pain

Debunking Dilators: The What, Why, and Which of Dilation (Part One)

Perhaps you’ve heard of dilators — also known as vaginal trainers — before, but you weren’t sure where to learn more about them. Maybe you’ve never heard of them, but you’re looking for ways to manage pelvic pain. Perhaps you’ve already tried using dilators, but weren’t very successful. You can read all about them here.

What’s Up Down There? Understanding and Caring for Your Pelvic Floor

When I tell someone that I help people with problems related to the abdomen, pelvis, and pelvic floor, I often get a curious look. What is the pelvic floor, after all? How do we care for it and the tissue around it? Here’s a thorough walkthrough of the anatomy of your pelvic floor and perineum and how you can keep tabs on this area of the body.

Pelvis Problems: The Non-Relaxing Pelvic Floor

This edition of Pelvic Problems covers one of the most common problems that pelvic health physical therapists encounter: the non-relaxing pelvic floor (NRPF). This can cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from constipation and difficulty peeing to pain with sex and sitting. Fortunately, there’s a lot that can be done to help people with non-relaxing pelvic floors!

How to Care for Friends Who've Experienced Trauma

It’s likely that you will or already do know someone who will experience or has experienced trauma of some form. As friends, it’s important that we understand the responsibilities and limitations of our role, so we can best support our friends who are survivors and maintain our boundaries. Has someone disclosed to you a traumatic experience they’ve had? How can you best support that person and yourself? Here’s some information about trauma, the role of friends, and what it means to really support survivors.

Pelvis Problems: The Painful Peeing Syndromes

This installment of Pelvis Problems from Caitlyn Tivy, the pelvic health PT, talks about interstitial cystitis (IC) and chronic prostatitis (CP), disorders that can cause pain with peeing, along with a number of other symptoms, what causes them, how they can be diagnosed and how they can be treated so you can pee without pain again.

Pelvis Problems: Anodyspareunia (aka: Pain with Butt Stuff)

If you're here because you or your partner(s) have experienced pain with anal sex, you’re in the right place, regardless of whether the pain has happened multiple times or just once. I’m here to shine some light on anodyspareunia, a fancy name for anal sex being painful.

Self-Care Amidst a Deluge of Anti-Trans Legislation

I’d like to have a frank discussion with you about where these anti-trans bills come from, what you can do to be informed about the rhetoric surrounding them, and how you can affirm yourself and practice self-care while you may hear and feel so many people being non-supportive or outright hateful about trans and gender-nonconforming people.

Pelvis Problems: Endometriosis

Endometriosis is a complicated and often debilitating condition. It’s believed to occur in approximately 10% of people with uteruses of “reproductive age." That’s approximately 200 million people worldwide – a whole lot of folks! About two-thirds of people with the condition will develop symptoms before the age of 20, but it may take several years and consultations with multiple healthcare providers to receive a diagnosis. One of my missions in spreading awareness about endometriosis is to help more people receive a diagnosis and appropriate care more quickly.

Body Talk: Listening To and Learning From Your Chronic Pain

For those of us with chronic pain, living our lives with other people -- be that with sex or something else -- can be tricky. Why was I often having such a hard time communicating such basic things? I realized that some of the survival strategies I used to get through the day were coming back to bite me. Over time, I developed some strategies for re-learning how to listen to myself.