In Your Pants with Dr. Susie G - Prostate cancer pelvic floor therapist for post-surgery treatment

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

Prostate cancer patients face a multitude of challenges post-treatment. From incontinence to erectile dysfunction, the journey to recovery can be daunting, and finding the right prostate cancer pelvic floor therapist for you becomes paramount. In a special 4-part series featuring Dr. William Mills PT, DPT and Dr. Susie Gronski, PT, DPT we delve into insights and solutions centered on the treatment and rehabilitation of men's pelvic and sexual health following prostate cancer. Dr. William Mills, PT, DPT is a physical therapist who specializes in male pelvic rehabilitation, particularly post-prostatectomy and chronic pelvic pain. With a forte in manual therapy and corrective exercises, he enhances outcomes, enabling men to regain urinary control, bowel function, erectile function, and overcome pain. Together with his colleagues at Alinea Performance, he is committed to assisting men of all ages in enhancing their quality of life. Our episode covers topics including: 00:00 Introduction 00:35 Prostate cancer journey 01:04 How to find a male pelvic health physical therapist 02:04 Post prostate cancer treatment in Baton-Rouge Louisiana 03:34 Pioneers in the male pelvic health space 04:00 Treatment plans post-prostatectomy 04:58 Early warning signs and rehabilitation for prostate cancer 05:56 The Prosfit app for post-prostate cancer treatment 07:52 How prostate cancer symptoms affect daily life **Need for More Expert Male Pelvic Health Therapists:** Everyone has a pelvic floor, including you, and it plays a pivotal role in concerns such as erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence. Unfortunately, due to societal stigmas and narrowly focused marketing, there's a disconnect in the availability of pelvic health therapists specializing in men's care. Addressing this educational and accessibility gap is crucial for providing comprehensive healthcare to those who need it most. **Leading Voices in Care for Male Pelvic Health:** Dr. Susie G and Dr. Jo Milios are at the forefront of efforts to educate both patients like you and physicians about male pelvic health while improving access to necessary care. Dr. Susie is the founder of a pelvic and sexual health clinic exclusively for men, serving patients in-person in Asheville, North Carolina and globally online. Her clinic brings together the expertise of pelvic floor physical therapy, pelvic floor occupational therapy, nutrition, sex therapy and mental health. Meanwhile, Dr. Milios's research promotes sexual recovery and continence control through tailored pelvic rehabilitation using pelvic specific exercises for men and therapeutic ultrasound for Peyronie's Disease that can be adopted to improve therapeutic outcomes post prostatectomy. **Confronting Chronic Challenges in Post-Prostate Cancer Care:** Issues accompanying prostate cancer, such as erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence, can severely hinder your quality of life. These conditions extend beyond physical repercussions, also taxing mental and emotional health. It's essential to understand that for many who have accepted these issues as the new norm, there are avenues to alleviate or even completely overcome these concerns. RESOURCES: Free sex and pelvic pain resources https://drsusieg.com/resources Online Pelvic Pain Relief Program for Men https://drsusieg.com/pelvic-pain-in-men-online-program CONNECT WITH DR. WILLIAM MILLS: Website: www.alineaperformance.com Instagram and Facebook: docmills.dpt Twitch: docmillsdpt CONNECT WITH ME (DR. SUSIE) AND TEAM: Website: https://drsusieg.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.susieg/ ___________________________________________________________________________ Disclaimer: This information is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a healthcare professional with any questions you may have regarding treatment, medications/supplements, or any medical diagnoses. This information is intended for educational purposes only and is in no way to substitute the advice of a licensed healthcare professional. #prostatehealth #prostatecancer #prostatectomy

you're listening to the in your pants podcast i'm your host dr suzy gronski your penis friendly pelvic health physical therapist sex counselor and educator helping you get in the know down below Hi, Dr. Mills. Welcome to my channel. It's so nice to have you here to talk about a very important topic of men's sexual health and pelvic health around pelvic cancer. Yes. Thanks for having me. Of course. So tell us a little bit about what sparked the passion around men's pelvic health for you? So it was, um, it was an, I had an interesting start into men's pelvic health. It wasn't really on my radar. Um, it kind of happened just through a conversation, um,

with another therapist who explained to me that there was a huge need for more pelvic health physical therapists in general. Um, and then that there was a very low level of men in the space. um, males treating males. So, um, when I realized that need and when I realized how underserved it was and, uh, you know, in most typical cases, there's a high level of motivation to get your genitals working at a, at a higher normal level again. Um, it coincided with what my plans of, you know, being in the CrossFit and weightlifting space, you know, they, they meshed well. Um, so I gave it a chance and, you know, fast forward four years later, five years later, now we're, we're doing it. So it's been, it's been a good journey.

