Hi everyone! I recently (2 weeks ago) had a hysterectomy and am now suffering from majorly ramped up PFD symptoms (unsurprisingly). I do not have a UTI or any infection, and my surgery did not have any complications other than unfortunately being complicated and extensive.

I had a hysterectomy and significant endo excision due to stage 4 endo that had spread massively to my ureters and made it almost impossible for me to urinate and caused near constant pelvic pain, so I did not have much choice in the matter. Currently my main symptoms are: some stress incontinence, feeling like i need to pee / like i didn’t empty my bladder fully (feels exactly like a PF muscular strain, and i can isolate and replicate this feeling exactly when doing certain stretches). On a more positive note, i now CAN urinate which was incredibly hard for me to do before surgery and i am no longer in near constant pelvic pain!

Due to the severity of my endo and previous symptoms, I absolutely had a hypertonic PF and PFD before surgery, and now am most likely more hypertonic than ever due to surgical trauma. I’ve started a light hypertonic PF stretching routine at home already 2x daily and am seeing surprisingly great results already (~3 days of consistency so far, only stretches) and am doing a bladder diary to check myself. My urogyn put me on Hiprex and Oxybutynin to help try to ease my symptoms before i get into actual pelvic floor physical therapy (next week!! yay!) but honestly my stretching seems to be alleviating my symptoms more than the meds. I also am like 50-70% better on the stress incontinence front with only stretching. In PT i’m going to be doing only external work and stretching for the first few weeks since i have a vaginal cuff that is healing. After that i’ll be starting internal work, and i have no reservations about it.

I’m mainly looking for success stories from patients who had similar symptoms as me, physical therapists who help patients with these symptoms successfully, or general tips on dealing with PFD that was exacerbated by a pelvic floor surgery/even child birth, as I have read the trauma can be similar. I have an anxiety disorder so I am acutely aware of how important it is for me to stay positive and focus on relaxation in order to not tighten my muscles further.

Thank you all in advance and i wish all of you the best of luck with healing