What is Pelvic Health Physiotherapy?
The Pelvic Health Physiotherapy team work with pelvic dysfunction in all genders and provide a service to outpatients across a number of sites as well as on the maternity wards.
We provide care for St Peter’s and Ashford Hospitals based out of the following sites:
- Physiotherapy Department, Ashford Hospital, Surrey, TW15 3AA
- River Bourne Health Club, Chertsey, KT16 9DR
- Woking Leisure Centre, Kingfield Road, Woking, GU22 9BA
Click on the locations above for more information about appointments.
How do I access the service?
Our service is referral only, this means you will need to be referred by a health care professional; this could include your GP, nurse, midwife, healthcare visitor, consultant, psychologist or another allied health professional such as a physiotherapist, dietician or clinical scientist.
Conditions we treat:
- Pregnancy-related musculoskeletal disorders including pelvic girdle pain, back / rib pain and hip pain
- Postnatal abdominal separation (rectus diastasis)
- Postnatal pelvic floor recovery including 3rd and 4th degree tears and bladder / bowel dysfunction
- Bladder dysfunction including incontinence, urinary frequency or urgency, overactive bladder
- Bladder pain syndrome / bladder pain
- Pelvic organ prolapse
- Bowel dysfunction including incontinence, urgency, constipation, obstructive defecation (difficulty emptying)
- Female sexual pain or dysfunction (dyspareunia)
- Male sexual pain or erectile dysfunction
- Pre-operative and post-operative education for prostate surgery and gynaecology surgery.
After a thorough, in-depth verbal and physical assessment (where required) for your presenting complaint, we can use a variety of treatment and management options to you help achieve your goals.
- Lifestyle and activity modifications: We will consider and advise on modifying areas such as lifestyle, work and leisure when assessing and treating you to help provide a holistic approach to care with effects that are maintained.
- Education of your condition: Education and understanding are fundamental components to your treatment plan. We believe if you can increase your knowledge and understanding of your presenting complaint, it can help to improve your symptoms and make the best choices for your treatment.
- Exercise based programmes: These can be tailored to fit your needs and goals. The Physiotherapist can provide written or electronic copies via email in an accessible, interactive format. Exercise is often an integral part of a patient’s rehabilitation journey.
- Exercise and education groups: These can be an excellent tools to support you in your rehabilitation and empower you to achieve your goals.
- Mobilisation and manipulation techniques: These can be used if deemed appropriate as an adjunct to support a structured exercise and education based program. They are rarely used as a sole treatment.
- Acupuncture: This can be provided to help with pain relief where deemed appropriate from your physiotherapist. Not all physiotherapists working within the service are qualified in the use of acupuncture treatment. Discussions about its use will always take place with a therapist who has the relevant qualifications. Acupuncture is rarely used as a sole treatment.
- Biofeedback: this comes in many forms, and is a way to help you understand how to locate your muscles and work them more effectively
- Posterior Tibial Nerve Stimulation (PTNS): This is a treatment technique used tohelp alleviate and manage symptoms of urinary and / or faecal urgency, incontinence and / or frequency. Application of this treatment is only ever undertaken following a wider multidisciplinary discussion and agreement with you consultant team.
Our team
Our service is provided by specialist physiotherapists who are registered with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and registered with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists (CSP). Most team members are registered with the Pelvic health, Obstetric and Gynaecology Physiotherapy (POGP) specialist interest group. All team members either have postgraduate qualifications and / or specialist training in pelvic health physiotherapy.
We work closely with all disciplines involved in our patients’ care, and take a holistic approach to healthcare. Our main links are with our colleagues in urogynaecology, maternity, gynaecology, urology, colorectal, gastroenterology, dietetics and musculoskeletal physiotherapy.
