Archive for Adhesions

When Intimacy Hurts

June 8, 2011 alishiac One comment

You are not alone

You Are Not Alone
It is estimated that up to half of US women experience pain with intercourse (dyspareunia), according to published studies.

This staggering statistic reveals a condition that often goes unspoken, untreated, and unresolved. For many women, this topic is neglected in their conversations with their physicians, gynecologists, and friends. But why? If this condition affects so many, why aren’t people talking about it?

Stuck in Silence
Women should be empowered over their sexual health, not stuck in silence. It is through empowerment and education that women can find answers to their pain and discomfort and begin on a path to health and healing.

What’s the Cause?
Painful intercourse, or dyspareunia, is often caused by adhesions. Adhesions are internal scars that form after a trauma, surgery, infection or inflammation. Perhaps you fell on your tailbone as a teenager, or perhaps you’ve had bladder infections, or a prior pelvic surgery. All of these can be implications of adhesion formation.

Tiny adhesions form on the vaginal wall and can bind pain-sensitive tissues, causing pain.

Tiny adhesions form on the vaginal wall and can bind pain-sensitive tissues, causing pain.

As adhesions form, they can cover and bind the nearby tissues and organs causing restriction and often pain. When these adhesions form inside the delicate vaginal wall, they can cause intense pain during intercourse. The pain has often been described as though the woman’s partner is hitting something at the entrance or with deep penetration. Some women experience other symptoms including anorgasmia (the inability to have an orgasm or reach a full orgasm) and decreased desire (libido). These side effects of adhesions can severely limit a woman’s ability to have a pleasurable and healthy sex life.

How To Treat Dyspareunia
So how can you treat this condition without causing additional trauma and adhesion formation? A hands-on physical therapy, called the Wurn Technique, has shown excellent results in decreasing pain with intercourse and increasing sexual function without the need for drugs or surgery. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal Medscape General Medicine (2004) showed that 78% of women had increased desire (libido), 74% increased arousal, 70% increased lubrication, and 56% had increased orgasms after receiving this treatment.1

Endometriosis and Dyspareunia
Women who suffer from endometriosis often encounter painful intercourse as well. A study published in Fertility and Sterility showed a 93% decrease in pain with intercourse after receiving therapy.

What Physicians Say About the Wurn Technique


“The Wurn Technique® is remarkable; it is the only therapy shown to improve all phases of female sexual function, including arousal, lubrication, orgasm, and satisfaction. Amazingly, it does this without the side effects and multiple risks of surgery or drugs.”

Dr. John D. Perry, Psychologist
Author of “The G Spot”

“Their studies show improvement in desire, arousal/lubrication, orgasm/satisfaction and pain. I know of no other single therapy reported to increase all areas of sexual function. I am truly excited to learn about the Wurn Technique®”

Dr. Scott Miles, Gynecologist, Medical Director
Miles Ahead Health and Wellness, Indianapolis, IN

1. Wurn LJ, Wurn BF, King CR, Roscow AS, Scharf ES, Shuster JJ. Increasing Orgasm and Decreasing Dyspareunia by a Manual Physical Therapy Technique. Med Gen Med 2004 Dec 14; 6(4): 47. PMID 15775874
Adhesions, Endometriosis, Intercourse Pain, Recent Posts, Sexual Function , , , , , , ,

3 Ways Adhesions Cause Bowel Obstructions

May 26, 2011 alishiac 5 comments
Adhesions can form in or around the bowel causing obstructions

Left: Adhesions forming inside the bowel Top Right: Adhesions forming outside the bowel Bottom Right: Adhesions kinking the bowel together like a garden hose

 

Adhesions form as the bodies first response to a trauma, surgery, infection, or inflammation. These adhesions are made up of strong, fibrous cross links that attach to the nearby tissues and organs of the damaged area. When the abdomen or bowel experiences a trauma, adhesions can begin to form in the bowels, causing bowel obstructions. These adhesions can cause bowel obstruction in three different ways.

1. Adhesions can form inside the bowel.

When the bowel experiences a trauma, such as a surgery to remove part of the bowel, adhesions can form inside the bowel. These adhesions, made of thick collagen bonds, make it difficult for food to pass and can often cause cramping and pain during the digestion process.

2. Adhesions can surround and restrict the bowel from the outside.

After a pelvic or abdominal trauma, adhesions can form outside the bowels. These adhesions can surround the delicate tissues of the bowel, restricting and pinching them from the outside. This causes a decrease in digestive function and often pain and cramping after eating.

3. Adhesions can surround and kink the bowel like a garden hose.

When adhesions form on the outside of the bowel, they can surround the bowel causing it to kink much like a garden hose. This often creates a partial bowel obstruction, which makes digestion of solid foods difficult.

Treatment options offered to those who experience bowel obstruction is generally surgery. However, the surgical treatment for clearing bowel obstructions is the main cause of repeat obstructions. This can often lead to an endless cycle of obstructions and repeat surgeries.

A new non-surgical technique, known as the Wurn Technique,  is now being examined as an alternative treatment for bowel obstruction patients. This therapy uses hands-on physical therapy techniques to address the underlying adhesions that cause bowel obstruction.

This video features a patient who received this treatment and found relief from bowel obstructions.

 

Adhesions, Bowel Obstruction, Conditions, Recent Posts , , , , ,

Prior C-Section Can Cause Adhesions

April 21, 2011 alishiac No comments
C-Section Adhesions Scar Tissue

C-section surgery generally causes adhesions to form. These adhesions can pull or spread into neighboring structures, causing c-section pain or dysfunction, including secondary infertility.

