EP: 186 – Game Over for Incontinence: Pelvic Floor Training Tips

Understanding Pelvic Floor Disorders and New Technology for Strengthening Your Pelvic Floor

Pelvic floor disorders, particularly urinary incontinence, affect approximately 6-10% of the population, and they are often associated with the weakening of pelvic floor muscles. This condition can lead to involuntary urine leakage, which can significantly impact a person's quality of life. However, it's important to note that this weakening isn't an inevitable part of aging—there are steps you can take to strengthen your pelvic floor and manage these symptoms effectively.

What Are Pelvic Floor Disorders?

Pelvic floor disorders occur when the pelvic floor muscles weaken, leading to conditions like urinary incontinence. Incontinence is the involuntary leakage of urine, which can happen due to various triggers, such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, or even during physical activities like running or jumping.

There are different types of urinary incontinence:

• Stress Incontinence: The most common form, occurring when pressure on the bladder due to physical activities like coughing, sneezing, or exercise causes leakage.
• Urge Incontinence: Also known as overactive bladder, this involves a sudden, intense urge to urinate, often requiring immediate access to a restroom.
• Mixed Incontinence: A combination of both stress and urge incontinence.

Other types, like functional and overflow incontinence, exist but are less common.

Causes of Pelvic Floor Weakening

Several factors contribute to the weakening of pelvic floor muscles, including:

• Aging and Hormonal Changes: As we age, muscles naturally lose tone and elasticity, especially with the hormonal changes associated with menopause.
• Impact Sports: High-impact activities, like repetitive jumping in sports such as basketball or volleyball, can strain the pelvic floor muscles.
• Repetitive Heavy Lifting: Straining during heavy lifting can exert pressure on the pelvic cavity, weakening the pelvic floor muscles.
• Being Overweight: Extra weight puts additional pressure on these muscles.
• Childbirth: Pregnancy and childbirth can stretch and sometimes damage pelvic floor muscles, especially with large birthweight babies.
• Chronic Constipation: Frequent straining during bowel movements can also weaken these muscles.
• Medical Procedures: Surgeries like hysterectomies may impact pelvic floor strength.

Treatment Options for Pelvic Floor Disorders

If you're experiencing symptoms of urinary incontinence, the first step is to consult a healthcare provider, such as a primary care provider, gynecologist, or urologist who specializes in incontinence.

Treatments may include:

• Behavioral Therapies: Bladder training and scheduled toileting can help manage symptoms by adjusting your bathroom habits.
• Dietary Modifications: Reducing bladder irritants like coffee, alcohol, or citrus fruits can alleviate symptoms.
• Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation: This includes Kegel exercises, biofeedback, and electrical stimulation to strengthen the pelvic muscles.
• Medications: Some medications can help, but it's important to be aware of potential side effects, especially in older adults.
• Pessary: A device inserted into the vagina to support organs and prevent prolapse.
• Surgery: In severe cases, surgery might be recommended to support the pelvic organs.

Introducing Perifit: A New Way to Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor

One of the challenges of pelvic floor exercises, like Kegels, is ensuring you're doing them correctly. Misaligned efforts can sometimes worsen symptoms rather than help. Enter Perifit, a new biofeedback device designed to guide you through Kegel exercises effectively, ensuring you're targeting the right muscles.

Perifit combines gaming with exercise, making pelvic floor training more engaging and fun. The device connects to an app that provides real-time feedback as you perform exercises. By using Perifit, you can work on stopping leaks, enhancing sexual well-being, recovering from pregnancy, relieving prolapse symptoms, or maintaining your pelvic floor health.

The device is simple to use:

1. Order and Set Up: Order your Perifit device and download the accompanying app.
2. Calibrate: Insert the device as instructed, and the app will guide you through calibration, helping you find and target the right muscles.
3. Start Training: Engage in a tailored program that uses biofeedback to ensure you're exercising correctly, with the added fun of a game-like interface.

For those interested, you can save 25% on Perifit by visiting their website and using the discount code MELISSABPHD.

About Melissa:

Melissa Batchelor, PhD, RN, FNP, FGSA, FAAN. I am a nurse, nurse practitioner, nurse educator and nurse researcher with over 25 years of experience in the aging and long-term care healthcare space. You can visit my website at MelissaBPhD.com to learn more about me, how you can work with me directly, and/or support future episodes of the podcast. Within the first 18 months of launching this podcast, we reached a ranking of top 10% globally. I have all of you who’ve been with me on this journey so far to thank for that!

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