The State of Men’s Pelvic Health Report: Insights from the Frontlines
The State of Men’s Pelvic Health” report. A reflective, somber silhouette emphasizes the silence, stigma, and urgency surrounding men’s pelvic care.
Author: Steven Tijerina, PT, DPT, Instructor at IPC. Edited by Zhen Chen, PT. Published 17.08.2025.
Executive Summary
Pelvic health has come a long way in the past two decades. Thanks to the dedication of thousands of clinicians — overwhelmingly women — conversations about incontinence, prolapse, and pelvic pain are no longer hidden in whispers. Women’s pelvic health has become a recognized, respected field of practice, and millions of lives have been changed as a result.
But one group has been left behind: men.
Chronic pelvic pain, lower urinary tract symptoms, sexual dysfunction — these conditions affect millions worldwide. Yet too many men still have nowhere to turn. They are misdiagnosed, dismissed, or left untreated. This is not only a men’s issue; it is a public health issue. When men struggle silently, their partners, families, and communities bear the weight too.
At Integrative Pelvic Care (IPC), we believe men deserve the same level of dedication that transformed women’s pelvic health. That means specialized training, clinical frameworks, and mentorship designed specifically for the male patient. The standard of care must rise to meet the complexity of men’s needs — just as it has for women.
This report is both mirror and roadmap. A mirror to reveal the reality of men’s unmet needs. A roadmap to show how, together, we can close the education gap, break down stigma, and build stronger bridges between physical therapy, urology, and other disciplines.
The urgency is real, but so is the opportunity. Women’s pelvic health proved what can happen when clinicians refuse to let stigma or silence stand in the way of care. That same spirit can now transform men’s pelvic health. Together, we can turn men’s pelvic health from a hidden issue into the next great movement in rehabilitation. And by committing to specialize, to raise the standard of care, and to stand at the top of our field, we not only transform outcomes for patients — we also move from being under-recognized as passionate advocates to earning our rightful seat at the table of healthcare leadership.
Section I: The Trifecta of Men’s Pelvic Health
Men’s pelvic health is shaped by a trifecta of overlapping conditions: pelvic pain, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) & benign prostate hyperplasia (BPH), and sexual dysfunction. Each can be devastating on its own. But together, they act like three strands of the same rope — tightening around a man’s quality of life, constricting daily function, intimacy, and mental health. Despite a growing body of research, awareness among both clinicians and patients lags behind. The result is predictable: delayed treatment, fragmented care, and an overreliance on pharmacological or surgical interventions when earlier, comprehensive management could have changed the trajectory.
1.1 Strand One: Pelvic Pain
Chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CP/CPPS) is defined as urologic pain or discomfort in the pelvic region, associated with urinary symptoms and/or sexual dysfunction, lasting at least three of the previous six months (1). It is the most common urological diagnosis among men under 50 and the third most common overall (2).
The scale is staggering. Prostatitis-like symptoms affect between 2.2% and 9.7% of men, with an average prevalence of around 8% (1). Lifetime prevalence may be as high as 35–50% (1). In the United States alone, chronic prostatitis accounts for a quarter of all outpatient urology consults and nearly 8 million physician visits every year (2).
The impact on quality of life rivals that of ischemic heart disease or diabetes mellitus (1). Beyond daily suffering, CP/CPPS has been linked to male infertility through pathways including accessory gland inflammation, autoimmunity, and metabolic syndrome (1). This strand of the rope cuts deep into long-term health and family life.
“I was in the ‘I just want to end it all’ stage — it felt like no one understood how deep the pain went.”
Yet there is hope. Pelvic floor physical therapy (PFPT) has emerged as a proven, non-pharmacologic intervention. In one prospective study, half of patients showed a robust clinical response after just 10 sessions of PFPT, defined as a 7-point drop on the NIH-Chronic Prostatitis Symptom Index (5). Specialized care begins to loosen what years of medication alone could not.