Yeah. Well, and, and being that you're from Louisiana, Baton Rouge area, we there's a higher population of men with just prostate cancer post-treatment that started to seek help and so that's the population you're working with at the moment yeah so that's that's the majority of my caseload um by way of just referral and word of mouth and it's it's kind of been like a, an, well, not a slippery slope because slippery slope sounds negative. It's been like a snowball effect of, you know, I treat one, one male, like it really, the, the biggest snowball happened. I ran an ad in the paper. I talked to this guy who, who is a representative of the advocate which is a local newspaper here uh like a week into um the shutdown and i was

already i had already started doing it somewhere else but then whenever i started my own practice it kind of took a back seat and i was treating more crossfit people um and then i ran this ad and i got one call and started doing virtual with this guy and that one call just kind of opened up a lot of different doors and now it's, you know, I'm treating 50% pelvic health, 50% ortho in my practice. Um, and there's just a, there's a big need for it. Um, I would say the vast majority of my clientele are people that have chronic incontinence. Um, you know, I base what I do a lot off of, I feel like the two giants in the men's public health space are Dr. Susie G and Joanne Milius. So like, I use a lot of y'all's, uh, knowledge and like clinical based stuff,

uh, to treat these guys. And, you know, in an ideal, perfect world, I would like to see people five times before they have surgery and 15 times after, uh, based off Joanne Milius research. but a lot of times guys find me when they have, when they've had erectile dysfunction and incontinence for several years, uh, chronically and nothing else has helped. And then, then I see them. Um, and then we get, we get good results. So, so there's hope and that's awesome. And that's really a lot of hope. The series that you and I are doing together, Dr. Mills is about is educating the community about prostate cancer rehab from our physical therapy perspective, and that improvements can be made. And the sooner that we address the rehabilitation process, the better the

outcomes. Absolutely. This is where we're at, folks. So Dr. Mills and I are going to do a three-part video series here where we're going to first talk about the before and after of a prostate, after prostate cancer so so whether that's radiation or having a prostatectomy and then the second video we're going to be talking about tips to improve or completely get rid of incontinence so treating incontinence from a rehabilitative perspective and then sexual recovery will be our last video in this series is what does penis rehab look like what are the expectations around sexual recovery and, and some things that you can support yourself through that process as well. So, and Dr. Mills, you, through this, your journey as a clinician, we were talking

off the air, but you had mentioned you have an app now that you use with folks called Prospit. Prospit, yes. It's a, so we describe it as a hybrid program. Whenever, whenever I'm treating guys in this, in this realm. Usually the, the norm is, you know, ideal five before 15 after basically 15 to 20 weeks of rehab. And the explanation that we always give is you're going to be seeing me once a week, right? I do 90 minute evaluations and 45 minute follow-ups. So the 45 minutes that you're going to be seeing me is, is going to be a lot of teaching and a lot of, uh, learning the finesse and coordination of how to do these movements, but application is everything. So what you do outside of our treatment session is going to be way more important than what we're doing in the treatment session. Um, and, you know, we've found that a lot of guys just did a lot better when there was

more tracking, more accountability and the, the progressive, you know, loading that we do in the, in our rehab and, um, as well as tracking pad weight is huge and it keeps them on track. so we have we have hybridized the rehab process and we do a lot in person but we also do a lot through the app CrossFit so wonderful that sounds really great and what a way to yes the accountability piece the coaching pieces and helping people stay motivated through the process it's so easy you know when you're dealing with something that's challenging you know it's like a fish in water you don't know anything else but wet so it's and no pun intended there absolutely

that was a that was a little on the nose i was like wait no pun intended there yes no and and not to minimize this at all for sure um because it's distressing and very challenging very frustrating uh to experience that and so what what we're getting at is you know there is hope there's recovery and through this video series we we our intention is that this will help empower folks to take control over their situation and to to doing the things they love and finding you know reconnecting with meaning again thanks for listening to today's episode be sure to visit my website drsusig.com for show notes and related resources on today's topic if you like what you're hearing head on over to YouTube and subscribe to my channel on my

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