What to Wear to Pelvic Floor Therapy
Pelvic floor therapy involves both conversation and physical assessment, which makes choosing the right clothing an important part of feeling prepared. Below we explain what typically happens at a first visit and how your outfit can support both comfort and mobility during the evaluation.
It also outlines when undressing may be part of the session, what types of clothing work best, and what to avoid. Pelvic floor therapy is designed to meet you where you are, making preparation simple and patient-centered.
What to Expect at Your First Appointment
To better understand what to wear to pelvic floor therapy, you first have to understand what to expect at your first appointment. During the first appointment, or initial evaluation, we will start by talking about what brings you to pelvic floor physical therapy. Sometimes this may only take the first portion of the evaluation, sometimes it takes the entire first appointment - it is completely up to you.
For some people, they feel it is important to get to the hands-on assessment as soon as possible. For others, they just want to have a provider who finally gives them the time and space to share their lived experience with their symptoms. At Pelvic Pride we prioritize making the evaluation appointment meaningful for you, which means we will ask you what you want to accomplish on day one and tailor our visit to that goal.
Once we get through our conversation about your symptoms, we will move on to the assessment portion of the appointment. We have plenty to look at from head to toe, but in general we can split the objective testing into two categories: a pelvic floor exam and an orthopedic assessment.
During a pelvic floor exam, we can perform an external and internal assessment, with your enthusiastic informed consent. To perform a hands-on or observation-only pelvic floor assessment, we will ask that you undress from the waist down. This allows us access to observe and palpate your pelvic floor soft tissues.
On the other hand, when we perform an orthopedic assessment, you will stay clothed as we perform various tests, measures, and observations of your body head to toe. This may include things like bending forward and backward, jumping, marching in place, muscle strength testing, flexibility testing, and more. If we want to assess posture or muscle activation better we may ask that you move clothing out of the way - i.e. remove your shirt to see shoulder and neck posture, lift your shirt to assess abdominal activation and for diastasis, or lift your shorts/pants to assess leg muscles.
Upon completion of the objective assessment, we will review what we found, its impact on your symptoms, and discuss our plan for care. This may include beginning various treatments on day one, depending on how much time is left in the session.
Best Types of Clothing to Wear
As you can see it is important to wear the right kind of clothing. This may mean wearing a sports bra, a tank top, shorts, or loose fitting clothing you can move in. Leggings are also a good choice as long as they let you move around. Keep in mind that we may need to move them above the knee to take a look at the lower legs. As for footwear, wear shoes that provide you with support and will not easily slide off. If you have a specific sport or activity you are trying to return to, it is important to wear or bring the shoes you plan to wear for that activity with you.
What to Avoid Wearing
Almost as important as knowing what to wear to your appointment is knowing what NOT to wear. When attending your pelvic floor therapy appointment, it is advised that you avoid wearing tight fitting clothing that does not let you move around, jeans, dress clothing, and improper footwear.
If you are required to wear specific shoes for certain activities, like work or dancing, and you are having pelvic floor symptoms while wearing them, definitely bring them to your appointment so your therapist can assess you while you wear them. Otherwise heels would also be on the list of what to avoid.
Do You Need to Undress
As discussed above, undressing is a common part of the pelvic floor assessment. However, we did note that this should come with enthusiastic informed consent. If you do not feel comfortable doing a hands-on pelvic floor assessment and undressing on the first visit it is important to let your therapist know. But, if you feel comfortable to move forward with a pelvic floor assessment and your therapist suggests it, you will need to undress so we can examine the pelvic floor muscles for strength, coordination, and tension/tenderness.
How to Feel Comfortable and Prepared
The best way to feel comfortable and prepared for your evaluation is to do your research. Take a look at the clinic website, review the
FAQ page, and read your
therapist’s bio if they have one available. Familiarize yourself with the area of the clinic including the parking situation and how to find the entrance to the therapy practice. If you have any questions ahead of time, be sure to give the front desk a call to get them answered. If they are clinical questions, be prepared to bring them with you to the evaluation appointment.
Common Questions About Pelvic Floor Visits
Beyond the above advice, keep in mind that as pelvic floor PTs, we are working with patients’ pelvic floors every single day. This means there is not such thing as TMI or weird questions. Other questions we hear often include:
- Do I need to shave?
- Nope! Unless you want to. We don’t care either way, and that includes all areas of your body.
- What if I am on my period?
- Still come in - we are used to periods! But if you have concerns about doing internal pelvic floor work while you are bleeding just let you therapist know and we can focus on other treatments that session.
- Can pelvic floor therapy help me?
- Yes! We rarely have patients come in who cannot benefit from pelvic floor therapy.
Looking for Pelvic Floor PT in Maryland?
At Pelvic Pride Physical Therapy & Wellness, we are THE clinical experts at working with patients struggling with pelvic floor issues so you are in the right place!
We are conveniently located in the Roland Park & Federal Hill neighborhoods in Baltimore MD. Fill out our contact form & our Patient Care Specialist will reach out to you ASAP!
Love our content? Let's stay connected!
Subscribe to our newsletter for personalized updates when new blog posts are dropped.
