We live in a society that's a bit “puritanical” when it comes to health issues affecting the pelvic region, says a local physiotherapist who's recently opened her own pelvic health clinic.
“People don't tend to want to talk about these problems,” said Céleste Bouffard, who's been a physiotherapist for 13 years, and has taken specialist courses in the area of pelvic health. “We're not supposed to talk about what you do in the bathroom or what you do in the bedroom.”
But Bouffard said people don't need to suffer in silence.
She has the expertise to help people experiencing issues such as pain during intercourse, lower back and pelvic pain, incontinence, constipation and erectile dysfunction.
Bouffard has treated men and women ranging in age from 11 to 87 years old.
She often looks at the pelvic floor muscles and how they affect these types of conditions.
“They do their job silently and we don't really pay attention,” Bouffard said. “They're important, and we don't pay attention to them until they start giving us a problem.
“We should be taking better care of them, even if they're not causing problems.”
Bouffard said she often does an internal exam to assess the condition of the pelvic floor muscles.
One of the things she can do to help is prescribe them Kegel exercises (repeatedly contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor.)
“If they're weak, I would give them Kegel exercises and coach them through how to do them properly,” she said.
“But the problem with the pelvic floor muscles is they can also become too tight like you would develop tense shoulders or tight hamstrings. Those muscles can do the same, and doing strengthening in that case can make things worse.
“Again, I'd do the internal exam to see should I be doing relaxation or should I be doing strengthening?”
She also does manual therapy, education, behaviour modification and acupuncture that can remedy these issues.
Bouffard said she decided to open her own clinic because she's the only physiotherapist in the area specializing in pelvic health. She said she's received a position response from other local health-care workers.
Her office is located at 93 Cedar Street, Suite 301 (she operates out of Pilates Pro). To contact Bouffard, visit pelvichealthsudbury.ca or phone 705-674-1877.
