Urogynecology is a medical field that specifically treats pelvic floor disorders. UAMS just announced an expansion of care for these disorders, with help from urogynecologist Sallie Oliphant. Ozarks at Large's Eva Mundo explains.
She's a professor in the Department of Urology and a urogynecologist at UAMS. She says that about 25 to 30% of women are likely to have a symptomatic pelvic floor disorder at some point in their life.
"What we mean by pelvic floor disorders are things like bothersome urinary symptoms — frequency, urgency, urinary leakage — issues with bowels, like bothersome constipation or difficulty having a bowel movement, or bowel leakage. There can also be symptoms like pressure, heaviness, or a bulge in the vagina — we refer to that as prolapse, which is kind of a loss of support, or herniation, of the vaginal tissue. And then there can also be sexual function issues that go along with the pelvic floor."
But because of how personal the symptoms for these disorders are, Oliphant says most patients don't discuss them with friends or family and are unaware of how common they are.
"I think a lot of times people don't know that there are good treatment options, so there are some misconceptions. People sometimes think, 'oh, because I've had childbirth, or because I've gone through menopause, or because I'm aging, I just have to put up with pad usage or these various symptoms' — and that's definitely not true. We have lots of things we can do about it."
She says that there are many treatment options that vary for the different conditions. But she always starts with trying to make simple lifestyle changes, like controlling fluid intake or doing exercises to strengthen the patient's pelvic floor.
"There are some medications that can be helpful, particularly for urinary symptoms. We also have some nonsurgical treatments that are more procedural but not necessarily surgical. And then, of course, there are some surgeries that can be done — laparoscopically, some done vaginally, some implanted devices, some just using stitches. So there's really quite a gamut of treatments, depending on exactly what the issue is."
Oliphant says that with her research team, they believe that a lot of the pelvic floor disorders that are found in women at later points in their lives stem from initial damage that occurs during vaginal childbirth or even pregnancy.
"So, one of the things that my lab team is working on is to try and help identify who those women are going to be, so we can target treatments to them."
She says that they are still working to figure out the causes of these disorders and the initial damage done during pregnancies. But they do know that women who are younger during their first delivery, or have larger babies, tend to have higher rates of pelvic floor disorders. She says it is difficult to point to specific factors that they can identify as the causes.
Oliphant says that at UAMS, she hopes to raise awareness for women about the many treatment options for these disorders, and that there are choices that don't involve surgical procedures.
"So just really getting the word out that if you have pelvic floor symptoms impacting your quality of life, then my job, and the job of the urogynecology team, is to improve your quality of life. And we want to get the word out to those women, so they can find out what their options are and find out what's the right choice for them."
Oliphant also hopes to increase awareness for urogynecology and ideally increase clinic access for these disorders across the state.
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