Graham Smorgon's battle with pelvic pain

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Graham Smorgon's battle with pelvic pain

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Graham Smorgon's battle with pelvic pain
Embarrassment and ignorance have kept pelvic pain out of the public spotlight. Now, a new way of understanding and treating this debilitating condition is emerging. Graham Smorgon, chairman of the Smorgon Family Group, suffered years of pain.
by Jill Margo

https://www.ucpps.men/images/smorgon.jpgFor five years, Graham Smorgon was on a medical merry-go-round. He sought help everywhere but could find no relief for his pain. Eventually, he found it around the corner from his home in Melbourne.

Smorgon, who is chairman of the Smorgon Family Group and a public company director, started feeling pain in his lower back in late 2003. Sometimes he found it difficult to sit for too long and had to stand in meetings. Investigations, blood tests and x-rays threw no light on his condition.

Eventually he went to a rheumatologist who sent him for more scans and then diagnosed pelvic pain. This is known as a 'heart sink' diagnosis because it makes a doctor's heart sink as the condition is often vague, intractable and little can be done for it.

This was not good news for Smorgon. It had come out of the blue, it flared unpredictably and it wouldn't go away. Over time it became entrenched and sometimes when it flared, he couldn't move and had to remain lying down until the pain passed. This could take an hour.

Although it usually occurred at night, there was always the possibility it could happen at an awkward time during the day or when he was travelling.

Open to advice and extremely keen for relief, Smorgon tried everything that was suggested.

In frustration he went to a surgeon, who said he had issues with his tail bone. There was a slight anomaly in his coccyx which is where the problem originated. He was suffering from a "spontaneous onset of coccyx pain", but the surgeon recommended against operating.

Symptoms unrelieved

So he went from physiotherapist to physiotherapist. Not only was this taking up an annoying amount of time, but he was getting no relief. Finally, an elite sports physiotherapist said she couldn't resolve his issue but she knew someone who could. Smorgon had struck gold and it was just two kilometres away.

Shan Morrison, a pelvic floor physiotherapist and Director of Women's & Men's Health Physiotherapy, quickly identified his problem. His pelvic floor was overactive and tight. The muscles were switched on all the time.

Just as some men store their tension in their shoulders, so he stored it in the stretch of muscle that forms the floor of the abdomen. He needed to 'down-train' the inner layers of the muscle but the problem was that he couldn't see or feel them.

She suggested an intense course of physiotherapy weekly over three months, during which she taught him about the anatomy and the biomechanics of the pelvis and how to use his brain to isolate particular muscles and relax them.

By three months he had mastered the technique then began going back for a refresher course every six months. Now he refreshes once a year.

"This made a huge difference to me," Smorgon says. "I can't stop the muscle spasms but I can control them better. I am so well trained that often, as I feel the pain starting, so my body intuitively deals with it. It's almost as if my body acts as a robot.

"At other times I have to think and consciously control the spasms. Being able to do this is an enormous relief and I believe there must be other men who have similar issues and don't know what to do."

To help them, Smorgon has agreed to become an ambassador of the Pelvic Pain Foundation of Australia, which will have its Melbourne Launch at his Toorak home next week.

The Foundation's Adelaide Launch was held at the South Australian Medical Research Institute in February. It aims to bring different groups together to promote research and education about pelvic pain regardless of cause, age or gender.

Disclosing his personal medical details and taking such a role is atypical for Smorgon who doesn't seek public acknowledgement. But he does want to save other men from the frustration he went through.
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