Kim (00:01.802)
Hi Tiffany, thank you so much for joining me today. I am really excited about our conversation about your amazing project. But before we get into what your project is, I want you to just kind of introduce yourself and that'll probably weave us in the direction of what your project is, but basically introduce yourself and what brought you to Pelvic Health.
Tiffany Broadway (00:17.185)
I'm going to go to bed.
Tiffany Broadway (00:23.352)
Yeah, hi, I'm super happy to be here. Tiffany Broadway Pelvic Awareness Project. I've been in pelvic health for about eight years now. Started working for a medical company that did med device for polyps and fibroids and then.
slings for SUI, for incontinence, and prolapse. So I really started to get involved about eight years ago and I ran their global humanitarian program. And I had, I don't know.
150,000 patients treated in the six years across 52 countries. So really a passion project for me that
um was work but loved what I did so really parlayed that in the beginning of 2020 right during COVID is when I started PAP or the Pelvic Awareness Project and um really started thinking about how was it going to be a global um outreach but recognized there was more work to do here.
in North America and let's tackle that first. While on the side, I can do more humanitarian projects. So started by just thinking about where myself and other women I know are or were in terms of pelvic health before I got involved with it, right? What did I know about the different?
Tiffany Broadway (02:14.564)
disease states or conditions that I could possibly have, and how I felt over the years about when I was at the gynecologist or in different places getting different diagnosis, but there wasn't really never any follow-up information. So I really wanted to provide women a space to come and think about and look at the different things that are going on in their life and, oh, maybe I have that, maybe I don't.
and then how to get in touch with the right doctor sooner. So that's how we started and here we are three years later with a huge following and just helping a lot of women get to doctors and that's really all we wanted to do.
Kim (03:00.77)
Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. And sounds similar to my path. You know, first time I thought about pelvic floor was when I was gonna give birth and I learned about this product and I used it and had a great experience. And I thought, okay, I'll tell more people. And little did I know what it would uncover and what it would unravel. But I think a big thing, which is similar to you at the beginning was recognizing that there is just, there is no people, nobody talking about this. There's no direction.
for people to even know who to talk to get help and to have resources. And I had created a directory for pelvic floor physical therapists. So within your project, you've talked about doctors. Is it specific to the medical community or will there be other pelvic health professionals that people could find as well?
Tiffany Broadway (03:48.048)
Yeah, we actually have a couple hundred across the country, a physiotherapist that will be added to the finder. Something that's changed in the US, which is really great, is that the standard of care now is doing physiotherapy first and seeing how you progress prior to recommending for surgery. And I think that's such a big step for us, right?
Kim (03:56.221)
Amazing.
Tiffany Broadway (04:18.264)
So nerve wracking to be like, what do you mean I need surgery? And of course there were cases where you need surgery, right? But I think it's great that physiotherapy can really kind of help when you're in some early stages of different things or postpartum, all those different things. So yeah, we will be adding physical therapy.
Kim (04:40.766)
Yeah, yeah, it's been interesting to watch the evolution, you know, from, I started talking about this, well, my, my son, the birth of my son was kind of the, what led me down this path. And he turns 19 today of the date of this recording. And so it's been a long time and it's been interesting to watch over the last few years that is now starting to happen. I'm hearing less and less. I still hear it, but I hear less and less that people, you know, say.
Tiffany Broadway (04:54.681)
Yeah.
Kim (05:06.118)
Oh, I wasn't, they wouldn't refer me because they don't believe in pelvic floor physical therapy, or they said pelvic floor, physical therapy won't work. And I'm happy with what you're stating. And what I am now starting to see as well is that there's more and more people who are looking at this and we have evidence in the literature to say it is our best first line of defense is pelvic floor, muscle training and pelvic floor, physical therapy. And even if somebody is beyond this, you know, necessarily repairing or helping fix their
Tiffany Broadway (05:27.832)
Yep.
Kim (05:34.87)
challenge, even if they do need or choose surgery, I still believe we need that pelvic or muscle training. We need that pelvic or physical therapy really from a, you know, I always say from a like, like going to the dentist, it should be, it should be standard of care, but we go see them once a year. So at least, at least the conversation now is happening and more people are recognizing that as our, our best first line of defense. So that is awesome. And, um, I'm super happy to hear that. And so then like,
Tiffany Broadway (05:47.332)
Right?