1.2 Strand Two: Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) and Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH)
The second strand of the trifecta is LUTS and benign prostatic hyperplasisa — urgency, frequency, nocturia, post-surgical incontinence — affecting millions of men annually. Strongly correlated with aging and prostate conditions, they are often dismissed as “normal.” Yet the reality is broader: one in three men aged 25–34 report LUTS in recent surveys (3). These are not just the problems of aging; they are emerging earlier, tightening the rope around younger men who are least expected to struggle with “old men’s problems.”
The burden is uneven. Higher-income men report more urinary complaints, while bowel dysfunction is more common among smokers (3). Mental health conditions are also strongly correlated with pelvic floor dysfunction, underscoring that LUTS are not purely mechanical problems but part of a biopsychosocial cycle that compounds distress if ignored (3). Left untreated, this strand weaves biology, psychology, and lifestyle into knots that are harder to untangle with time.
1.3 Strand Three: Sexual Dysfunction
The third and most silenced strand is sexual dysfunction. It is rarely standalone: CP/CPPS often presents with erectile dysfunction, ejaculatory pain, or decreased satisfaction (1). LUTS too are closely tied to erectile health. But because of stigma — and because many providers remain uncomfortable initiating the conversation — this strand is often left to pull the tightest, hidden in silence.
“By the time men talk about sexual issues, they’ve often been silent for years. Breaking that silence is the hardest part.”
Physical therapy is again emerging as a key player. Interventions like pelvic floor training, biofeedback, and neuromodulation are showing promise in treating erectile and ejaculatory disorders, particularly when linked to chronic pelvic pain (5). But without broader clinician training and confidence, this rope remains uncut, leaving men trapped in a cycle of frustration, avoidance, and stigma.
Pelvic pain, LUTS, and sexual dysfunction are not separate complaints. They overlap, reinforce each other, and magnify suffering. Left untreated, they can erode quality of life as deeply as diabetes or heart disease — only without the same recognition or urgency. The research is clear. The treatments exist. What’s missing is the will to bring them into the mainstream of care.
Section II: Clinician Insights — The Frontline Voice of Men’s Pelvic Health
If research shows us the scope of the problem, clinicians tell us what it feels like to fight it every day. And their voices reveal a landscape that is both promising and precarious.
Men’s pelvic health is gaining recognition, but the clinicians working on the front lines describe an environment marked by isolation, systemic barriers, and the absence of clear, structured educational pathways. Many find themselves learning on the job, stitching together fragments of research, mentorship, and intuition to meet the needs of their male patients.
For early-career pelvic therapists, the challenge is often access: training programs rarely address men in depth, leaving new graduates unsure of how to treat beyond the basics. For seasoned clinic owners, the barrier is different but no less daunting: a lack of workforce capacity, reimbursement hurdles, and the lingering stigma that keeps too many men from ever walking through the door.
Taken together, their experiences form a kind of map — one that reveals where the field is stuck, but also where it could grow if given the right attention. The voices of these clinicians make one point unmistakably clear: men’s pelvic health cannot remain a fringe skill set. It must become a core competency.
2.1. Isolation and the Steep Learning Curve
Nearly every clinician we spoke to used the same word when describing their entry into male pelvic health: alone.
Unlike female pelvic care — which has developed clearer training pipelines, mentorship networks, and defined sub-specialties — male pelvic therapy offers few structured on-ramps. New therapists often feel as if they’ve been dropped into the deep end without a guide.
“When getting into pelvic health specifically for men, there wasn’t a gradual introduction… I felt and continue to feel alone. I can ‘talk the talk’ but don’t feel confident to fully ‘walk the walk.”
That sense of isolation goes beyond technical knowledge. It eats at confidence. Many therapists describe piecing together their education from scattered online resources, self-directed study, and trial-and-error with patients. Without structured mentorship, the learning curve is not only steep but lonely. And when complex cases arrive — bowel dysfunction, sexual health, overlapping pain syndromes — even skilled clinicians admit they hesitate, unsure if they are truly equipped to help.
2.2. Confidence Gaps and Complex Cases
The trifecta of male pelvic health — pain, lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) & benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and sexual dysfunction — remains the steepest terrain for new clinicians. The clinical complexity is real, but so is the discomfort: therapists describe walking into rooms where the questions go beyond biomechanics, into areas where training and confidence thin out.
