Is Pelvic Floor Therapy Worth the Money?

Prefer a video?  Watch my overview on pelvic floor therapy instead!

It’s interesting… I’ve been told that when visitors go to Walt Disney World and stay in one of the resorts, they receive a feedback survey about one month later.  The reason why Walt Disney waits 30 days is because that’s about the same time you will get your credit card bill.  So, the good people at Walt Disney want to know, now that you’ve seen how much your trip cost, are you satisfied?

I had a similar situation with my pelvic floor therapy.  Going into the therapy sessions, I didn’t ask how much it was going to cost, but I knew it was covered under my health insurance, so I figured it wouldn’t be a big financial hit.  A few weeks ago, I received my bill for my five sessions and I was a little bit surprised because all the sessions fell under my health insurance deductible.  I am on a high deductible health plan so I didn’t get any discounts applied, I had to pay it fully.  I’m not complaining, rather showing my own ignorance about health insurance. (But hey, now I know!)

But having to pay for the pelvic floor therapy sessions completely forced me to think about “was it worth it?”  Am I satisfied? Now I want to give props to my Pelvic Floor Therapist and I have nothing but great things to say about her and would completely recommend her to anyone.  BUT, if you’re going to do pelvic floor therapy, you have to be committed to it.  And what I’m referring to is really doing Kegel exercises.  I asked about the weights you can insert or these belts you can wear and my Physical Therapist explained that those aids don’t really add much value. 

So, it came down to me being persistent with doing Kegels and I will tell you I’m not very good at it. It’s not that I don’t WANT to do them, I just forget to do them.  I haven’t yet made them a habit, but I’m working on it!  So, for me, was pelvic floor therapy worth it?  I learned a lot, but I’m not “cured.”  I’m not cured because I’m not doing the exercises I’m supposed to be doing.  Just like any physical therapy, you have to do the work.  You can’t just show up once a week, meet with the therapist, and think you’ll get better. 

Some things to remember… Your pelvic floor is a muscle and just like any other muscle, you have to strengthen it and warm it up before you start exercising.  So, if you leak when you start running, or maybe when you play tennis and you go for that lob and you leak, or you’re getting ready to jump rope.  Whatever those activities are that cause you to leak, then take a few minutes before you start to warm up your pelvic floor by doing some Kegels and that can help limit the leakage.

I’m a big supporter of pelvic floor therapy, but just remember, it’s up to YOU to put in the work!