C-section Can Cause Adhesions

Cesarean section delivery (C-section) is the most common surgery among women in the US. Unfortunately, this invasive surgical procedure requires a great deal of healing to occur. Adhesions are one of the bodies automatic responses to traumas such as a fall, a surgery, an infection, or an inflammation. These adhesions are much like thick strands of nylon rope that bind to nearby structures and restrict and cover the traumatized area. Though they are designed to help the body heal, adhesions often cause ongoing pain or dysfunction, long after the surface scars have healed.

Adhesions Can Cause Pain

Because adhesions attach to nearby tissues and organs, they create a pull or restriction in the pelvis, which often results in pain. As the organs, tissues, and muscles attempt to move, a resulting pain occurs.

Secondary Infertility if often caused by C-section Adhesions

Adhesions that form after a C-section can bind together delicate reproductive structures, causing dysfunction and secondary infertility.

Adhesions Can Cause Secondary Infertility

As adhesions form throughout the pelvis, they can attach to the delicate organs of the female reproductive system. These strong, fibrous bands restrict the mobility and function of these organs, often causing secondary infertility.

Adhesions Can Cause Digestive Issues

Adhesions can also affect regular digestion by attaching to the outside or inside of the intestine wall. As adhesions bonds grow, they restrict the regular function of digestion, and can often lead to a partial bowel obstruction.

Treatment for Adhesions

Often times, pain killers or infertility drugs are offered as a treatment for those who suffer from post-surgical adhesions. Unfortunately, drugs merely mask the true problem of adhesions and offer no long-term solutions. The next step in treatment is to undergo surgery to cut or burn adhesion bonds throughout the pelvis. However, the trauma of an additional surgery causes additional adhesions to form, which can create an endless cycle of adhesions and surgery.

A manual physical therapy, called the Wurn Technique, has shown excellent results in decreasing pain and increasing function related to adhesions. This therapy feels much like a deep pelvic massage as therapists use their hands to break down the bonds of adhesions throughout the pelvis. This therapy has been endorsed by physicians from Harvard, Northwestern, and Columbia as an alternative treatment to surgery. Click here to learn more about this treatment for post C-section adhesions.

“What a much-needed, useful and safe way to deal with the common, yet mystifying problem of adhesions. You have perfected a technique to treat adhesions, with years of experience, scientific backup and case studies to prove it.”

-Dr. Leslie Mendoza Temple, Northwestern University Medical Director

Adhesions, Bowel Obstruction, Featured Articles, Fertility, Post-surgical Pain, Recent Posts, Secondary Infertility , , , , , , , , , ,

Treating Hydrosalpinx Infertility

April 13, 2011 alishiac No comments

What is a hydrosalpinx?

Hydrosalpinx is a collection of watery fluid within the fallopian tube, usually as a result of damage at the distal (far) end of the tube, near the ovary.

How does a hydrosalpinx form?

Just as your knee might swell when it is damaged or inflamed, the fluid pools in the damaged tube causing it to swell or dilate, as a natural part of healing from inflammation. Whether from a prior surgery, an inflammation or an infection, the delicate geography of the pelvis responds to these traumas by forming adhesions and often times a hydrosalpinx.


How does hydrosalpinx cause infertility?

In most cases, a hydrosalpinx indicates that the fallopian tube is totally blocked at the far end. There, the delicate flower petal-like fimbriae which are designed to grasp the egg as it exits the ovary become adhered or clubbed together, closing the tube completely. Hydrosalpinx is a serious threat to fertility. It not only renders the affected tube(s) totally ineffective, it may also lessen the effectiveness of various infertility treatments (e.g. in vitro fertilization [IVF]).

How is hydrosalpinx treated?

Surgery

Neosalpingostomy (surgery that incises the hydrosalpinx and leaves an opening in the tube) is a surgical treatment option. The tube, however, often closes again enabling the hydrosalpinx to return. The most positive results are obtained with younger women and women with small hydrosalpinges. For others, the preferred treatment is usually total surgical removal of the tube prior to IVF.

The Wurn Technique

The Wurn Technique is a  non-surgical infertility treatment that uses pelvic physical therapy to decrease the adhesions causing tubal damage and hydrosalpinx. Once mobility is restored, the previously blocked tube(s) often regains normal function, creating a free path for conception to occur. Many women with a diagnosis of hydrosalpinx became pregnant naturally after receiving this hands- on therapy.

Click here to learn more about treating hydrosalpinx with the Wurn Technique.

Adhesions, Blocked Tubes, Fertility , , , , , , ,

Turning Back the Clock

March 15, 2011 alishiac No comments

It seems we could all use a bit more time these days. More time to meet a friend for coffee, more time to dust off that treadmill you bought with the best intentions, more time to enjoy the little things, and perhaps more time to have a baby.  As the hands of a woman’s biological clock run their steady marathon in clockwise circles, we often try desperately to turn those hands in the opposite direction.

Our bodies, much like our memories, have a complex system of remembering what has happened in the past. With each healing event our bodies endure, whether a fall from a bike or a trip to the hospital, a detailed account is written of these traumas in the form of adhesions.

Adhesions form as the body’s response to trauma. These traumas can be from a fall, surgery, infection, or inflammation. As these thick fibrous bands of adhesions form, they attach to nearby tissues and organs. These attachments can cause restrictions that are often the underlying cause of infertility. These mechanical fertility issues include blocked fallopian tubes, hydrosalpinx, unexplained infertility, high FSH, and endometriosis.

The therapists at Clear Passage Physical Therapy are experts when it comes to treating these powerful adhesive restrictions throughout the body.  The therapists use their hands to address the adhesions that restrict normal function of the delicate female reproductive system.  The therapy, in essence, turns back the clock by freeing the body from restrictions from past healing events.

To learn more about this therapy, visit www.clearpassage.com.

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