I wanted to talk a little about the issues some of us women face as we get older. We all age differently and with different health concerns.
Warning this post might be a little too personal!
The topic today is menopause, fibroids and pelvic floor therapy.
WHAT? There’s such a thing as therapy for my pelvic floor? I’m happy to say yes, there is!
Late to Menopause
Let me back up a bit. I’m at that stage where I should be in menopause. What can I say, I’ve always been a late bloomer. Anyway, I’ve struggled with large uterine fibroids for several years now. Anyone who’s had them knows they can cause all kinds of discomfort and inconvenience in our lives. Some of these female issues are brought on by childbirth while other come from approaching menopause or even from lack of exercise and unhealthy weight gain.
So at my last well woman checkup (which everyone should have yearly), the discussion turned to maybe having a hysterectomy ( :-0 ) to relieve the symptoms of the fibroids. I have a lot of back pain as well from a tilted uterus, so double whammy on the female parts. My doc and I discussed what other options I have including inserting an iud and an ablation. My gyno also discovered I had a pelvic organ prolapse. She set me up to see a urogynocologist to discuss how the hysterectomy would affect this. During that consult I discussed both surgery and natural ways to help fix these problems.
Natural Relief
Since I would rather do things as naturally as possible for my health, I wanted to learn more about any procedure that helps with women’s issues such as organ prolapse, incontinence, spasmed pelvic muscles and constipation (not that I have all those symptoms).
One way is with Kegals. Anyone whose ever given birth to a child has heard of kegals.
In my case, though, kegals wasn’t an option. My pelvic floor muscles were tight (spasmed) and I couldn’t do kegals.
Another natural option is called pelvic floor therapy. This is what I chose for the prolapse.
Of course I still have to address the fibroids/hysterectomy issue, but I’m hoping menopause will kick in soon and I’ll be done with what’s causing the fibroids. I’d love to hear your opinions on hysterectomy, natural cures for fibroids, how a hysterectomy has effected your life for the better/worse.
Anyway, the pelvic floor therapy can be done :
- through specific exercises,
- through heat therapy
- by muscle stimulus therapy
Or a combination of two or three of these methods. We chose to go with all three in my case. Now I’m not a doctor so I can’t tell you what is right for you. That should be something you discuss with a professional. I only know what is working for me.
There are many places online or locally that will help you with specific pelvic floor muscle exercises. This site has some really good tutorials on pelvic floor exercises.
Heat therapy is really the easiest for me. It basically involves sitting on a heating pad for an hour a day or soaking in a 20 minute hot bath daily… that’s no hardship 🙂
The muscle stimulus is an electronic probe thing that is done in my doctors office once every two weeks for up to 5 sessions. I’m on my fourth session and have made great progress in building up those muscles while releasing the spasmed floor muscle.
My gyno suggested purchasing my own stimulus for home use after the sessions are done to keep my muscles loose. I haven’t yet chosen one but have been researching them. This one and this one are two I’m looking at.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to do the exercises since those are helping with the pelvic floor and muscle toning my belly. The heat therapy I enjoy doing daily too.
Whatever I decide to do about the fibroids and possible hysterectomy, I just want to be free of the pain and feel normal again.
I’d love to hear your opinions on hysterectomy, natural cures for fibroids, how a hysterectomy has effected your life for the better/worse. Leave a comment below or connect with me on my Facebook page.
Hugs
Carol