Kim (06:02.378)
That's a big step in the right direction because what do you think has played a role in pelvic health being so underserved and people being turned away from pelvic floor physical therapy or you know not even being offered it or told that it even exists?
Tiffany Broadway (06:17.548)
I think there's a couple of things, right? I think women's health compared to men is underfunded in terms of research. So, and it's quite a staggering number. I think it's somewhere like around 70%.
um to 30 percent for women right so it so that's number one right people aren't researching it so people aren't talking about it. Secondarily I think that it's women so I've found over the last few years when I talk to women that even though they're walking into the gynecologist and they may have an issue like leaking right or and it may be minor.
They don't say anything. And the problem is, doctors aren't asking. It's not, it's never asked when you go in for a pap smear. They're not saying, hey, by the way, are you, you know, are you experiencing anything leaking? Do you have any pain during intercourse? Is there anything going on? So if you don't speak up, then you just don't get treated. And I think that that's what we have to start changing. Then I think there's another issue.
insurance, right? So if you have insurance where you need referrals, right? So you start the patient journey at your internist and your internist says, oh, well, that's not, you know, that's normal. After you have kids, you're going to leak, right? Doesn't give you the referral to the gynecologist, except now you're six years down the road. You have prolapse, you have incontinence, you have all these conditions, right? You get to the gynecologist.
They don't treat that, right? Most gynecologists do not treat these urogynecology issues. So it's very hard to get to that subspecialty. On average, our patient journeys have been about six to nine years.
Tiffany Broadway (08:20.032)
So can you imagine like living with this for this many years and not getting any treatment and just feeling, I guess, sort of shameful about it, right? I talk to women in our private Facebook group that talk about...
It's so embarrassing for me because I have to wear pads and then I don't want my pants to smell or you know, and I'm embarrassed to like, to be intimate with my husband. And I just think it's, I mean, it's so terrible. I'm glad it's getting better. But I think there was such a stigma around this for so long and perhaps there still is, but we just have to do a better job of really talking about it.
Kim (09:05.91)
Yeah, that's such an interesting point about people not bringing up because we have had zero education, first of all, about pelvic health in general, but definitely about prolapse. And so we may have seen ads on TV about leaking. And so we've kind of had these things, oh, don't jump on a trampoline after you have kids. We've heard little anecdotes along the way, and that's something that is kind of, we appreciate and understand, I guess.
Prolapse, people are like, what is a prolapse? That's never talked about, definitely not talked about anywhere in media. And yet it affects more people. And so we haven't been given any pelvic health education, definitely haven't heard anything about prolapse. And so when it's happening, you don't know that's what's happening. And anything that's to do with the vulva, vagina, pelvis is inherently, people feel shame, people feel embarrassed, people don't wanna talk about it. And as you say, if it's not brought up,
in their medical appointment, then they don't even know how to bring it up because they don't, first of all, they don't know really what to ask or if this is even a problem or if it's just maybe that's just the way that it is. And then along the way, as you say, they've been living with it for years. So I think about, I lived with erectocele for nine years. I
Tiffany Broadway (10:20.816)
Mm-hmm.
Kim (10:22.502)
I work in pelvic health. I was very informed. I had people to help me. I knew I had the tools and I was trying everything. And yes, I had days where it's very frustrating and I was reaching obstacles, but at least I knew what was happening. And I always thought about those people that have no idea. And I still hear that when I make comments, especially if I make a post about erectocele or how to poop better if you have erectocele and share a tool of how to poop better, people are like, oh my God, this is a thing. I didn't even know that. I thought that was the only one that couldn't poop. And
You know, it just, so it's slowly changing, but yeah, but at least it's moving in the right direction.
Tiffany Broadway (10:56.944)
Slowly. Yeah.
Tiffany Broadway (11:01.588)
Yeah, and I think also where the money is put in this segment is on diapers, right? And I can't even, I can't, you can't get me started on that. I just don't want women to think that they have to wear diapers the rest of their life. It's, it's
Kim (11:10.83)
Yeah.
