Plymouth Pelvic Floor Service
Date issued: July 2024
For review: July 2026
Ref: D-307/AC/Colorectal/Pelvic Floor Service v3
PDF: Plymouth Pelvic Floor Service v3.pdf[pdf] 173KB
The Plymouth Pelvic Floor team provides specialist services for patients with pelvic floor problems, specifically relating to the large bowel, and who live in Plymouth and beyond.
We are located within the Colorectal Department at DerrifordHospital and aim to provide a clinically excellent service. We are a small team of two Pelvic Floor Consultant Surgeons, two Nurse Specialists and a Pelvic Health Specialist Physiotherapist. You may receive care from several members of the team. When required, we discuss patient care at our regular Multidisciplinary Team Meetings, attended by our fellow Uro-gynaecology and Urology Specialist colleagues, a Radiologist Consultant and a Pain Management Consultant.
Pelvic Floor problems are common in women of all ages, and men can also be affected. Symptoms may include bowel leakage or faecal incontinence, constipation, difficulty with rectal emptying and rectal prolapse. These are embarrassing conditions and people are often reluctant to seek help. We offer a full range of conservative treatments, in accordance with National Guidelines. These include looking at your diet, medication and lifestyle, all issues which may affect your bowel. Appropriate investigations may be performed to assess the cause and severity of your pelvic floor condition.
In some circumstances surgery may be an option, but this is often after exhausting all other conservative options and not undertaken unless necessary.
Here are some helpful websites:
Advice to help with managing constipation. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) Constipation
NICE guidance for treating chronic diarrhoea.
NHS Information on pelvic floor exercises and how to do them.
