Hello MOT Family – Amy here and we’re diving a bit deeper into a very loaded and painful topic this week. However, it effects a lot more women that is acknowledged and is very near and dear to my heart. I would love it if you’d share this out with friends who may be struggling with either infertility or miscarriage.
So, there are 2 aspects of pregnancy – getting pregnant (fertility) and staying pregnant (miscarriage).
Per the CDC, 12% of women struggle to get pregnant. Then 10-15% of pregnancies end in miscarriage. These are both largely under reported so please keep that in mind.
There are structural, hormonal and genetic factors to consider with both the mother and father to consider as well so things can feel overwhelming or complicated fairly quickly.
In terms of pelvic health, one of the best things we can do is to assist your body by creating an optimal environment and removing as many barriers as possible to having implantation and healthy growth and development of the fetus. There are also genetic factors and aging that contributes to increased likelihood, so it becomes all the more important to keep your body healthy, mobile and inflammation levels down, which fascial work also does.
A ten-year study published in 2015 looked at how manual (meaning hands-on) physical therapy helped treat female infertility issues in almost 1,400 women. It probably won’t come as a surprise to you that IT WORKED in a significant percentage of these women — because working on restoring mobility to structures affecting reproductive function in women with endometriosis, PCOS, fallopian tube occlusion, and hormone dysregulation puts the body in a better position to conceive.
The study followed 1392 women from 2002 to 2011. The results included a 60.85% rate of clearing occluded fallopian tubes, with a 56.64% rate of pregnancy in those patients. Patients with endometriosis experienced a 42.81% pregnancy rate. The success rate was 49.18% for lowering elevated levels of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), with a 39.34% pregnancy rate in that group, and 53.57% of the women with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) achieved pregnancy. The reported pregnancy rate for patients who underwent IVF after the therapy was 56.16%.
The above results related to successful pregnancies utilized physical therapy treatment that focused on manual and visceral work, which we specialize in here at Moment of Truth Physical Therapy. Below are some specific, listed benefits with manual and visceral therapy:
- Ensuring no blockages throughout the fallopian tubes
- Good motion of ovaries within broad ligaments
- Good flow of tissue and nutrients with fluidity around structures that helps decrease swelling or irritation within tissues
- Reducing heavy clotting or bloating issues associated with PCOS, Endometriosis, heavy cycles.
- Helping to normalize regularity and flow of cycle.
- Reducing any pelvic pain or painful sex to allow for overall muscle and tissue mobility
If you’d like to know a bit more about Pelvic PT and some of the ways we assess your body and how we can help, check out the video link below!
Ok so I might have gone overboard on the research here, but in case you can’t tell, we are extremely passionate about education and empowering women to take charge of their health. There are tons more resources on our website, and we also have a weekly Mamas Circle Wednesdays 10am-11:30 for pregnant or newly post-partum mamas! We’d love to see you. Please let us know if there is a topic you’d like us to cover or something that we can do to support you in any aspect of your healing journey! We truly love hearing from you and read every single email!
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