Sexual dysfunction sits at the top of the list. Erectile and ejaculatory disorders are consistently cited as the hardest to approach.
“I have not gotten any referrals related to ED or sexual dysfunction… I’m not sure exactly how to approach that.”
“Anything involving sexuality, masturbation, or pleasure can feel tough. As PTs, we’re trained to think biomechanically — so when a patient brings up pleasure or arousal, it feels like we’re crossing some invisible line.”
Bowel dysfunction is another pressure point. Conditions like dyssynergic defecation, anal fissures, and high anal tone force therapists to juggle physiology, patient vulnerability, and technology.
“If there is constipation or bowel dysfunction with rectal pain, that makes it even more tricky… incorporating biofeedback can be difficult.”
Then there is the challenge of internal manual therapy. Even experienced hands describe the hesitation that comes when anatomy, patient communication, and therapeutic goals all collide at once.
“What am I palpating? What’s the goal? What am I trying to feel or change? And how do I explain that to a patient?”
Even clinicians with years of practice admit to a missing vocabulary.
“I have a million cues for women on how to contract/relax, but very few for men.”
What emerges is not just a skill gap, but a confidence gap. Therapists are eager to help, but without structured education and male-specific training tools, they are left second-guessing their approach. And in pelvic health, hesitation can be as limiting as inexperience.
2.3. Systemic Barriers: Referrals, Access, and Awareness
Even when clinicians are ready, the system around them often is not. Referral pipelines are patchy, inconsistent, and in many places non-existent. Physicians unfamiliar with pelvic physical therapy default to medication, surgery, or simply send patients elsewhere. The result is a form of systemic neglect: care that could be delivered locally is delayed, fragmented, or never delivered at all.
“My biggest barrier is MDs not prescribing therapy. MDs don’t know I’m in the local area, and they send folks to Houston for treatment.
”
Within the VA system, the gap is even starker.
“Unless there is outreach to referring providers consistently, you may have a problem PT could address that doesn’t get a referral… I hate that I have to tell patients, ‘I acknowledge your problem, PT should be able to help, but I can’t help you.”
This is more than a professional frustration. It is a public health failure. Men are left to cycle through medications, repeat imaging, or unnecessary specialist visits, while a low-cost, evidence-based therapy sits unused. Every missed referral compounds the inequity: rural patients drive hours for care, veterans fall through bureaucratic cracks, and millions never even hear that pelvic health therapy exists.
And even when patients do arrive, stigma lingers. Talking about sexual function, arousal, or nervous system regulation is still uncomfortable for many men — and without early physician buy-in, that discomfort can harden into resistance.
“Biggest challenge in treating male patients is getting buy-in on nervous system regulation and mindfulness.”
The barrier, in other words, is not just clinical. It is cultural and systemic. Until referral pathways are normalized, until awareness is built into primary and specialty care, men’s pelvic health will remain a hidden specialty — underutilized, underfunded, and far less effective than it could be.
2.4. Progress and the Trust Gap
Building trust between urologists and physiotherapists is the foundation of advancing men’s pelvic health care.
For years, referrals from urology to pelvic physical therapy were rare. That is beginning to change. A 2025 New York Times feature highlighted the rise of pelvic floor awareness among men, and in 2025 the American Urological Association released new guidelines explicitly calling for greater recognition of pelvic floor dysfunction and recommending referral to PTs when appropriate. Urologists we spoke to echoed that sentiment: they want to send patients our way.
But there’s a catch.
Many physicians hesitate because their trust in pelvic PT is uneven. They have seen a wide variety of skills and effectiveness in practice — some excellent, some questionable. They hear different terminology, sometimes inconsistent with the language they use every day. That gap in vocabulary can erode credibility, even when therapists are describing the same physiological concepts.
Take lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Urology operates on the International Continence Society (ICS) framework, a standardized lexicon that makes communication precise. Yet many PTs describe the same mechanisms in different words — or worse, invent their own shorthand. One PT in a recent IPC course admitted, “I already use this concept a little bit, but I never called it this.” That may seem small, but to a urologist, it signals fragmentation, not alignment. And fragmented language makes the entire field look unprepared.
