Men’s Health – Physiotherapy Services

Physios with extra training in continence management can help with bladder training, education and medications, depending on your presenting symptoms.

Men Have a Pelvic Floor Too!

There’s a lot of publicity given to incontinence in women during their lifespan but a large percentage of men suffer from urinary control issues too. Men’s health issues related to the pelvic floor are not always related to prostate surgery however, it is commonly required for men who undergo radical prostatectomy procedures for prostate cancer treatment. Ideally, these exercises are started prior to your surgery.

Lower urinary tract symptoms (or LUTS) are divided into two sets of problems – storage problems and voiding problems and include:

Storage LUTS

a) Frequency (going more that 6-8 x per day)
b) Urgency (a severe eye-watering desire to wee)
c) Nocturia (weeing during the night) and

Voiding LUTS

a) Hesitancy (hard to start weeing)
b) Intermittent stream (stop/start)
c) Terminal dribble (dribble towards the end of the wee)
d) After dribble (small dribble as you walk away from toilet)
e) Straining (pushing to empty) and
f) Incontinence (loss of urine)

Men’s Health – Did You Know?

LUTS are almost as common in men as they are in women
Weeing during the night is the most common symptom of LUTS in both women and men
In a study of 40000 men between 45 &79 years of age, 75% of them had some LUTS symptoms – SO IT’S REALLY COMMON!
Male LUTS symptoms are not necessarily related to any changes in the prostate
More people have storage LUTS than voiding LUTS
Studies have shown that only 1/3 of males & females with these symptoms seek help
Bladder retraining, medications, education have all been shown to be effective

Resources

The Continence Foundation of Australia
Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia

What to Expect

Your physiotherapist will perform a detailed assessment, including:

Taking a detailed history – history of the presenting problem as well as any relevant medical history
Physical assessment of movement patterns and strength and endurance of pelvic floor.

Your physiotherapist may utilise a variety of techniques to help you improve, including:

Biofeedback visually and/or with real time ultrasound.
Prescription of exercises – these will be provided specifically for you and your condition
Advice and education – With a better understanding of your condition you can take positive steps on a daily basis to reduce symptoms and prevent future recurrences.
You may be referred to our exercise physiologist for ManPHIT classes to strengthen your pelvic floor with more load to improve your function.

If your physiotherapist is concerned regarding your presenting problem, they may refer you for investigations or they may recommend you see your GP or a Specialist.

What Next?

It’s always good to get a quick urine test done with your GP to make sure you don’t have a urinary tract infection (UTI). This simply involves weeing into a sample pot. Lower UTI’s are infections of the urethra and bladder. Their symptoms include:

burning with urination
increased frequency of urination with scant amounts of urine being passed
bloody urine
cloudy urine
urine that looks like cola or tea
strong odour to urine
pelvic or rectal pain

It’s also advised to get your first blood test for PSA after 40-50 years of age depending on your risk factors.

Once you know there’s no infection, Physios (with extra training in continence management), continence nurses and doctors can help with bladder training, education and medications, depending on your presenting symptoms.

Ceridwen Way has completed extra education with some of Australia’s leading men’s and women’s continence physios in Newcastle and ACT and is passionate about helping people with these problems which can have a huge impact on their quality of life.

Please contact us for any further information or to book an appointment at our Burleigh Heads physio practice.

What to Bring

Medication list
Results of any screening (eg. Ultrasound scan and blood tests eg PSA, blood glucose level to exclude diabetes)

Our Men's Health - Physiotherapy Services Gurus

Ceridwen Way

Director & Principal Physiotherapist

Ceridwen graduated from the University of Queensland in 1992. She has extensive experience in private practice and hospitals in Australia and the UK. She was the team physiotherapist for the Australian Precision ice skating team in 1997 (and a 6 times Australian champion in her ice skating days!)

Crid’s special interests are lumbo-pelvic-hip dysfunction, ante and post natal musculoskeletal problems and pelvic floor dysfunction- male and female– for urinary incontinence concerns.

Ceridwen enjoys yoga and running and has completed 2 half marathons including one after her second baby.

Together with her husband Daniel, she is a Director of Burleigh Heads and Broadbeach Physiotherapy Centres.

Ceridwen treats at Burleigh Heads.

Qualifications and Memberships

Bachelor of Physiotherapy (1989–1992), University of Queensland
Member of the Australian Physiotherapy Association, Member of the Physiotherapy Business Australia
Member of the Continence & Women’s Health special interest group
Member of Women’s Health Training Associates
Secretary of APA Gold Coast Regional Group 1998-2001

Professional Development

Since 2021

Advanced Pelvic Floor- Relationship to Exercise, Sport & Musculoskeletal Dysfunction Taryn Hallam
A Practical Guide to Managing Men Post-prostatectomy
Anterior Hip & Groin Pain Online Workshop Dr Alison Grimaldi
Nuts & Bolts of Prostate Cancer Rehab with Dr Jo Milios
Advanced Male Pelvic Health including Focused Shockwave with Dr. Jo Milios
Long Covid Physio International Forum 8 hours 2022

Since 2016

Introduction to Continence & Male Pelvic Floor by Dr Irmina Nahon
TMJ 2 day course with Dr Guy Zito
Women’s Health Training Associates (WHTA) Pelvic Floor Courses
“Prolapse & Stress Incontinence” Level 2
“Objective Testing” Level 2
“Introductory Pelvic Floor” 5 Day Intensive Level 1

2007-2015

DMA Clinical Pilates Levels 1-4
Dynamic Stabilisation of Hip and Pelvis with Dr Alison Grimaldi
Western Acupuncture & Dry Needling (Advanced Head/Upper Limb)
Continence & Female Pelvic Floor workshop (Chiarelli Healthcare, Newcastle)
Continence & Male Pelvic Floor workshop (Chiarelli Healthcare, Newcastle)

Prior to 2007

Western Acupuncture & Dry Needling Introductory, 2 days
MET Cervical and thoracic spine and thoracic cage with Barbara Hungerford
McKenzie Part A Lumbar Spine (4 days)
Lumbar Spine & Integrated Pelvis Level 1 Muscle Energy with Barbara Hungerford
Lumbar Spine & Integrated Pelvis Level 2 Muscle Energy with Barbara Hungerford
Mulligans technique
Neural mobilisation/Explain Pain NOI

Natali Zantvoort

Senior Physiotherapist

This service is available at the following locations

Burleigh Physiotherapy Centre

Need help?

Follow us on Instagram

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Error: Access Token is not valid or has expired. Feed will not update.

We are “Members Choice” and “Members First” provider physiotherapists (at our Broadbeach clinic), for Medibank Private and BUPA, respectively.
This means that you have less out of pocket expenses for your treatment.

Privacy Policy Terms & Conditions