[FREE] Greater Tone of Pelvic Floor Muscles: What is the Evidence?

Pelvic floor muscle tone is thought to be related to numerous pelvic health conditions across various age groups and genders and has been a foundational concept in pelvic health practice for many years. The contribution of greater than “normal” tone of the pelvic floor muscles (PFM) has even been implicated as the cause or sequelae of pelvic floor dysfunction and this has led to a rapid expansion and implementation of clinical interventions to reduce tone or “downtrain.” Despite much attention in the pelvic health clinical literature, education programs, and social media, it is unclear how convincingly the presence of greater tone in pelvic health conditions is supported by evidence. This presentation will cover two recent large systematic reviews that aimed to report the evidence for greater tone of the pelvic floor muscles in pelvic health conditions. It will cover why the interpretation of the evidence for greater tone is challenging and includes a discussion of study methods, measurement, outcomes, and terminology issues. Through the lens of the systematic reviews, you will be presented with an application of their framework to assess related tone research. Practical clinical use of the findings of the reviews will also be discussed. A deep understanding of tone and its measurement has the potential to improve future research as well as clinical practice assessment and outcomes. 

Learning Objectives

Following the presentation of two large companion systematic reviews and practical applications, participants will have evidence-based:

1. Insight into the current state of evidence for greater tone of pelvic floor muscles in pelvic health conditions.
2. Understanding of the best clinical tools and outcome measures, their reliability and validity, for the assessment of pelvic floor muscle tone.
3. Knowledge of current and appropriate use of terminology to describe various states of tone of the pelvic floor muscles and the state of the supporting evidence. 

Pre-Reading: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cont.2023.100593

Duration: 1 Hour presentation followed by 30min Q & A session

Who can attend: Members and Non-Members

Recording: This webinar will be recorded and a copy of the recording will be uploaded and available for Members only. Join today to get access to this recording and 20+ others!

About the Presenter

Rachel Worman, PT, DPT

Rachel is a licensed physical therapist in the United States who has extensive dual training, clinical and teaching experience in both musculoskeletal and pelvic health physical therapy. She has worked as a musculoskeletal and pelvic health provider in the private outpatient setting and most recently held a senior physical therapy position as a pelvic health provider in the Women’s Health and Urology clinics of a large medical group in Northern California. She has held part-time and adjunct faculty positions at both the California State University at Fresno and Sacramento PT departments, as well as a clinical lecturer position at the University of California at Davis School of Medicine, Division of Pain Medicine. She received her Master of Physical Therapy from CSU Fresno in 2007, and Doctorate in Physical Therapy from the joint program at UC San Francisco and CSU Fresno in 2008. She holds two year-long certificates in Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy training from Folsom Physical Therapy and Training Center, based in the Kaltenborn-Evjenth method, where she became an assistant and later a lead instructor. In 2019 she was awarded a full scholarship from the University of Queensland in Australia for a PhD candidacy under the advisory team of Professor Paul Hodges, PhD and Ryan Stafford, PhD. Her research focuses on pelvic health outcome measures and male pelvic health. She has been an invited national and international presenter on her research topics and has designed numerous introductory pelvic health courses for clinicians, most recently filling a need for male pelvic health introductory coursework in Australia.