Kim (11:17.218)
laughs
Kim (11:25.974)
Well, and I do like I've actually calculated it and I call it pad math. And I said, you know, you're spending between this and this each month. On, on thinking this is your solution. It's not a solution. This is not fixing your problem. It's it's masking it. It's a bandaid and it can play a role, but it should be a temporary role. Right. And so, and I always also laugh at national say laugh, but I get, um, frustrated really when people say.
Tiffany Broadway (11:44.932)
Perfect. Great.
Kim (11:56.03)
I can't afford to do this physical therapy. I can't afford to do this program. And I think, but you can afford to mask your incontinence by sometimes upwards of $200 a month. And over a lifetime, it could be 50 to $70,000. And there's this acceptance that that's just the way that it is. And if people are informed and still choose that, that's.
Tiffany Broadway (12:15.408)
Great.
Kim (12:23.682)
That's their choice, but just people don't know the options. And yeah, so.
Tiffany Broadway (12:24.24)
I'll hang up on the phone.
Tiffany Broadway (12:30.032)
And I think sometimes they don't think about it that way, right? We do this every day. So this is what we think about. And I'll say to people, hey, listen, how much does this affect your life? Does it affect it enough for you to invest ahead and take care of this? And I know you don't want to spend this money, but if we invest, you know, bring that diaper money forward and take care of the problem, you know, perhaps.
in 12 weeks or whatever the course is, at least you have a plan to get this taken care of. So yeah, I think that people don't think about it. They think, oh, well, Medicare pays for diapers and maybe doesn't cover physiotherapy. So yeah.
Kim (13:22.614)
Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. So people can come to your website and they find, they can find a practitioner and what else, what other resources do you have and sort of, what do you want people to do when they come to your website and learn sometimes about what the pelvic floor is for the first time?
Tiffany Broadway (13:28.254)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Broadway (13:41.076)
Yeah, I mean, so what I think that we've done that's a little bit different is that we don't just say this is what prolapse is or this is what SUI is or this is what rectocele is or this or that, right? It's really about I just had a hysterectomy and I don't know how to sleep on my side.
Right? So we're tackling like all of these little things that are questions that your doctor's office really isn't answering for you. And you're like, I don't really know what to do. Okay. So I did this, this didn't work. How do I get to the next thing? And I've always been really careful. I, I'm not a person who recommends treatments because I, you know, I, one thing is right for somebody and something else is right for somebody else. So I
If you want to do surgery, do surgery, but you know, you should do physical therapy or you should do, you know, something, I just care that you start getting it treated. So I think it's about, and we take a whole approach to it, like a whole body approach. What can you be doing from a, you know, from a food consumption perspective to help the pelvic floor or help inflammation in general?
So we really kind of tackle all of that and tackle maybe the questions that we get asked the most, like in private groups. You know, a lot of women are, you know, nervous, rightfully so, like to have surgery. And I like that we can put patients with other patients and have the conversation that people are asking this every day. And they go, oh, great. Like...
thank you for answering that. It's like you posting, right? And saying, oh my God, I didn't know anybody else had this. So that's really what we try to do at PAP is answer the questions that you may be asking yourself but can't find a lot of answers to, but know that women are struggling with. So we're really all across the board in terms of pelvic health. And I think...
Tiffany Broadway (15:56.856)
we try to talk about the things that feel more shameful. I mean, fecal incontinence is a really big thing and nobody's talking about that. We would, I mean, I think it'll be another five, 10 years before you really actually are hearing that all the time. And so, and that is horrific to suffer from. So I think when you can have those conversations and help people not feel like they're alone, we at least feel like we're...
we're doing something, you know, helping others.
Kim (16:28.915)
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And you talked about kind of, like, do you actually pair people up with others to have conversations, or how are they feeling support from somebody who might've been in the same boat as them?
Tiffany Broadway (16:38.624)
So in the private group, in the private Facebook group, they're talking all the time like, hey, I had this, did anybody else have this? And people are coming up. And then also we have women who have gone through a variety of things and their lives have changed so much that they wanna talk to other patients. So we have patients.
we have a place where you can ask, like, hey, I'd love for a patient advisor to call me. And any one of these women will call and say, here's my experience and here's how I fixed it and here's how I feel today. And so that to me is just giving back on another level, right? And I like when women feel like their life has changed. So yeah.