This is the heart of the trust gap: even when PTs have the tools, inconsistent training and non-standard language can make us look like outsiders in the very system we need to influence. The result is a paradox: urologists want to refer, patients desperately need the care, but referrals stall because PT hasn’t fully aligned itself with the clinical standards of the broader medical community.
If the profession wants men’s pelvic health to move beyond the margins, the next step is clear. We must not only refine our skills but also speak the same language as the physicians we depend on for referrals. Alignment is credibility — and credibility is the key to unlocking access.
2.5. Stigma, Taboo, and Patient Conversations
If there is one theme that cuts across every clinician’s experience in men’s pelvic health, it is the challenge of talking about sex. Erections, ejaculation, arousal, pain during intimacy — these are not topics most PTs were ever trained to address. The result is a steady undercurrent of awkwardness and uncertainty.
“Breaking specific questions down about hardness, ejaculation, timing, and positions can still be a little tricky.”
“I sometimes don’t know how far I’m ‘allowed’ to go in those conversations.”
For some, the hesitation is shaped not just by training gaps, but by cultural or personal beliefs.
“There is a general belief among some clinicians that men and women should be separate. One of my colleagues, for example, isn’t comfortable crossing that barrier… it isn’t necessarily religious, but a cultural discomfort.”
These moments matter. A single hesitation, a question left unasked, can mean a patient’s most pressing concern never surfaces. And when men already arrive burdened with shame, stigma, or secrecy, the clinician’s silence reinforces their own.
What emerges is clear: clinicians need more than anatomy and biomechanics. They need communication frameworks, scripts, and training that normalize these conversations and allow them to manage sensitive topics with professionalism and confidence. Early work like IPC’s Art of Taboo Talk curriculum is a step in that direction — creating space for clinicians to practice, refine, and eventually own the conversations that too often stay locked in silence.
2.6. Emotional Burden and Burnout Risk
Behind every treatment session lies another, quieter struggle — the emotional load clinicians carry long after they leave the clinic. Men’s pelvic health often involves hearing stories that go far beyond the physical: trauma, shame, or long-held pain. These narratives are emotionally heavy and can leave clinicians drained.
“While all the things you listed are true, just know that there is a high rate of burnout in this specialty as well because you’re dealing with emotionally heavy stuff all day. So it’s not just ‘oh I sprained my ankle playing pickup bball’ it’s ‘I can’t consummate my marriage because I have pain with intercourse from being repetitively molested as a child’.”
For clinicians in the VA system, the weight can be especially sharp.
“The trauma involved with listening to rape stories isn’t something I want to add to my own mental burden.”
Add to that the administrative grind — documentation, shrinking reimbursements, overwhelming referrals — and the strain isn’t just emotional. It’s systemic.
“We are maxxed out despite the massive need… finding well-trained therapists is difficult right now considering repetitive CMS cuts and poor outpatient PT pay across the board.”
Yet interestingly, clinicians who have specialized more deeply in pelvic health report a different experience. By focusing exclusively on pelvic patients, working in cash-pay or hybrid models, and spending a full hour with each visit, many describe less burnout, not more. Specialization creates space: more autonomy, more control of caseloads, and a more sustainable way to carry the emotional weight of the work.
The paradox is striking: pelvic health is emotionally demanding, but when supported by the right structures — time, training, and practice models — it can also be one of the most professionally rewarding specialties in rehabilitation.
2.7. What Clinicians Say They Need
From early-career PTs to seasoned clinicians, the needs are strikingly consistent:
Structured Learning Paths: Stepwise training that builds confidence across the “trifecta” of pain, LUTS, and sexual dysfunction, rather than piecing together fragments from scattered courses and trial-and-error.
Male-Specific Cueing and Techniques: Practical, anatomical, and functional strategies for assessment and exercise. “I have a million cues for women, but very few for men,” one clinician admitted.
Communication Training: Scripts and frameworks for asking about erections, ejaculation, pleasure, and sexual pain without second-guessing professional boundaries.
