Pittwater Life September 2020 Issue

Health & Wellbeing
Helping take back control
Health & Wellbeing
More than five million
Australians have some
form of incontinence, or
poor bladder or bowel control;
80 per cent of those affected
are women but most don’t ask
for professional help. Incontinence,
however, can often
be cured, or at the very least,
better managed.
The first step is to talk to a
health professional.
Mona Vale Physiotherapist
Trish Orr specialises in women’s
health with a focus on helping
women overcome incontinence
and pelvic floor issues as well
as avoiding surgery.
The director of Epic Life
Physio identified a need for
expertise in this area after
having her first child 15 years
ago.
“A number of mums from my
mother’s group were discussing
leakage issues while exercising,
coughing, sneezing and
even lifting their babies… I was
amazed at how many women
thought there was nothing they
could do about it,” Trish said.
It was around this time that
Trish ventured into specialist
training for women’s health
Trish said a large percent of
women and a smaller percentage
of men who present
themselves at the practice with
back and hip pain have pelvic
floor issues.
“The discussion during assessment
for hip and back pain
often leads to the revelation
that they have incontinence
issues, weak pelvic floor or
bladder symptoms,” she said.
“The health of the pelvic floor
muscles impact many aspects
of everyday life so we stress
the importance of a detailed
assessment to determine the
primary issue and provide the
most effective treatment options
available.”
Treatment can range from
adjusting volumes of fluid
intake and timing through the
day, bladder training strategies,
exercises or electromagnetic
stimulation.
“Previously we have relied
on TENS units or lengthy and
tedious exercise regimes that
required months to show results,”
Trish said.
“Fortunately with technological
evolution we now have treatment
options that will deliver
better results and faster in
many cases.”
Trish said Epic Life Physio,
through the Shockwave Institute
of Australia, has the Pelvic
Toner Chair offering an effective
treatment over weeks, not
months, utilising a variety of
programs to treat their specific
diagnosis “head-on”.
The practice is the first and
only on the northern beaches
to offer the treatment whereby
a patient sits fully clothed on
a chair that sends electromagnetic
pulses to the pelvic floor
muscles to create micro contractions
of the muscles – hundreds
of times a minute for the
duration of the 30 minute session.
Trish says the chair does
thousands of the exercises per
session that many women and
men simply don’t have time for
in their daily routines.
Her practice’s first patient to
take advantage of the new technology
to tackle pain, weakness
and sensory loss was Kathryn
Hodgins, 60, who had struggled
with pelvic floor issues
and bladder incontinence for a
number of years.
Kathryn told Pittwater Life:
“After six sessions I have
gone from being unable to
drive from Lake Macquarie
to Sydney without stopping
multiple times to use the toilet,
to doing the whole trip without
needing to stop once.
“That’s a big deal for me as
I often have to do this trip a
number of times a week.”
“I don’t have as much pain, I
feel I can move a lot more freely
and have the ability to better
control my bladder when I need
to go without any accidents
happening.”
60 SEPTEMBER 2020
The Local Voice Since 1991