Kim (17:30.606)
Yeah, that's huge. And I think that that's something that you can read and watch social media videos, but actually being able to pick up the phone or jumping on a Zoom call with somebody face-to-face and hearing about their personal situation is that's worth its weight in gold, really.
Tiffany Broadway (17:49.976)
Right? It may just be that one thing that makes you decide to get treatment, you know, and to not be scared to bring it up to your doctor.
Kim (18:00.674)
Yep. Yeah. And do you have outreach to like, in terms of building that practitioner list, we, there's a few other organizations that may have a directory of, of some sort and directories can be difficult to manage. There's, they're always changing. People are changing information, but how are you getting people to, how are you, I guess, outreach, what are you doing for outreach to get practitioners and invite them to be listed there?
Tiffany Broadway (18:31.08)
participating in societies, right? There's tons of societies for gynecologists and Euroguides in North America, and really even internationally like FIUGA. And so we get involved in those societies where those doctors are members, and then we go to trade shows. We say, I mean, look, at the end of the day, my position is,
If you're a gynecologist or a uro-gyne or a urologist, you're in this because you wanna help patients, hopefully, and we can come together on this common goal of getting women help and whatever help that is. And so that's how I approach it, right? I approach them via email, during trade shows, and I think the reception is always amazing. Like, yeah, how can I get involved? So how can I?
How can I send my patients to get post-surgery education? Yeah, so we're not like a really big company. There's three of us, you know, and we do it all by ourselves and we are not revenue generating. I've paid for this, you know, myself over the last three years. And so this is really, you know, something that we deeply, deeply care about.
Kim (19:38.862)
Mm-hmm.
Tiffany Broadway (19:56.952)
And that may change in the future, but right, I mean, not us caring about it, but you know what I mean, like revenue generating, but like right now this is just, yeah, it's what we feel our mission is, yeah.
Kim (20:05.218)
Yeah.
Kim (20:10.786)
passion project. Yeah. And what's the, what's the typical journey somebody, like if you're looking at your stats on your website, I don't mean this to be a business question. I mean it to be like, what are people coming, where do they land and sort of what direction do they take? What action steps does it sort of prompt people to take? Is it really kind of directing people to the find a practitioner so that you can get help or are they having little bits of education along the way?
Tiffany Broadway (20:40.304)
I think it's education along the way. I think what happens is, first of all, we don't advertise. 99% of our traffic is organic. So, you know, 50,000 women coming to the website a month because they typed in a question is great. So they're getting education and then they're saying, okay, I found out about this, now what do I do?
And so we have the physician finder, we have a quiz that you can take that kind of will do just, you know, high level check of like pelvic health in general. And then I think that you're getting answers and we get a lot of women going to the physician finder after, you know, either reading a blog or, you know, finding out about something that they were interested in. So the journey is kind of that. And I think...
Look, I think, you know, even though they get the, you know, you get the number of the doctor and you're like, okay, and you're on your phone, you leave it open in the browser, you don't always necessarily go to it right away, you know? Yeah, so our hope is that at some point you get back to that, you know, it's gonna bother you enough or you're gonna talk to the right person and you're gonna get inspired to make that phone call.
Kim (21:58.454)
Yeah. Is there, are there topics that you see again, kind of looking at stats, not, not asking from a business perspective, but just from a curiosity, are there certain topics that are getting more views? You mentioned you guys are talking about fecal incontinence. Where does that sit with regards to people looking up urinary incontinence or organ prolapse?
Tiffany Broadway (22:09.955)
Yeah.
Tiffany Broadway (22:25.868)
it doesn't even come in the hemisphere, right? Because that is something that like women really, really don't talk about, right? And it's okay to see it and be like, oh, you know, but I feel like it's a very taboo right now. So it's interesting, I think it switches between the demographics, right? So we think if we're in our 30 year old to 55 year old range or
postpartum, there's a lot of incontinence curiosity, and then 55 and after, more guided towards hysterectomy or vaginal dryness, hormones, hormonal changes as you're going through menopause, those kinds of things. But it's interesting with prolapse because you kind of can see it mixed later.
in life so it's probably, it doesn't mean that you can't get it before that, but definitely also in the category of later, like post childbearing years.
