Pelvic Floor Therapy

Help for Incontinence, Sexual Dysfunction and Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Your pelvic floor muscles help support organs in your pelvis, such as your bladder, large intestine and internal sexual organs. They also have a role in bowel and bladder control and sexual function.

Pelvic floor therapy can help these muscles do their job better when they don’t function correctly.

You can think of pelvic floor therapy as a specialized type of physical therapy (PT). The therapists who perform pelvic floor PT at Emory Healthcare have unique training in pelvic muscle health. They offer the latest treatments to improve your pelvic floor muscle health and your quality of life.

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Pelvic Floor Disorders

Like other muscles in your body, pelvic floor muscles can be strong or weak. Sometimes, the muscles may be unusually tight. Other times, they stretch due to pregnancy or heavy lifting, or they weaken after prostate or gynecologic surgery.

Both men and women can experience pelvic floor disorders and pelvic pain. Depending on the problem affecting your muscles, you might have:

  • Bowel or bladder leakage (incontinence)
  • Constipation
  • Erectile dysfunction
  • Frequent urges to urinate
  • Painful intercourse
  • Pelvic organ prolapse (organs within the pelvis that sag into the vagina)
  • Pelvic pain

Pelvic floor therapy may help with all of these.

What to Expect from Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy

The first step in your treatment is a thorough one-on-one assessment. Your therapist will evaluate your symptoms, go over your medical history and perform an exam. Throughout the process, they keep you as comfortable as possible and are mindful of your privacy.

Based on your assessment, your therapist will work with you to customize a treatment plan.

Pelvic Floor Treatments
We offer many treatment options, from pelvic pain physical therapy to treatments tailored to more specific conditions. We customize recommendations to your unique needs. Some of the most common pelvic floor therapies include:
How long and how often you undergo treatment depends on your condition.