How to stretch and strengthen your pelvic floor
Statistics show that one-third of women and 16% of men will experience some type of pelvic floor disease in their lifetime.
A chance encounter at a service job led to a life-changing medical discovery for 42-year-old Dawn Jemison.
Jemison has suffered from menstrual pain for as long as she can remember. She always suffered from extreme bleeding and painful cramps, but was told that she would grow out of it.
That never happened. Throughout her adolescence, she missed school and social events, and her friends seemed to have no sympathy even when she expressed how painful her symptoms were.
As I grew into adulthood, I experienced many misdiagnoses and failed surgeries. She had severe ovarian cysts (especially on her left ovary) and uterine fibroids. Doctors focused more on controlling the symptoms – stopping the heavy bleeding and pain – than on identifying the underlying cause.
She underwent a D&C (dilation and curettage) procedure to thin the uterine lining and reduce heavy bleeding, was hospitalized for blood and iron transfusions as her numbers reached dangerously low levels, and had a cervical polyp removed, which she says caused cervical stenosis (scarring), which made her period pain even worse.
“They always say it’s just going to be a pinch. It won’t be that bad, we’re not that nervous here… lies, lies, lies,” Jemison says.
After each surgery, her pain decreased for several months, but then it gradually returned, often worse than before.
At some point in her early 20s, she was told by two different doctors that she should have the baby anyway.
“I definitely don’t think that will happen. For example, right now I’m having fun,” she says. But doctors kept telling her that having children would help her get in shape. She was in constant pain and could not afford to have children, due in part to high medical costs.
“I remember going and sitting in the car and thinking, ‘What?’ And just crying. I went for treatment and you’re telling me to have a baby,” she says.
Eventually, she stopped going to the doctor. It was too tiring and painful to keep hitting dead ends. She decided to have a hysterectomy.
But in the months leading up to her hysterectomy, Jemison, now 42, was serving wine at a small presentation hosted by the medical technology company Medtronic. There was a woman around Jemison’s age, and the symptoms she described were exactly like hers.
Jemison tried not to interrupt, but he heard the presentation going on. Finally, she asked one of the Medtronic representatives what the presentation was about. Jemison learned they were discussing pelvic vein disorders. The disease was something Jemison had never heard of, but it matched exactly what she had been experiencing for decades.
What is pelvic vein disorder?
Pelvic vein disorder, also known as “pelvic congestion syndrome” or “pelvic venous insufficiency,” is a chronic pelvic pain condition associated with impaired blood flow in the pelvic veins.
“Pelvic vein disorder has become an umbrella term to describe diseases of the pelvic veins,” says Dr. Abigail Kin Nelson, an interventional cardiac specialist at Lutheran Downtown Hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. “It’s still a little unrecognized.”
The condition affects approximately 3 million women in the United States but is notoriously underdiagnosed.
Symptoms include dull, tingling, or severe pain in the pelvis. In rare cases, the pain can be sharp and intense, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The pain is most commonly felt only on the left side, but you may also experience unilateral or bilateral pain on the right side. Other symptoms include irritable bowel syndrome, stress incontinence (bladder leakage caused by movements such as laughing or coughing), pain when urinating, and pain in the legs.
The pain may be worse at the end of the day, before and during your period, during sex and after your period, or when you sit or stand for long periods of time.
How are pelvic vein disorders diagnosed and treated?
After learning about the pelvic vein disorder, Jemison made an appointment with Kin Nelson, who had just moved to the area, in early 2025.
Pelvic vein disorders can be diagnosed with an ultrasound that specifically looks at the pelvic veins. Jemison said she had undergone dozens of ultrasounds throughout her life, but none had been able to detect the bulging veins.
She canceled her hysterectomy.
Another diagnostic procedure includes venography, which is an X-ray procedure used to visualize veins by injecting a contrast agent. Doctors injected dye into Jemison’s vein, but the blockage prevented the dye from passing through certain areas. Jemison then underwent a simple stent procedure in February 2025 to physically widen the vein. In March 2025, he underwent a second surgery to cauterize the redundant veins and insert a coil. As of April 2026, she says this is the longest she has been pain-free.
“The stent acts like a scaffold, keeping the vein open and preventing it from being twisted or collapsed by the surrounding anatomy,” Qin-Nelson explains. Although this is the “gold standard” of treatment, other conservative measures such as wearing compression stockings, leg elevation, and pelvic floor muscle exercises can also help.
Pelvic vein disorders are just one of many women’s health conditions that are often misdiagnosed. Adenomyosis, also known as the “silent disease,” is often not detected by ultrasound. Many women’s painful conditions go undiagnosed for decades. Additionally, women with chronic pelvic pain often have difficulty accessing physical therapy.
Qin-Nelson says the first step for women experiencing symptoms of pelvic vein disorders is to have an open conversation with their doctor. Primary care physicians should also learn more about symptoms and be prepared to refer patients to specialists if necessary, she added. “This is a possibility that should not be ignored.”
“I’ve been told by various doctors over the years that I have an anxiety disorder…and that it may be causing some of my symptoms,” Jemison says. “Then you’ll feel like there’s something wrong with your head rather than your body itself.”
Jemison doesn’t think she’s ever suffered from anxiety. Rather, her pain caused those depressive and anxiety symptoms. Now living a pain-free life, she is a “very happy person”.
“I felt like I could breathe and realized that laughing wasn’t just pretending to be valid. It wasn’t trying to hide that I was hurting or sad or angry,” she says. “I wasn’t crazy. Something was really wrong.”
