The Ultimate Guide to Your First Appointment: Pelvic Floor PT
Many women feel intimidated by the idea of what happens at their first pelvic floor physical therapy appointment. At Peach Fit, we want you to have all the information you need in order to start treatment feeling completely supported and informed.
Our aim is to demystify the experience, while also educating you about the “why” behind every single step. Regardless of your reason for seeking pelvic floor PT; we’re here to prioritize your comfort, confidence, and recovery from the moment you arrive.
Here’s the ultimate guide of what you should know before your first visit.
How to Prepare for Your First Pelvic Floor PT Appointment
We want you to relax and know that most of the preparation is in our hands. We’re eager to welcome you and make you feel right at home in our clinic.
That being said, we’re here to ease your nerves and simplify the “first steps”. Here are a few helpful tips to help you prepare for your first appointment.
What You Should Bring with You
Completed intake forms: When you book, you’ll receive a link to your patient portal where your intake forms are located. To optimize our time together, we request that forms are completed before you come in.
Symptom Logs: Many patients log their menstrual cycles, symptoms, and any medical or personal notes that are helpful to review together. If there’s anything you’d like to share, we’d love to go over it at our first meeting.
Questions: We believe that no question should go unanswered, and no topic is “TMI”! If you’re curious about anything, jot it down, and we’ll look at it together.
Other Important Tips
What to Wear: We suggest wearing loose fitting clothing that you can easily change in and out of.
If You’re on Your Period: We’re okay if you’re on your period. But if you’d prefer to work around it, just let us know. Also, we’re always stocked up on any/all period products you may need.
The Focus of Your First Appointment: Assessment, Evaluation, Education
From the moment you walk in, your appointment will be one-on-one and discrete. We’ll start in the exam room and have a conversation about your goals with pelvic floor physical therapy.
From there, we’ll assess your functional baseline and examine any factors that could be contributing to pelvic floor dysfunction. By the end of your appointment, we’ll educate you on our findings and present your individualized treatment plan.
Let’s talk!
Our first step is a thorough conversation. This is where your paperwork and notes come in handy, we’ll dive into everything you want to discuss. We’ll be able to identify which areas you want to focus on, and how treatment can be personalized to best support you.
We’ll also review anatomy of the pelvic floor (on our handy pelvis model!). We’ll explain what the pelvic floor is, and which parts we need to evaluate before treatment.
Assessment
Next, we’ll move on to a head-to-toe physical assessment. Our goal here is to establish your current baseline for things like strength, coordination and mobility.
What We’ll Assess:
Posture
Range of Motion
Breathing Mechanics
Movement Patterns
Alignment of hips and spine
Strength
Flexibility
Body Mechanics
Pelvic floor function (strength, flexibility, coordination)
Examination
With your consent, we may recommend performing an internal pelvic exam during your appointment. An internal exam, while often recommended, is not required for us to treat you. This exam provides helpful information, but your personal comfort always comes first.
The internal examination allows us to treat the full person and take a holistic approach with full knowledge of how your pelvic floor muscles are functioning including strength, relaxation, and coordination. This is often crucial information to your overall treatment plan.
If you decide to proceed with an internal exam, we’ll guide you every step of the way. You can ask to stop at any point, for any reason- we’re here to support you.
What Happens During a Pelvic Floor Internal Exam
You’ll have a few minutes to privately undress from the waist down, lay comfortably on your back, and cover your pelvic region with a sheet.
From there, we use a glove and insert a single, lubricated finger into the vagina. We won’t use any gynecological tools like a speculum or stirrups. It should not be painful.
You will always be well informed of each step throughout the process. Consent will be requested multiple times. If you are ever uncomfortable, the examination will be stopped immediately.
What We’re Examining:
Pelvic floor strength
Pelvic floor flexibility and relaxation
Resting tone of the muscles (are they too tight, or too relaxed)
Tenderness
Coordination
Reproduction of symptoms
Nerve irritability
Signs of prolapse
Tissue health
Education and Treatment Plan
After we’ve completed our assessment and an examination, we’ll move on to creating your “Peach Fit Action Plan”.
The Action Plan is a simple guide that outlines:
What we found in the initial examination that can be contributing to your symptoms
How we will address them
Which goals you’d like to work toward
How we can best support you throughout that process
What’s Included In Treatment Plans?
Our treatment consists of both manual (hands-on) and physical therapy. Treatment begins as soon as the first visit and is completely tailored to your condition, needs, schedule, and goals.
Here are some items you might find in your treatment plan:
Manual therapy
Myofascial release
Pelvic floor release and retraining
Stretches
Strengthening of pelvic floor, core, hips, back, etc
Mobility work
Scar mobilization
Cupping
Dry needling
Home exercise program
We’ll also educate you on your condition, schedule follow-up appointments, and send you home with a review of your visit and action plan.
Your First Pelvic Floor PT Appointment Should Be Empowering- Not Scary
We know that our line of work, we come in contact with sensitive and intimate details. We’re dedicated to providing a safe environment at all times. Our goal is to treat you thoroughly, while keeping your comfort at the forefront.
We know that pelvic floor physical therapy is empowering and life changing, and we’re ready to take that journey with you. Our hope is that in sharing details about the experience, you’ll feel ready to take that first step of booking an appointment.
If you have any other questions about starting pelvic floor PT, or about your first appointment; call our Peach Fit office for more information!