urinate more than 15 times per day. Without the journal, she would have estimated a much lower number. In addition, the same woman was surprised to discover the variety of different triggers for her symptoms–everything from her morning cup of coffee to the sound of running water and cold weather!

While keeping this kind of journal for a few weeks make be a bit inconvenient, you will most likely find that the benefits far outweigh the inconvenience. Even better, if and when you decide to seek help from a medical professional, this journal will give your doctor a very clear idea of your symptoms. With this information, your doctor will be able to diagnose your condition more accurately and quickly. That’s definitely a win-win situation!

 

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Pelvic Organ Prolapse – 5 Questions to Ask Yourself

by Pelvic Organ ProlapsePOP

Has something “fallen out” in your pelvic region? Do you feel like something has shifted down there? If so, you may have pelvic organ prolapse, otherwise known as POP. What is POP? POP is the condition in which one or more of your pelvic organs has slipped or fallen out of its original location. Pelvic organs that can prolapse include the bladder, small intestine, rectum or large bowel, and uterus. Each of these types of prolapse has a specific name:

— bladder (cystocele)
— small intestine or bowel (enterocele)
— rectum or large bowel (rectocele)
— uterus (procidentia)

Now that you know about the different types of POP, the next step is to figure out if you have POP, especially if you feel that your pelvic organs have shifted or changed in some way.

5 Questions About POP
If you are unsure about whether you have symptoms of POP, here are 5 questions you should ask yourself:

  1. Do you feel pulling, stretching, or pressure in your low back or groin?
  2. Do you see a bulge pushing out of your vagina or feel as if something is falling out of your vagina? (you may need to use a small hand mirror to answer this question)
  3. Do you experience painful sex?
  4. Do you feel the pressure of pelvic organs pushing into your vagina or do you feel as if you are sitting on a ball?
  5. Do you suffer from constipation or difficult urination that is improved when you press your fingers into your abdomen or vagina?

If you answered “Yes” to two or more of these questions, then you very likely have POP. If so, then you should definitely seek medical help from your urologist or ob/gyn. If you are not currently under the care of a urologist, you may need to get a referral from your family doctor.

Even if you did not answer “Yes” to any of the above questions, you may wish to visit your ob/gyn for a checkup. Between 43% and 76% of women who have POP do not experience any symptoms. The only way these women can be correctly diagnosed with POP is with a pelvic exam from an ob/gyn, urologist, or other medical practitioner specializing in women’s pelvic health. If you have not had a routine pelvic exam recently, now is a great time to schedule one. Why? Because treatments for POP are more effective when started early. So get on the phone and schedule an appointment with your healthcare provider of choice just to check that nothing has “popped” out of place down there. It’s the best holiday gift you can give yourself!

 

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