Medical Collaboration Tools – Education on imaging, surgical procedures, and medications so PTs can enter conversations with urologists using the same language.
Mentorship and Community: Safe spaces to ask questions, troubleshoot difficult cases, and avoid the sense of isolation that so often comes with male pelvic health.
Flexible, Affordable Education: Self-paced online options that ease the cost and time burden of traveling for in-person training.
Section II Key Takeaways: Clinician Voices Point the Way Forward
Men’s pelvic health is a field still finding its footing. Stigma, systemic gaps, and lack of structured education have left many clinicians feeling alone, hesitant, and underprepared.
But the voices we heard also carried something else: resolve. Therapists are hungry to learn. They want better tools, stronger language, clearer pathways. They want to stand beside urologists and physicians as trusted partners.
With the right training, mentorship, and collaboration, pelvic health for men won’t remain a fringe specialty. It will be seen for what it is: essential care. And the clinicians already doing this work are the ones who will lead the way.
Section III: Institutional Insights
3.1. Institutional Gaps: A System Struggling to Meet Demand
Men’s pelvic health is one of the fastest-growing yet most underserved areas of rehabilitation. By contrast, women’s health has secured strong institutional recognition over the past two decades—dedicated hospital programs, university tracks, and specialty clinics that set clear standards of care. Male pelvic health has no such infrastructure, despite a need that intensifies every year.
Each year in the United States alone, more than 3 million men live with the effects of prostate cancer treatment, and over 100,000 undergo prostatectomy surgeries that carry a high risk of incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction. Add to this the millions more facing chronic pelvic pain syndromes and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), and the gap becomes undeniable.
Yet hospitals and outpatient centers remain underprepared to deliver comprehensive, evidence-based care. Clinicians working within large health systems describe the same barriers: referrals are inconsistent, delayed, or missing altogether because many physicians and administrators are simply unaware pelvic therapy for men exists. As one hospital-based PT explained, “I know the patients are here—we see them after surgery—but the referral pathway to PT isn’t built in, so most never make it to my clinic.”
Without structured programs or defined pathways for men, hospitals risk repeating history: patients seeking care in fragmented community settings, outcomes lost to follow-up, and health systems missing both the opportunity for impact and the revenue streams that women’s health programs have long proven possible. Structured men’s health programs—mirroring the multi-disciplinary models developed for women—offer a clear solution.
3.2. Leadership Voices: Exposing the Gaps, Envisioning the Future
3.2.1. Veterans Affairs (VA) System
Clinicians working within the VA highlight one of the starkest institutional divides. While the VA has made significant strides in women’s health, men’s pelvic services remain minimal, forcing patients into fragmented care.
“There is a significant Women’s Health movement right now, and my goal is to get some strong facts about the Men’s Health issues, specifically in the VA, that are not being addressed in-house and needing to be sent out.”
The result is a cycle of referrals to community providers, where quality and continuity cannot be guaranteed:
“...consistently have to refer to community care and hope they get a good provider because I can’t help them… I have no control on where that referral goes, so all I am doing is saying, I acknowledge your problem, PT should be able to help, but I can’t help you and I hate that.”
This dependence on external providers not only limits access and quality but also strips the VA of its ability to track outcomes and retain patients. The vision—voiced by clinicians and reinforced in this report—is the creation of a dedicated men’s health program that stands alongside the existing women’s health model, closing one of the most visible gaps in institutional care.
3.2.2. Cancer Center Expansion: Preparing for the Surge
Hospital managers report that leadership teams are already planning for the opening of new cancer centers. With prostate cancer survival rates rising, the number of men living with post-surgical incontinence and pelvic floor dysfunction is projected to increase sharply. Current rehabilitation teams are not equipped to handle this demand.
One manager summarized the vision: “The hospital wants all services under one roof. With the Cancer Center expansion, they’re already projecting a major increase in post-prostatectomy rehab needs.”
This kind of forward planning signals a broader shift. Administrators are beginning to recognize that male pelvic rehabilitation is not optional or niche—it is a specialty that must be integrated now if systems hope to meet patient demand, retain continuity of care, and avoid losing cases to outside providers.
