In its first year, nearly all patients visiting the Pelvic Health and Reconstructive Surgery Center at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound were women, but lately the community has learned that the physicians at the Center are equally as talented when it comes to treating men with pelvic health concerns.
“Right now, the patient mix is about 80 percent female vs. 20 percent men. When the center first opened, it was probably 5 percent men and 95 percent women,” said Medical Director Marie-Blanche Tchetgen, MD, a urologist by training. “We can definitely enhance the lives of many men by addressing their pelvic health concerns.”
Tchetgen said men tend to have urinary problems relating to prostate enlargement including difficulty urinating, frequency of urination in the daytime as well as at night, sometimes compounded by poor bladder control. Furthermore, men who have undergone treatments for prostate cancer may suffer from urinary leakage, sometimes years after successfully beating the cancer. In contrast, similar problems arise in women as the result of pelvic changes caused by childbirth and/or menopause. In both men and women, these issues can be very distressing and negatively impact quality of life.
The Center employs state-of-the-art equipment to help diagnose and customize treatment plans for those complex patients who may have failed previous treatments.
Tchetgen continues to collaborate with a multi-disciplinary group of specialists in Gynecology, Colorectal Surgery, Pelvic Floor Therapy and Pain Management. Patients come to the Center seeking help for complaints ranging from pelvic pain, urinary or fecal incontinence to bladder retention and prolapsed organs. Remedies include non-invasive, minimally-invasive and traditional in-hospital surgeries, in-office procedures as well as physical therapy. The robotic minimally-invasive surgeries that take the laparoscopic approach often reduce the time patients spend in the hospital and speed up recovery after surgery.
“While most of these conditions are not life-threatening, they can disrupt a person’s day to day activities and enjoyment of life,” Tchetgen said. “It’s very rewarding to be able to restore quality of life to our patients as effectively and efficiently as possible. We try to offer solutions in a very compassionate but direct manner, understanding that these are sensitive matters for patients. Suffering from these issues is hard enough. Our focus is getting you the right treatment at the right time so that you can get back to living your healthier active life as soon as possible.”
Tchetgen said the Center allows patients with multiple yet related issues to be treated in one setting.
“For example, a patient may come to the Center with bladder issues of frequent urination and urinary tract infections and I might notice the uterus is prolapsed i.e., dropping into the vaginal space,” she said. “To fix that, we must address the anatomical issue of the prolapse as well as the functional bladder issues, which may sometimes require combined surgery involving both me and a gynecologist.”
Though surgeries can put things back where they belong anatomically, patients may still need to work on regaining full function through pelvic floor therapy which is a form of physical therapy that targets pelvic floor muscles. Tchetgen equates it to the same restoring of muscles and joints function for people who have had hip replacement surgery. Patients with pelvic pain and urinary as well as fecal incontinence also greatly benefit from pelvic floor therapy.
Tchetgen said the advantage of having such a center in a hospital setting is having access to the often expensive diagnostic and treatment equipment. The Urodynamic lab is a very important component of the Center as it allows the physician to more accurately diagnose pelvic dysfunction issues.
Like other medical specialties, the COVID-19 pandemic greatly affected the Pelvic Health and Reconstructive Surgery Center. Due to confinement restrictions and because elective surgeries were postponed by order of the Governor, many patients were limited to telehealth visits during the months of March and April. However, with precautions put in place to keep patients safe, clinical activities have resumed since May and patients currently are being seen in person.
To schedule an appointment, please call 469-322-7096.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound is a joint venture owned by Texas Health Resources and physicians dedicated to the community and meets the definition under federal law of a physician-owned hospital. Doctors on the medical staff practice independently and are not employees or agents of the hospital.
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