Jane Simpson - The Pelvic Floor Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Prevent and Cure Problems at Every Stage in Your Life

I loved reading this guide and found all the tips super informative and helpful after the birth of my second child Anniki Sommerville, founder of Selfish Mother

Wonderful that the spotlight is being shone on and taboos broken about this common condition which so many women endure in silence too ashamed to even talk about it. Now is the time for all of us to speak out about the reality of what it means to be female Jennifer Nadel, co-author of We: The Uplifting Manual for Women Seeking Happiness and the co-founder of Compassion in Politics

Every woman should have access to this information. It's not enough to just tell women to "do pelvic floor exercises". We need to really understand how important our pelvic floor is, how it can change throughout our lives and what we can do to take care of it. Finally, a book on the pelvic floor I can read and make sense of Sophie Fletcher, leading UK hypnotherapist and author of Mindful Hypnobirthing

Jane Simpson has had her own private practice for twenty-two years where she treats patients with all forms of incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction. She is a member of the Pelvic Floor Society, the Association for Continence Advice and the International Continence Society. This is her first book, which she hopes will spread the word on a global scale that pelvic floor dysfunction is curable and does not need to be life-changing or limiting.

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First published 2019

Copyright Jane Simpson, 2019

The moral right of the author has been asserted

Diagrams by Rachael Tremlett

The questionnaire on is from Vesicoureteral reflux the role of bladder and bowel dysfunction by Jack S. Elder and Mireya Diaz, and has been reproduced by kind permission of Nature Reviews Urology

ISBN: 978-0-241-38654-5

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For William and Charles, with love

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 5

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

We should all be doing pelvic floor exercises and I mean everyone: young and old, male and female, wherever you live in the world. Its an absolutely vital part of our physical wellbeing, is incredibly easy and, as youll see throughout this book, can be utterly life-changing. I hope what you read in the pages that follow not only answers all your questions about your pelvic floor but empowers you to change the way you think and to start to care about your pelvic floor the same way that you care about the rest of your body.

Pelvic floor dysfunction commonly occurs in women either after having a baby or during the menopause. However, it affects men too and is commonly associated with prostate problems. What is less known is that it can happen to us at any time in our life and sometimes totally out of the blue, so be prepared to start working on your muscle training straight away! Dont think youre immune from danger if you havent or arent planning to give birth. A recent review concluded that sports practice increases the prevalence of urinary incontinence, with high-impact sports causing the most incontinence. So you have the proof that now is the time to get started!

Its never too late to start pelvic floor rehabilitation, so I dont want anyone thinking, whats the point, I am beyond help. Thats never the case! As we are all living longer and are much more active in our later years its even more vital that we maintain healthy bodies, and that includes your pelvic floor muscles. If you are young then please dont think that this doesnt concern you think of what all that high-impact exercise you enjoy so much is doing to you. Pelvic floor exercises, when done correctly, take up just a few moments of your day and should be part of your normal routine, regardless of whether youve suffered any problems thus far, so its important to get into the habit much like brushing your teeth.

If you are suffering from problems and perhaps these are issues youve struggled with for years then I hope this book will open up the discussion and break the taboo once and for all. Why should it be embarrassing? These are all too common problems that should be discussed openly. There is so much advice and support out there so let my book guide you and show you how to help yourself and, if necessary, where to find the right people or organizations to help you.

I started my general nurses training in 1980 at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge and went on to become a district nursing sister. This is where my interest in incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction started, as every day I was seeing people suffering the indignity of urinary or faecal incontinence, reduced to wearing incontinence pads that were at that time one size fits all. This made me realize that there had to be something better. In the early 1990s I became a continence nurse specialist in the NHS when the specialism was just starting to grow. I am still a continence specialist at the London Clinic, where I have had the privilege of working with world-renowned gynaecologists, urologists, colorectal surgeons, gastroenterologists and many other doctors from all specialities. I have now been treating people with pelvic floor dysfunction for more than twenty-five years and I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have thousands of stories; Id like to share a couple that sum up my reasons for finally writing this book, because its clear that there are so many ill-founded myths about what people can do to take charge of problems.

I had a patient several years ago who was referred to me for treatment by her gynaecologist. When we first met she was extremely sceptical about pelvic floor rehabilitation and had assumed that she would need an operation. At the end of her treatment, completely cured of all of her problems, with no surgical intervention whatsoever, she reminded me of our first encounter and with a wry smile said, Its a good job I didnt have an operation look at me now! Problem solved.

Another patient of mine was thirty-five years old, she had not had any children and had been suffering with urge incontinence for five years. She may well still be suffering if it hadnt been for her mother, whom I had also treated for stress incontinence. She told me how worried she was about her daughter; she had stopped going out, was very down and was talking about leaving her job. She had no idea what was the matter with her. Her mother did really well with her pelvic floor rehabilitation and then about three months later her daughter came to see me out of the blue. She had confided in her mother about the awful urinary frequency and urgency and, worse, the urge incontinence that she had. As a result she had retreated into her shell and may well have stayed there if it wasnt for her mother seeking help for her own condition. She is now completely better. These are the encounters that give me joy every time.