3.3. Growing Need, Strained Resource
Hospital directors and outpatient managers repeatedly report the same imbalance: patient demand is rising, but staffing and resources have not kept pace. Prostatectomy cases in particular are driving higher volumes, yet many large hospitals can only offer men an appointment every two to three weeks.
This limited access makes clinical efficiency essential. By being more effective in each encounter—teaching strategies that accelerate recovery and foster independence—systems can extend their reach without overloading therapists. The goal is to make patients as autonomous as possible in their progress.
That does not mean spending more time in clinic is without value; private practices with longer sessions often provide deeper, hands-on support. But at the institutional level, where demand consistently exceeds capacity, training programs that emphasize patient self-management offer the flexibility needed to close the gap between what hospitals can deliver and what men require.
Section III Key Takeaways: Institutions at a Crossroads
Men’s pelvic health is no longer a niche concern—it is a systemic challenge. Hospitals, cancer centers, and the VA system all reveal the same story: rising volumes of men living with the effects of prostate surgery, LUTS, and pelvic pain, met with referral pathways that don’t exist and rehab teams that are stretched thin.
Where women’s health built programs, tracks, and clinics that now define standards of care, men’s health is still waiting for its turn. Clinicians on the ground see the patients; administrators forecast the surge. Both point to the same solution: structured, evidence-based men’s health programs integrated into hospital systems.
The opportunity is clear. Institutions that act now—by embedding referral pathways, investing in clinician training, and adopting models that promote patient autonomy—will not only meet demand but also claim the same clinical, financial, and reputational benefits that women’s health has already proven possible.
Section IV. Education & Workforce Trends
Men’s pelvic health rehabilitation is still in its early stages. Unlike women’s pelvic health—which now benefits from standardized curricula, certification pathways, and a well-defined professional pipeline—the training landscape for male pelvic health remains fragmented, inconsistent, and often improvised. Clinicians interested in specializing are left to piece together knowledge from scattered courses and informal mentorship, with no clear progression from beginner to advanced practice.
4.1. Gaps in Pelvic Health Education
Men’s pelvic health remains one of the most neglected subjects in entry-level physical therapy training. Lefebvre et al. (2020) found that only 23.6% of DPT programs dedicate more than one hour to this topic, citing barriers such as limited curricular time, lack of faculty expertise, and the absence of standardized guidelines.
Nearly 60% of surveyed faculty agreed that men’s pelvic health should be taught at the entry level—yet structured content remains rare.
As one clinician reflected when asked about training on men’s conditions:
“We barely touched male pelvic health at all in school. Everything we learned was framed around postpartum and incontinence in women. I had to learn male cases entirely on my own.”
This inconsistency leaves most new graduates entering practice with no exposure to male-specific dysfunctions like CPPS, LUTS, or sexual dysfunction. For hospitals and clinics, it means relying on post-graduate training that clinicians must fund themselves, leading to wide variability in competence, confidence, and patient outcomes.
4.2. Workforce Demographics: Data Gaps and Access Challenges
The APTA’s Physical Therapy Profile (2021–2022) provides a snapshot of workforce demographics but does not track clinicians specializing in male pelvic health. We know that 65% of board-certified PT specialists across all disciplines are women (APTA, 2023), yet there is no data on how many therapists actively treat male pelvic conditions—or where those services are located.
This absence of tracking creates critical blind spots:
Caseload limits: We cannot quantify how many pelvic health clinicians restrict their practice to female patients, leaving male patients without access.
Clinic availability: There is no centralized directory of clinics that provide male pelvic rehabilitation, forcing patients to search piecemeal.
Geographic disparities: Access in rural and underserved regions is almost entirely undocumented, despite anecdotal reports of long wait times and travel burdens.
Men’s pelvic health rehabilitation remains in its early stages, but the demand is accelerating. To build sustainable access, future workforce surveys must recognize male pelvic health as a distinct category, enabling stakeholders to measure gaps, plan recruitment, and design training pipelines that match real-world need.
