Advocacy and Research

Amy in London!

By Amy Stein, DPT

Yesterday, I was speaking in London with the well-known Fiona Lewis, vulvar dermatologist specialist, Peter Greenhouse, Maria Elliott and Fabrizio Bogliatto in London. It was a wonderful and informative seminar that Maria Elliott worked very hard at putting together, with an amazing group of people. Michelle Lyons and Jenny Burrell also attended.

My talk in London was well received with a mixed audience of beginner women’s health PTs and some physicians and also more advanced PFPTs like the host, Maria Elliott, Michelle Lyons and Andrea Dugan.

Peter Greenhouse was a very dynamic speaker and he disagrees with vestibulectomy, stating that there are other treatment options and the research of 61% is not strong enough to warrant a surgery. Other physicians may argue this.

Maria Elliott, the host, spoke on the importance of proper alignment and functional biomechanics. She mentioned the importance of having a happy gut. We both mentioned the importance of a home program and we discussed lubricants like Yes, and massage tools like EZ Magic and EZ fit.

The commonality amongst all five of us was that vulvar and pelvic pain require a multidisciplinary approach and most of the time there is not a quick fix.

I also mentioned attending #ipps16 in Chicago, October 2016, and IPPS’s world congress on abdominal and pelvic pain in DC in October 2017! I spoke to them about the Alliance for Pelvic Pain weekend patient retreat, as well, which is coming up in May 2016! I also discussed the importance of manual therapy both external and internal, and the need to assess and treat the rectal muscles. Even though it was a vulvar and pelvic pain seminar I did mention how male pelvic pain is also so prevalent and how necessary it is to help the male patients. Our practice is about 40% male pelvic floor dysfunction and pelvic pain.

Fiona Lewis discussed vi pat dermatoses and how you can have vaginal crones, lichens sclerosis, lichens planus and various other diagnoses. She also discussed how some Vulvodynia is not “seen” and therefore can be moe challenging to diagnose. She praised me on my presentation, stating that physicians are not taught in most European medical schools on how to assess he musculoskeletal impairments that can cause pelvic and vulvar pain. They are not taught how to palpate the pelvic floor muscles externally or internally, and she along with the other physicians are surprised by this because it is so important.

At the end of the evening, after an amazing job by Maria Elliott and Ilaina Brockman, of Icrelief.com, Maria took 12 of us to a lovely dinner in London and we celebrated her success over delicious food and wine!

See below for pictures!

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