During May, all mothers were celebrated with a special day known as Mother’s Day. How each and every family honors mother is different and special in their own unique way. Women, as mothers, often celebrate the designated day with cookouts, brunches, dinners and just relaxation with (hopefully) breakfast in bed or a ‘bye’ on cleaning up the dinner dishes.
Interesting, many women remarked that their celebrations included grandmother, greatgrands, aunts, children, neighbors and anyone else in need of a family support system for the day. As women, we are collectively known as the ‘tend and be-friend’ gender versus the men who exhibit the ‘fight or flight’ behavior. All of this jargon is based from research over years that indicates how the hormonal differences between men and women influence the relationship with others.
Women are, as many of us realize, the ones to care for others. We are the nurturers, the caregivers, the ones to help spouses, parents, children and grandchildren. As a collective and generalized ‘whole’ we take care of everyone else before we care for ourselves. Sound familiar?
Women, as patients, are always in need of care, but will often put their needs aside to take care of others in the family, whether it is caring for a grandchild so the son or daughter can work, or driving a parent to an appointment, etc. On average, women wait 6.5 years from the first symptom of bladder issues until they seek a diagnosis for their bladder control problem. (National Association for Incontinence, Facts and Statistics, www.nafc.org). When is the time to care for ourselves as women? “Now”, would be my answer!!
If you, as a female caregiver/nurturer of others, don’t care for your own needs, who will do it for you? If you leak urine when you sneeze, laugh, dance or otherwise are active, who can help you if you don’t help yourself? How about at a baseball/softball game; do you need to head to the woods to pee? Pregnancy, childbirth and menopause are major reasons of the increased prevalence of incontinence in women as compared to men. (WomensHealth.gov, Urinary Incontinence fact sheet, https://www.womenshealth.gov/publications/our-publications/fact-sheet/urinary-incontinence.html). Who can help if you don’t accept you need help with this problem and seek intervention?
So here we are; a group of professional women, willing to help you solve your problem so you can learn to help yourself! What better way to learn to control this hidden muscle that is responsible for letting pee or poop out of your body. Learn to control the muscle, learn to eliminate the problem and guess what? Get control back in your life without drugs or surgery, just with you!!
At Phoenix PT we often hear, “I don’t have time”, or “I can’t do this as I have too many people to care for”. These are NOT reasons to avoid treatment; we can help with those time jams. After all, we are women too, with a great sense of how to help you deal with life’s uncertainty.
Come see us. Schedule an appointment. Wouldn’t you love to attend your daughter’s wedding without a pad as protection in your underwear? Wouldn’t you love to not worry about finding a restroom at your granddaughter’s softball game or track meet? And wouldn’t you love to sit on the beach in the sun in your bathing suit and not worry about finding a restroom to pee all the time?
If you want to improve, we can help and Phoenix PT will also help you recognize the time in your schedule that you need to make this work. Phoenix PT helps exclusively with pelvic floor muscle issues including pain, incontinence, infections, retention, constipation and many, many other embarrassing issues. Call today and ask our personal staff if we can help. A little information goes a long way to see if you can gain benefit from treatment, and we can then make that happen for you.
If you don’t care for yourself, who will care for you? Learn to control this embarrassing issue now and enjoy your summer. No surgery, no drugs, just you. Call us today.
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