4.3. Continuing Education and Professional Development
For most clinicians, advancing in men’s pelvic health means navigating a patchwork of opportunities—self-paced online modules, private mentorship, and scattered peer discussion forums. Unlike women’s pelvic health, which benefits from structured certification pathways, male-focused training remains underdeveloped.
Clinicians consistently describe three major barriers:
High costs: Specialized courses often range from $600 to $1,200 USD each, with no guarantee of male-specific content. For therapists working in underfunded outpatient settings, this creates a steep financial barrier.
Limited availability: Male-focused courses are offered only a handful of times per year, often concentrated in major U.S. cities. One clinician noted waiting nearly nine months for a live course, only to travel several states away to attend.
Clinical gaps: Much of today’s instruction still adapts from female frameworks. For example, cueing for male erectile dysfunction or post-prostatectomy incontinence is often extrapolated from postpartum leakage training—leaving therapists without the anatomical and functional nuance their male patients require.
As one PT shared: “I spent over $3,000 on courses before I even felt comfortable treating one male patient. The information is out there, but it’s scattered and incomplete.”
The result is uneven competency across the workforce: some clinicians invest heavily to build confidence in treating male pelvic conditions, while others feel unprepared to go beyond basic evaluation. Without a more accessible, standardized, and male-specific pathway, the field will continue to lag behind patient needs.
4.4. The Future Workforce: Opportunities for Growth
Meeting the rising demand for men’s pelvic rehab will require more than individual initiative — it calls for systemic change across education, workforce planning, and institutional investment. Priorities include:
Curriculum Integration: Embed foundational men’s pelvic health content into DPT programs so graduates enter practice with baseline competence. For example, women’s health curricula grew from single lectures into full lab-based modules; men’s health requires a similar shift.
Workforce Mapping: Develop a national registry to track where male pelvic specialists practice, reducing access blind spots and guiding resource allocation.
Tiered Training Pathways: Create structured tracks that allow clinicians to focus on male pelvic care without unnecessary coursework in unrelated domains — for instance, a path that emphasizes LUTS, prostate rehab, and pelvic pain instead of requiring mastery of pregnancy or postpartum care.
Mentorship & Peer Networks: Expand formal mentorship, case consultation, and peer support to accelerate skill-building and reduce clinician isolation. Similar mentorship ladders helped women’s health move from niche to mainstream within two decades.
Institutional Investment: Encourage hospitals and clinics to allocate resources for staff training, dedicated programs, and interdisciplinary collaboration, ensuring patients aren’t lost to gaps in referral pathways.
If these priorities are addressed in sequence — starting with baseline education and mentorship, then scaling with mapping and institutional support — men’s pelvic health could follow the same trajectory women’s health has already proven possible: from overlooked to indispensable.
Section V. Closing Reflections: A Field in Motion
Men’s pelvic health is not static. It is a field in motion — shifting, stretching, and reshaping itself in real time. What was invisible ten years ago is now breaking into the open. New research is emerging. Clinicians are speaking louder. Institutions are beginning to listen. The state of men’s health is evolving every day, and this report is only one snapshot in an unfolding story.
At Integrated Pelvic Care (IPC), we see this not as a challenge to endure but as a movement to join. Just as women’s health transformed when clinicians refused to accept silence and stigma, men’s health will rise when we build the programs, curricula, and referral systems it deserves.
This is not work any single clinician can do alone. It will take therapists willing to specialize, hospitals ready to invest, educators committed to structured pathways, and voices across the field refusing to let men suffer unseen.
That is why this report will not be the last. We will continue to track, update, and share the changing state of men’s pelvic health, drawing from the lived experiences of clinicians and patients alike.
And this is where you come in. If you are ready to establish a men’s health program in your clinic, hospital, or community, we can help you build it — from training and mentorship to program design and clinical integration.
If you have data, stories, or insights to share — or if you feel called to take the next step for your patients — we want to hear from you. Write to us at info@ipc.health.
The next chapter of pelvic health is being written now. Together, we can ensure it tells the story of men finally receiving the care, recognition, and dignity they deserve — and of clinicians stepping fully into their role as leaders of that transformation.
