Fecal Incontinence Treatment in Hollywood, FL
Leaking stool or gas is one of the hardest things to say out loud, and one of the most treatable problems we see. The muscles that control your bowel can be assessed, strengthened and coordinated like any others.
What causes fecal incontinence?
Bowel control depends on a team: two anal sphincter muscles, the pelvic floor muscles that wrap around the rectum, the nerves that tell you something is there, and the stool itself. Leaking happens when one part of that team is weak, injured, poorly coordinated or out of sync with the rest. It affects people of every age and both sexes, and it is far more common than anyone admits. Your physician rules out medical causes first. Then the muscle and coordination side can be assessed and treated.
The anal sphincters keep the rectum closed at rest and squeeze harder when you need to hold on. A tear during vaginal delivery, an episiotomy, an assisted birth, pelvic or rectal surgery, or simply years of strain can leave those muscles weaker or slower to respond. Strength, endurance and the speed of that squeeze are all trainable.
You can only hold what you can feel. If the rectum does not register stool or gas until it is already on its way out, there is no time to respond. Sensory retraining, often with biofeedback, teaches you to notice the signal earlier, which gives the muscles time to do their job.
Some people have plenty of strength but a rectum that cannot hold much before it sounds the alarm, so every urge becomes a sprint. Urge control strategies and graded training help the rectum tolerate normal volumes again, much like bladder retraining does for urinary urgency.
It sounds backwards, but chronic constipation is a common cause of leaking. Hard stool sitting in the rectum lets looser stool seep around it, and straining over months weakens and stretches the support system. Treating the constipation, along with toileting position and pelvic floor coordination, is often what stops the leaking.
The nerves that control and sense the bowel can be affected by childbirth, pelvic surgery, diabetes, spinal problems and neurologic conditions such as multiple sclerosis, stroke, Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord injury. Treatment then focuses on what the nervous system can still do, plus routines that make bowel control predictable. See neurologic conditions for more.
How physical therapy in Hollywood helps.
Fecal incontinence is treated here privately and plainly. Your first visit runs 30 to 60 minutes, one on one, in a private room with the door closed. Assessment may include an internal rectal examination, because feeling how the sphincters and pelvic floor contract and relax is the only way to know what they need. Your therapist explains exactly what is involved before anything happens, you can decline any part of it, and you can stop at any point.
Treatment follows what the exam found. Strength and endurance training for the sphincters and pelvic floor. A quick, well-timed squeeze for the moment an urge arrives. Biofeedback so you can see what the muscles are doing while you train them. Sensory retraining so you notice the signal sooner. And the practical side: stool consistency, fiber and fluid habits, toileting position and a bowel routine that makes the day predictable. If straining and hard stool are part of the picture, constipation and IBS are treated in the same plan.
What to expect.
Your evaluation
No physician referral is needed in Florida. We talk through your bowel habits, when leaking happens and what you have already tried, then assess the pelvic floor and sphincter muscles, explained before each step. You leave knowing what is driving it and what the plan is.
Strength, sensation and timing
Early sessions build the squeeze, the endurance to hold it and the sensation to know when you need it. Biofeedback makes the work visible, and the home program is short enough to actually do.
A routine you can trust
Then we make it reliable: urge control on the way to the bathroom, a bowel routine that fits your life, and confidence going out without mapping every restroom. Your therapist will be honest about what your case looks like and how long it is likely to take.
I have had the pleasure of working with both Dr. Leslie and Tanya who were both incredibly knowledgeable and always made me feel super comfortable.
Bladder and bowel share the same muscles.
Bladder & Bowel Dysfunction
Urgency, leaking, incomplete emptying and straining, all downstream of the same muscles.
Constipation & IBS
When the pelvic floor will not coordinate with the bowel, nothing moves easily.
Postpartum Recovery
Six weeks and cleared is not the same as recovered. This is the rest of it.