Osteopaths take a whole-body approach to all patient presentations; however, it is particularly important for pelvic pain. You may be thinking, “Why would an osteopath treat my whole body and not just my pelvis?”. This is because the pelvis can be considered one of the central points of our body because there are so many connections from the pelvis to other areas. Rea, one of our women’s health Osteopath’s explores why:
MUSCLES
How many muscles do you think connect to your pelvis? It’s 36! That’s right, 36 muscle groups, wow! Muscles that extend down the legs, around the pelvis and upwards into back and abs. So, when some of these muscles are tight, hurt, or weak, we are influencing the pelvis and everything else connected to it.
FASCIA
You may have heard an osteopath mention a structure called fascia before, but if not, let me explain. I like to describe fascia as the cling wrap of the body, its envelopes muscle groups, bones, and organs and connects everything together. It almost looks like a spider web consistency and is strong! There are several fascial lines in the body, most connecting to the pelvis. Some of these fascial lines run all the way down to your feet and others run up to your jaw and skull!
LIGAMENTS
If you didn’t think muscles and fascia were enough to explain a whole-body approach, there is more! Ligaments are a structure that connects muscles to bones. Many of us have sprained or tore a ligament in our lifetime. Many people don’t know ligaments end up being continuous with bone and fuse into them, as well as ligaments connecting and joining other ligaments! Some of our pelvic ligaments have connections with other ligaments which go all the way up to our head.
DIAPHRAGM
The diaphragm is a muscular structure that sits under our lungs and moved up/down and in/out when we breath. The pelvic floor sling of muscles matches its movement. When we breath in – our diaphragm drops down and our pelvic floor does the same; and when we breath out both the diaphragm and pelvis come back up. Therefore, breathing and the movement/connections of the diaphragm will be assessed due to how it impacts the pelvic floor and the whole body (breathing is pretty important!).
ORGANS
We can’t forget about organs! Between our diaphragm and the pelvic floor, we hold a lot of organs in the abdominopelvic cavity. Your organs are relatively fixed in place by fascia and ligaments; however, they do glide around next to each other to an extent and can be influenced by what is going on musculoskeletally. Therefore, sometimes with pelvic pain we will do some visceral treatment as well to make sure everything is moving as well as possible. Often pelvic pain comes with organ symptoms especially in patients with gastrointestinal complaints like constipation or IBS, and patients with conditions like endometriosis.
Our bodies are incredibly interconnected and should be cared for as such. If you are experiencing pelvic pain, why not book in with one of our osteopaths who have a special interest in caring for this complaint.
Written by Rea Braun, Osteopath.