Health and Aging: Protect Your Pelvic Floor

For the last few months, the Women’s Healthcast has been taking a look at health and aging, covering everything from perimenopause to sex to heart health. In our second-to-last episode of the Health and Aging series, we’ll focus on an all-important but sometimes under-appreciated group of muscles in the body: the pelvic floor.

This complex basket of muscles and connective tissue sits under the pelvis, supporting our organs and helping manage important bodily functions like going to the bathroom, having sex, giving birth, even standing and sitting. Repeated stress, pregnancy and birth, hormone changes, and more can all affect how well our pelvic floor functions.  

Maureen Sheetz is a nurse practitioner in the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery in the University of Wisconsin Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Maureen joined this episode of the Women’s Healthcast to talk about how to tell if you’re experiencing common pelvic floor issues like incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse, the range of treatment options available for these conditions, and how to protect our pelvic floor health as we age.  

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