Pre & Post Prostatectomy Pelvic Floor Training
Get back to what you love as soon as possible
Most men haven’t even heard of their pelvic floor prior to a diagnosis of prostate cancer. The pelvic floor muscles are a combination of a number of muscles that surround the bladder, prostate and down into the penis.
Above you will find an image of your pelvic floor from a recent research article by Stafford et.al (2019). It shows the primary 3 pelvic floor muscles that we discuss in post prostatectomy pelvic floor training - puborectalis, bulbocarvernosus and the smaller but very important striated urtheral sphincter. It is this striated urtheral sphincter where most research is currently aimed as it appears to be the one of the key differences in men that are dry or leak post surgery. These can also be seen in a video of my own pelvic floor muscles in action at the top of the screen!
Previously, most studies looked at the larger, stronger puborectalis muscle, as this muscle plays an important role in maintaining continence functional in women. It appears, however to have less of a benefit in men post prostatectomy.
Proper education and training of how the pelvic floor muscles can be activated assists in the reduction in both severity and length of urinary incontinence.
For a short overview of the pelvic floor muscles, below you will see a short video I recently filmed for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA).
Men's Health Physio, Tom Harris explains how to activate the pelvic floor. As seen on PCFA's Ask the Experts Webinar.
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