What is Transgender Health?
One million Americans identify as transgender. There’s a growing body of data supporting the health inequities experienced by them. Transgender individuals identify with a gender that is different than their sex assigned at birth, as well as those whose gender identity does not conform to binary gender categories. These individuals may choose to have procedures, interventions, and surgeries to transition to a gender that matches their identity. At Pelvic PT of the Palm Beaches, Jodi is here to help you along your transgender health journey.
Jodi is specially trained to not only understand the sensitivity around these issues, but also have the knowledge and training that can help you recover quickly and fully.
What Surgeries Can Our Physical Therapist Help With?
Gender affirming surgeries include facial reconstruction, top surgeries, aimed at chest reconstruction, and bottom surgeries which reconstruct genitalia. Male-to-female and female-to-male surgeries include:
- Orchiectomies
- Vulvoplasties
- Vaginoplasties
- Phalloplasties
- Metoidioplasty
- Mastectomies
- Breast augmentation
Bottom surgeries are invasive in a multi-functional region of the body and can have negative effects on your pelvic floor function resulting in scar tissue pain, bladder and bowel dysfunction, and sexual dysfunction. Top surgeries can result in tightness, pain, reduced range of motion, reduced strength, and a decrease in function for your daily activities.
When transgender or gender non-conforming people utilize packing, tucking, or binding techniques or undergo gender affirming surgical procedures, it can have negative effects on the trunk, lower extremities, pelvic floor and surrounding structures resulting in pain and dysfunction. Pelvic floor physical therapy can assist in minimizing or eliminating the pelvic, back, and chest pain and urinary, bowel and/or sexual dysfunction that can arise from these techniques and surgical procedures.
SYMPTOMS
*Pain from surgical scars
*Pain with vaginal penetration
*Inability to achieve vaginal penetration
*Difficulty or inability to achieve orgasm
*Urinary dysfunction including urgency, frequency, hesitancy, incontinence and spraying
*Pelvic pain
*chest and back pain
*Shoulder pain
How Can Physical Therapy Help With Your Transgender Health Journey?
Pelvic and gender health physical therapy can help! In her assessment, Jodi will ask you questions about your symptoms and goals. In addition, she will look at how you move, your strength, range of motion, and numerous other factors to formulate a shared plan of care. Jodi has substantial medical knowledge that includes how transition surgery affects a person’s body. She will work with your doctor to make sure she understands everything about your particular case (reports, MRIs, X-rays etc.). She understands the limitations of surgery so you can be pushed in the appropriate way to quicken your recovery. While you might be pushed, Jodi will not allow you to do any exercise that may slow your recovery or worsen your condition. Typically, patients are safe to begin physical therapy eight weeks after their surgical procedure, but that is very dependent on the type of procedure performed.
Therefore, Jodi will communicate with your surgeon to determine when it is safe to begin rehabilitation. During the evaluation, she will review your history and symptoms with you. If you have undergone a surgical procedure she will review your operative report. Importantly, she understands what you have been through. During the physical examination she will examine your muscles, tissues, joints, nerves, and movement patterns. Once she completes the examination she will review your findings with you. Jodi then creates an assessment which explains how you developed pain and/or dysfunction and creates short and long-term goals for your treatment plan. Typically, the frequency of physical therapy treatment is one to two times per week for roughly 12 weeks. You are given a home exercise program to compliment your in-person sessions, and Jodi will help to coordinate your recovery with your surgeon and the other members of your treatment team. She is here to work with you and on your behalf so you no longer have to navigate this process on your own! She will help you reach your goals and help you live the life you want to live.
What Makes Pelvic Physical Therapy of the Palm Beaches Different?
At Pelvic PT of the Palm Beaches, we take a multifactorial approach to transgender health management and we understand the emotional and physical impacts this journey can have on an individual. Shared decision making and evidence-based medicine are the pillars of our treatments. There are evidence-based exercises you can do TODAY to help decrease your current symptoms, get back to being YOURSELF faster. Make an appointment with our trained physical therapist today!