Pelvic floor disorders include a broad range of problems with the muscles of the pelvic floor. When these muscles are strong and healthy, they hold your bladder, bowel, and uterus in place. They help control urination and bowel movements.

But over time, excess pressure can weaken your pelvic floor. Pelvic floor dysfunction is very common. Up to half of all women experience pelvic floor issues at some point in their lives.

Pelvic floor disorders include:

• Urinary incontinence
• Fecal incontinence
• Pelvic organ prolapse (an organ slipping out of place)
• Frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs)
• Pelvic pain
• Sexual dysfunction

These muscles form a sling or hammock across the bottom of your pelvis. Continual pressure on the pelvic floor can stretch and weaken these muscles. 

Being pregnant or overweight can put pressure on this area. The simple process of aging can also weaken your pelvic muscles.

Reasons for pelvic floor disorders include:

• Pregnancy and childbirth
• Being overweight or obese
• Pelvic surgery
• Radiation therapy in the pelvis
• Muscles weaken with age
• Having a chronic cough
• Connective tissue disorders (like Ehlers-Danlos or Marfan)

Many people benefit from pelvic floor treatment. It may be right for you if you:

• Leak urine when you laugh, sneeze, cough, or exercise
• Feel an urgent need to “go” or have difficulty making it to the bathroom in time
• Have frequent UTIs or pain when you urinate
• Are frequently constipated
• Feel heaviness or fullness in the vagina
• Feel something protruding from the vagina
• Feel like you can’t fully empty your bladder
• Leak stool 

We offer a wide range of treatments for pelvic floor disorders. Our goal is to get you feeling confident, healthy, and back to living your active life.

Our urogynecology team offers a range of treatments for incontinence, organ prolapse, and other pelvic floor disorders. Your care team will tailor your treatment to your symptoms.

Lifestyle changes

If your symptoms are mild, a few simple lifestyle tweaks may be enough to improve your pelvic floor health.

• Maintain a healthy weight: Being overweight or obese is one of the main causes of incontinence and other pelvic floor issues. Losing weight can relieve pressure on your pelvic organs and pelvic floor. Our care team can help you with a nutrition and exercise plan.
• Cut back on caffeine and alcohol: Drinking too much coffee, carbonated drinks, or alcohol can overstimulate the bladder. Combined with a weak pelvic floor, that can lead to urine leaks and an urgent “need to go” feeling.
• Add fiber to your diet: Constantly straining to have a bowel movement puts excess pressure on the pelvic floor. Eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can help your body digest food and make going to the bathroom easier.

Nonsurgical treatment

If lifestyle changes aren’t enough, your doctor may recommend some treatments that don’t involve surgery.

• Bladder training: It can be helpful to keep track of bathroom visits in a journal. The goal is to increase the time between trips to the bathroom. You’ll want to slowly increase that time, training your bladder to wait 2 ½ to 3 hours between bathroom breaks.  
• Medicine: Depending on your condition, your doctor may prescribe medicine to help treat bladder or bowel problems.
• Pelvic floor physical therapy: A specially trained therapist helps strengthen, relax, and retrain pelvic floor muscles through exercises, breathing techniques, posture training, and manual therapy to improve bladder control, pelvic pain, and function.
• Biofeedback: Tools to sense your muscles contracting and relaxing. Pelvic floor physical therapists may use this method to help you learn to control your pelvic floor muscles.
• Pessary: If you have pelvic organ prolapse (a pelvic organ that’s slipped out of place), a pessary may help with bladder control. It’s a plastic device inserted into the vagina to provide support. Your doctor can fit you with a pessary and show you how to use it.

Surgery

Surgery may be an option for more severe pelvic floor issues, especially if you don’t plan on having more children. You may have surgery to repair a prolapse or improve bladder or bowel control. We offer minimally invasive gynecological surgery if you need it.