The Pelvic floor is a sling of muscles between our legs that keeps our abdominal and pelvic organs up and in.  Dysfunction of the pelvic floor can lead to a range of health problems, such as incontinence, prolapse and/or pelvic pain.

The pelvic floor can be viewed with real times ultrasound trans-abdominally – that is, we can look at how the pelvic floor muscles are working by placing the probe of the ultrasound onto the lower tummy. This provides a picture of the bladder (the large black area in the middle of the picture on the right), so a few glasses of water before your appointment helps the visualisation.  The pelvic floor is the sling of muscles below the bladder.

Many people with weakness may be pushing their pelvic floor muscles down rather than lifting them. This makes the pelvic floor weaker and weaker. We can also see how easily the muscles get tired when you are exercising them.

With the help of real time ultrasound our Women's Health and Continence Physiotherapists can retrain your pelvic floor muscles easily and effectively.  Correct technique is not about quantity of exercises but the quality of the contraction.   With real time ultrasound we can also see if there is a problem in retraining the muscles, and then refer you on for further medical assessment if indicated.