The stigma surrounding mental health conversations is thankfully fading in many quarters, but there’s a new taboo in town: pelvic floor health. I’m here on a destigmatising mission. Here’s my tale….
For years, I’d had several amorphous midsection issues that were causing me pain, discomfort, and embarrassment, but I didn’t know who to ask or even how to phrase a question.
Could I share with a doctor that I’d been on a walk with my husband, and in my eagerness to evaluate the basement food court in a new building, banged my head into a thick window and, upon impact, involuntarily lost a few cc’s of urine?
Could I explain to a healthcare provider – or anyone – that my digestion couldn’t find a workable rhythm? While my husband blithely went on about his daily movements, I would be in a desert for days on end. On rare occasions that the dam broke, I found myself in a porcelain hellscape, followed by an afternoon of feeling weak and useless. I imagined bringing this vague, occasional complaint to a medical practitioner and their response: “Get out! I only treat people with real problems!”
For years, I told myself things weren’t so bad. I estimated that my issues were only laying me low about one day a month. I played at being an optimist: Perhaps my issues might clear up on their own over time (as if time’s progression works that way)!
One particularly miserable day, I did some arithmetic (that’s how bad things were): If I live to 90, with one day a month trashed, I would be wasting more than a year of my remaining life feeling awful, embarrassed, and ill. I resolved to find help, no matter how many offices I was laughed out of.
It turned out almost all of my problems were connected to the pelvic floor. What?? I was prescribed pelvic floor physical therapy, and what I learned astounded me. How was I – a 55+-year-old woman, daughter of an obstetrician/gynaecologist, and all-around curious person – so ignorant about my own basic bodily functions? Given how little I’d heard about these problems (and solutions) from friends, family, and even the internet, I imagined I was one of very few people in New York City with my issues.
My quality of life improved a remarkable amount from the pelvic floor PT and some tweaks to what and how I eat. Just in case I wasn’t the only person in the world with such issues, I wanted to spread the word about my misconceptions, my denial, and how much help is available, which was the impetus for my comedic solo show PSA: Pelvic Service Announcement.
After I started performing parts of what would become the show, people of all ages approached me and shared their own pelvic-floor-related problems: men, women, sex, pee, poop, you name it. So I’m not the only one in NYC! It’s time to shine a light on the pelvic floor and turn this “unmentionable” into a mentionable.
PSA: Pelvic Service Announcement, theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, 1-16 Aug, 10.50am & 18-23 Aug, 11.50am