Internal Pelvic Floor Exam
The best way to access the muscles inside the pelvis are to do so with an internal exam and our therapists have had specific continuing education courses in order to do this safely and with expertise.
Internal pelvic floor exam. In europe internal pelvic exams are the gold standard of pelvic floor treatment and research supports that treatments carried out by physiotherapists who employ internal pelvic exams are highly successful. Internal exam for women this can be either vaginal or rectal depending on the issue and the patient s decision. The therapist will make every effort to make sure that you are comfortable with an internal examination before proceeding. The assessment starts with examining the muscles tissues and skin of the thighs buttocks abdomen and pelvic floor externally.
In canada we are a more puritanical society and it seems weird or strange to assess the pelvic floor by completing an internal exam of the vagina or rectum. 85 women were tested with low back pain with 95 3 having pelvic floor muscle dysfunction. Internal examination helps a pt ot get a full sense of the strength and flexibility of your pelvic floor muscles ligaments and fascia. Your doctor may perform an internal exam.
Pelvic floor dysfunction is a condition that affects your ability to control your pelvic floor muscles. This will only be done with your informed consent. There is a correlation. The purpose of this assessment is to evaluate how the pelvic floor muscles and connective tissue are working.
Your therapist will explain a little bit about pelvic floor physical therapy and what they are about to do. For men this is a rectal exam. The exam is used to look at a woman s. A pelvic exam is a way for doctors to look for signs of illness in certain organs in a woman s body.
In a study by dufour et all. The word pelvic refers to the pelvis. For men and some women the exam is done rectally. In europe internal examination of the pelvic floor has been the gold standard by which treatment of the pelvic floor has been carried out for more than 30 years.
For women this will be through the vagina though not with a speculum like a standard pelvic exam. The pelvic floor muscles are located internally.