Hello friends and colleagues!

I cannot tell you how excited Dr. Meehan and I are to host the new version of Menstruation and Pelvic Health. Updated based on feedback from previous participants and from exciting updates in the field, this improved version is designed to be practical and engaging so that tomorrow you can make changes in how you take care of your patients who have a Menstrual Cycle.

If you’re like Kelsey, you may already have excitement and enthusiasm for this topic. If you’re like Taylor, this course may cause anxiety or bring up strong feelings. Don’t worry…this is a safe space, and we will walk on this journey together in a supportive and positive forum with the goal of understanding and creating solutions. If you are like Steve, you may feel a little out of your element right now. You may believe you don’t have anything to contribute to this conversation, and maybe you weren’t planning to focus on women’s health anyway. But I believe everyone has a role to play on this journey. Paying attention to other people’s experiences allows our world to grow and enables us to help our patients in ways we never realized we could.

Hello everyone…we hope your 2023 has been peaceful and productive. Dr. Meehan and I are very excited about the upcoming course on Menstruation and Pelvic Health. We’re excited because this is a chance to discuss the Menstrual Experience, an opportunity that is not common in society today. Menstrual Symptoms and anxiety about seeing blood on clothes or furniture can create obstacles to opportunities in education, career advancement, relationships, health care, family, sports, and enjoyment. Society has missed out for too many generations on the contributions of people who have had to miss opportunities to shine due to challenging aspects of their Menstrual Experience.

Many patients have Menstrual Concerns that they would like to discuss with someone but don’t feel confident or able to engage in these important conversations. Pelvic floor practitioners have a unique opportunity to evaluate their patients’ Menstrual Experience and create an individualized care plan that takes that experience into consideration. We discuss how to initiate conversations with patients on a topic that is surrounded by cultural taboo and stigma, and we discuss biological underpinnings of the normal Menstrual Cycle and of Menstrual Symptoms that so many people experience each month, often hundreds of times in a lifetime

There is a very exciting section of the live course dedicated to understanding the quickly evolving landscape of options to manage Menstrual Flow. We carry out live demonstrations on how much blood is lost on each day of a ‘typical’ period, and we have demonstrations of use, mode of action, and maintenance of wide variety of disposable and reusable products: Liners, Pads, Intra-Labial Pads, Tampons (we discuss absorbency, expansion, and applicators), Cups, Discs, and ever-expanding options in Period Underwear, Period Activewear, Period Sleepwear, Period Swimwear (bikini and 1- piece), and Menstrual Sponges (not recommended). We discuss pros and cons of these collection and absorption method on different days of flow, and we develop a Flow Management plan so each person can confidently engage in the things that are important to them on any day of the month.