Sep 27 2022
A Literal Pain in the Ass - Elizabeth Makous (Pelvic-Floor Physical Therapist) Ep.26
“You have pain where?!” People have often asked why a healthy person like me would need physical therapy. They are quite surprised to learn about pelvic-floor therapy… and it’s not long before I hear “I have pain there too.”
What was once a specialty that not even many obstetricians or urologists knew about, Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy is now a rapidly growing field with an outsized demand for new therapists. Treating conditions like urinary and fecal urgency, incontinence, prolapse, nerve entrapment, surgical scarring, pre and postpartum issues, visceral restrictions and sexual dysfunction, it’s not hard to see why.
When Elizabeth Makous became a physical therapist over 30 years ago there were only a couple of classes teaching pelvic floor therapy. When seeing a patient complaining of vaginal pain “deep inside” she donned a pair of gloves and began treating patients internally. Elizabeth has continued to innovate new treatments in the field applying her unique kind of creativity to the world of medicine. After the home birth of her son she figured out a way to treat her own bathroom issues without surgery. She’s developed protocols for successfully treating issues previously thought untreatable (even with surgery). She even approached a company called TheraWand to ask if she could make improvements to an existing vaginal wand product to more efficiently treat the pelvic floor rectally. After spending a year with a heat lamp sculpting plastic into the curves she felt would be more safe and effective… she'd created a brand new trigger wand that can be used to treat both men and women.
Maybe it was the way she was raised… spending time in the clinic with her father, a doctor, and her mother, a nurse. Her grandfather was also a doctor in this small-town community who treated blacks for free during the segregation era in the South. Their passion spilled over in such a way that when meeting a patient with a need, Elizabeth says “there is a gift inside me that just looks for a way to treat it.”
In this episode we talk about the importance of being your own medical advocate, how sitting for a living can be an occupational hazard, treating patients with lymphedema, pain management (without opioids), and how Covid restrictions didn’t stop humans from needing touch. We also speak about being a highly-sensitive (HSP), the need for major reform in the emergency mental healthcare system, and how Elizabeth leans on her Catholic Chrisitan faith (for example: she took two medical mission-trips to Kenya in 2019 and 2021 helping to empower African men and women to alleviate pelvic pain and to treat female victims of female genital mutilation). Finally, chronic pain if left untreated can leave people feeling very desperate… and it doesn’t have to be that way!
Guest: Elizabeth Mackous, MSPT, CLT, PRPC, CES “The Pelvic Whisperer”
Website: https://www.pelvicwhisperer.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PelvicWhisperer
Instagram: @pelvicwhisperer
The Makous Protocol practitioner and patient classes (Teachable)
Information for cancer patients and to find a therapist
Academy of Oncologic Physical Therapy
Episode References:
Henry Mayo Hospital Outpatient Therapy Center Valencia, California
Debbie Evans (Steve’s mom)
Dr. David Wise (pelvicpainhelp.com)
A Headache in the Pelvis (GoodReads)
“Pelvic floor massage for Prostatitis and CPPS with a TheraWand” (The Pelvic Pain Clinic)
Currently available TheraWand products (some products have become unavailable)
My Pelvic Floor Muscle | Elizabeth’s class on “An Innovative Way To Use Electrical Stimulation For Severe Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
U.S. Olympic Team Sexual Abuse lawsuit (The Denver Post)
Neptune Beach, Florida (Wikipedia)
Elaine Aron: The Highly Sensitive Person
Steven Bau: BLDRS Collective
Mycelial Networks: The National Forest Foundation
Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Center (Dr. Wu)
750 N Hill St J, Los Angeles, CA 90012
(213) 680-8782
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk (GoodReads)
Somatic Experiencing International (traumahealing.org / IG: @somaticexperiencingint)
Matthew Sanford interview “The Body’s Grace”: On Being
Dr. Andrew Goldstein: Sexual Medicine Courses for Pelvic Health Practitioners
Additional Resources:
Fascia & The Mystery of Chronic Pain | Dana Sterling | LIFE TALK (YouTube)
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