Promoting Pelvic Health

Healthwatch Warwickshire supported the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service by engaging with people to find out their knowledge of pelvic anatomy. They wanted to discover if people know the meaning of medical words, which could be included in information on a pelvic health website, and to find out if other words would be better understood.  They spoke to 57 people.

Some words were incorrectly identified, both when people were confident in their answers, and when they were guessing. There was some embarrassment when people did not know the words but felt that they should. The use of labelled pictures and descriptions of location or function during the engagement helped to clarify. Several people commented on the positive learning that had come from the conversations as they better understood the meaning of terms and felt this would benefit any future pelvic health conversations.

21 people said that English was not their first language.  People who did not have English as a first language were less likely to suggest an alternative for the English word.

Some words such as urine, bladder and uterus, were well recognised, others such as perineum and anal sphincter were not. Whilst those with English as a first language were more likely to correctly identify the terms, there was still evidence of misunderstandings and a lack of knowledge.