Why do we Call Ourselves Pelvic Health Physical Therapists?

By: Dr. Laura Ross PT, DPT, PRPC

What’s in a name? You may have heard of or been referred to us for “Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy.” You’ll notice that we refer to ourselves as “Pelvic Health Physical Therapists.” What gives? Isn’t it the same thing?

Not exactly. We call ourselves Pelvic Health Physical Therapists because we treat so much more than the pelvic floor muscles. Certainly we are experts in how the pelvic floor works, how to make it feel less painful and how to make sure it doesn’t contribute to leakage, heaviness or constipation. But… the pelvic floor doesn’t work in isolation. What sets us apart is that we treat all areas of the body to work towards holistic pelvic health. The exam includes your abdomen, your hips, your feet and maybe even your jaw. We look at how you move and through that may find that your chest, upper back and shoulders are contributing to some of your pelvic symptoms. We also incorporate knowledge from multiple medical specialties so we know how to connect the dots and get to the root cause. We also review lifestyle and habits that might be affecting your pelvis such as diet, hydration and maybe even what you think about sex. Very rarely is a problem JUST coming from the pelvic floor. To help find solutions and a way forward we take a wide lens to the issue. 

We treat not just individual parts, but the root causes and connections between those parts and processes of your body. This allows us to figure out how to address many factors that affect your individual issue. To give you the best care possible we focus on the health of your whole body and how it relates to the pelvis, not just the pelvic floor muscles.