“Pads and Diapers are like Walkers and Wheelchairs” and other Useful Analogies: Using Traditional Rehab Concepts to Market Pelvic Floor

This post was written by H&W instructor Heather S. Rader, PT, DPT, BCB-PMD, who authored and instructs the course, Geriatric Pelvic Floor Rehab. She will be presenting this course this June in Florida!

“I have never heard of pelvic floor rehab before.”

This comment poses an added job requirement for us, my fellow pelvic rehab practitioners! You have a responsibility to make this specialty understandable to your patients, referring providers, and the community at large. Therefore, marketing and education become interchangeable.

Use the fact that traditional rehab is well known to the public to your advantage by creating analogies to accepted concepts about injury and rehabilitation to boost your role as an educator.

1. What profession knows a lot about strength, endurance and coordination? Physical Therapy, right?This concept is a quick and easy way to explain why pelvic floor rehab is more complex than doing Kegels. Grab a side view pelvic floor model or picture. Use your fingers to simulate pelvic floor movement as you explain the following:

If your pelvic floor doesn’t have adequate strength, it can’t pinch the urethra tight enough to hold urine inside the bladder. If it has poor endurance, you might have trouble making it to the bathroom on time. If you have poor coordination, your pelvic floor muscle might not squeeze fast enough to counteract that cough or sneeze. Your average Kegel program is too simple to address these muscle complexities. Bladder control is dependent on the pelvic floor muscles and these muscles can have the same kinds of problems as the muscles in your arms and legs. But, what profession knows a lot about strength, endurance and coordination? Physical Therapy, right? That’s why your doctor wanted you to have pelvic floor rehab.

2. Pads and diapers are like walkers and wheelchairs. People use physical devices to compensate for physical difficulties. Walking aids are used for gait disturbances and absorbent padding for incontinence. Thin pads are like canes, thick pads are like walkers, and diapers are like wheelchairs. Rushing to the bathroom and going “just in case” would be analogous to someone hanging onto furniture for balance as they walk.

Use this analogy to link absorbent padding and assistive devices in the memory of a referring provider. “Doc, if they need pads, they need PT.” This can trigger a referral to PT for incontinence when patients complain of dependence on protective padding during their appointments, just as it might if a patient complained about trouble with a cane. You can also use this analogy as a way to share articles linking incontinence, poor balance, and low back pain.

3. Pelvic organ prolapse and herniated disks have a lot in common. I use this analogy a lot during community education talks, especially during Q&A. Being sent to PT for spinal pain and herniated discs is commonplace. But for a cystocele? Link how tissue failure by overuse can cause prolapse, whether it’s the bladder or the nucleus. Link how weak and saggy back muscles can cause the spinal bones to “fall” out of normal posture, just as weak pelvic floor muscles contribute to a fallen bladder.

I highly recommend using analogy as a marketing and teaching tool in pelvic floor rehab. Analogy works by associating what is known to what is unknown. If they are similar in some ways, they are likely similar is other ways, helping the patient, medical professionals, and the community understand the value of your skills.

These are just a few analogies. What others work for you in your practice?