Consider this: Your pelvis houses several organs that belong to various systems, including the reproductive, urinary, and digestive systems. Given the crowded complexity of your pelvis, it makes sense that there’s a strong, muscular foundation that supports everything from below — your pelvic floor.
Unfortunately, about 1 in 4 adult women face pelvic floor disorders, which range from pelvic organ prolapse to a hypertonic (overly tight) pelvic floor.
Pelvic floor disorders can really hit women hard, which is why Dr. Fernando Otero and the team at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley include pelvic floor care, including treatments for pelvic organ prolapse.
Here, we look at the two main types of pelvic floor disorders and some potential signs of a problem under each.
Among women, the most common type of pelvic floor disorder is pelvic organ prolapse (POP) — the issue affects up to 65% of women. The reason for the high numbers in women boils down to two main risk factors: Pregnancy/childbirth and menopause.
With POP, the pelvic floor support weakens, allowing pelvic organs to shift downward. There are several types of POP, including:
As you might imagine, symptoms depend largely on the type of POP. For example, let’s look at the most common type of POP — cystocele. When your bladder drops, a common side effect is urinary incontinence.
If you develop uterine prolapse or vaginal vault prolapse, you might experience pressure in your vagina and pain during sex. In more advanced stages, you can feel and even see tissue protruding from your vaginal opening.
Again, the signs of POP vary, but anytime you’re experiencing pelvic pain, pain during sex, incontinence, and functional issues with urination or defecation, it’s time to have us check you for POP.
Just as a spasm in a back muscle can lead to considerable back pain, the same applies to your pelvic floor. If this support system spasms, we call it a hypertonic pelvic floor, which affects 1 in 10 women. With hypertonic pelvic floor, you can experience:
The most common side effect of a hypertonic pelvic floor is pain. This pain can be a dull ache in your pelvis that comes and goes. Or, it might only develop with certain activities, such as urination, passing stool, and having sex.
A painful pelvic floor often feels worse when you’re standing, and it can flare out into your hips and buttocks.
If the tightness in your pelvic floor is affecting your urinary tract, you might need to pee more frequently, and you might experience pain when you do pee. As well, it can be tricky to initiate urination.
If your hypertonic pelvic floor involves your lower digestive tract, you might run into issues with constipation, difficulty initiating a bowel movement, pain during bowel movements, and a feeling like you can’t fully empty your rectum.
As for how a hypertonic pelvic floor develops, there’s a long list of potential causes, including:
Some women develop hypertonic pelvic floors due to habitually holding their urine or stool.
If you recognize any of the symptoms that we describe above, it’s a good idea to come in for a pelvic floor evaluation. And the sooner the better, as pelvic floor disorders tend to get gradually worse the longer they go untreated.
To get on the road to better pelvic floor function, please contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule an appointment.
