Unlike what most people think, pelvic floor dysfunction is not just a pelvic floor issue but issues related to the pelvic floor AND what it is attached to. After all, it is not a free-floating surface and therefore, its integrity depends on how strong and viable its influencers and attachments are.

Think of building a house where you have a strong second floor but what it is connected to is 4 weak walls or strong enough walls but weak attachment points. 

Who Gets Pelvic Floor Dysfunction?

Most people think of pelvic floor dysfunction as:

• Incontinence 
• The lack of ability to hold urine
• Frequent urination
• Peeing with sneezing, coughing, and/or laughing
• Having the urge to urinate but not having much to pee

But watch this video to learn how traditionally women who have gone through pregnancy, childbirth, traumatic incidents, and for both men and women who smoke or are overweight, and elderly fall under this category. I explain why that is only a partial list because when you put a single lens on and look at everything with a limited visual field, you only see part of the big picture!

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction is on the rise partly due to the fact that our healthcare system only looks at it when it is at its full-blown stage when so many traditional treatments don’t work.

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction has no gender or age limit. While traumatic insults such as pregnancy, childbirth, and excess weight directly impact the floor, the dysfunction is more than a floor issue and no floor of muscles can get weak and malfunction without impacting its attachments. 

If you have bad posture and are an active person with injuries to the lower body  and specifically more so if the legs are spread before or at the time of injury (skiing, dance, ballet, hockey, ice skating to name a few), if you injured your lower ab and hips specifically in mundane activities such as doing planks or doing exercises beyond your safe potential, if you sit behind a digital device and don’t walk as much, you are more likely to have pelvic floor dysfunction. 

I see pelvic floor dysfunction in marathon runners, triathletes, and cyclists who are intensely involved in their activity. Remember not every movement is a functional movement. Functional movement is what we are designed to do and is a design we are all born with. That is why all babies throughout the world go through the same developmental stages regardless of their ethnic or geographical differences. 

The dysfunction happens in response to adaptation to our injuries and lifestyles. This modification involves the map of movement and how the muscles, ligaments, joints, and bones move based on the command being received from the brain. This is explained fully in this video.

When the map of movement is changed as explained above and our posture is compromised as a result of this change, now the number of people being impacted and becoming prone to pelvic floor dysfunction increases. The way our brain impacts our movement and posture is best explained in the video below and is Developmental Kinesiology where I explain it in detail.

Just as anything else in life, if we detect the problem at a much earlier stage, the treatment is much simpler, least time consuming and expensive. I have written a blog on the subtle signs and symptoms of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction with the hopes that we can catch these issues in people much sooner specially since the age group impacted by the dysfunction is continuously getting younger and younger. Check my blogs to understand the different aspects of Pelvic Floor Dysfunction.

If there is one thing I wish for you to get out of this blog, that is to understand that pelvic floor dysfunction is not pain in the pelvis only, incontinence only, and for old people and specially women. Not every women with child birth have it and should get it. If you are trying to prevent this to be your problem, understand how to avoid it, get yourself checked by the right kind of therapist who is equipped with the understanding of postural neurology, movement principles of kinesiology, and ergonomics because the traditional category of people with it and the traditional treatments are no longer true to the resolution of this problem.

Visit my youtube channel and other blogs I have written to empower you with the knowledge. If you still have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Dr. Shakib