Kim (23:33.667)
And are you and your partners in this or the three of you, are you writing your own content and doing all the research for this?
Tiffany Broadway (23:43.292)
Yeah, and we have like a content creator on the team who helps us and we all kind of pick A based on what are people talking about in the group? Is there an interesting article that we saw about this? Is I just got interviewed for a Times article. I'm about Femtex
and how all this new stuff is coming on the market and is it really real and does it work, right? So we're getting kind of topics from everywhere, but primarily we try to get them from topics that we hear most from women in either in the Facebook group or on Instagram, or actually we get a lot of questions through the website. Yeah, yeah.
Kim (24:34.946)
Cool. That's awesome. And I was gonna ask you about a FemTech piece in there because that's something that is, you know, the last three to five years is really exploded and there's a huge money being put there, which is amazing. And there's lots of innovation happening. And I think the good about that is we are so lucky to have so many more and an ever-growing list of options for...
for the problems that we face. The challenge though also I think is, if only we had money that could be put towards the first line of defense, the pelvic floor physical therapy, the education earlier in life, I think it would change the kind of trajectory that people go on and reduce the amount of suffering that they have, would you agree with that?
Tiffany Broadway (25:06.264)
Right.
Tiffany Broadway (25:26.728)
I agree. And I think also, so if somebody asks me what I do, right, like what do you do every day? And I say, oh, I'm really in pelvic health or vaginal health, right? The 98% of the time they go, oh, like rejuvenation. Like, no, nothing like that. More like reconstruction.
Kim (25:50.291)
Yeah.
Tiffany Broadway (25:52.2)
So, you know, so the FEMTECH has really kind of put us into this, like, it's all rejuvenation or making it look better. I don't even know, right? But I agree with you. I wish, you know, I wish the focus was like making it healthier and better and fixing the issues that we've had. And I think to your point,
Kim (26:12.191)
Yeah.
Tiffany Broadway (26:19.276)
I remember talking to patients early on and thinking, okay, so this is really where we wanna talk to women between this age and this age. But the reality is, nobody's even talking about it like when you're 16 and 17. This is where this starts, right? You're 14, 13, and you just got your cycle for the first time, but you're like.
And your parents kind of had you something and you're like, okay. And I just remember in my life, like it wasn't really, you know, nobody really said anything. I just got my period and you know. And so it actually starts that young. And I think certainly we could do, you know, at PAP could do a better job.
Kim (26:59.754)
Carried on. Yeah.
Kim (27:07.731)
agree.
Tiffany Broadway (27:12.764)
at maybe targeting that younger demographic because they're really the ones who are kind of on their screen all the time and listening and getting their information that way. So yeah, as a society, I think we could do better starting at a much younger age.
Kim (27:29.854)
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I did see about a year-ish ago, and I haven't necessarily seen much of how this has been put into action, but in the UK, the NHS had, I think it was maybe even just a proposal. I don't know if it was 100% implemented, but the recommendation was to have pelvic health taught in schools. Now, again, it never really, I never have seen anything in more detail about what that actually looks like in practice, but I wholeheartedly...
agree with that if we're already having a conversation around bodies and sexual wellness and menstrual health, why are we not talking about this really important group of muscles that both male and females have, but that people with female anatomy will face sort of some additional life stages that really, really influences part and so we it's in our best interest to pay attention along the way and
Hey, here's these practitioners, just like you go to the dentist for your teeth, here's your pelvic floor dentist, quote unquote, that you would see once you become sexually active once a year as a checkup. I just, I think that would save oodles of dollars, but as you going back to the original point, those companies don't want us to save oodles of dollars because they're making oodles of dollars on people that are wearing the pads thinking that that's what they have to do.
Tiffany Broadway (28:38.446)
Right.
Tiffany Broadway (28:52.812)
Right, and they have the big money to put behind it, right? And here we are, you know, we're two women just kind of talking about it, you know, not with hundreds of millions of dollars to like put behind it. Yeah, I think it's interesting. And I think you probably, cause I think you said when you gave birth to your son, like this was a time, and I get it all the time, every day from women.
when they have their first child, they're like, what just happened? Why didn't anybody tell me what was gonna happen here? And it's amazing. So like you're even in the hospital and nobody's telling you like, oh, by the way, you know, you just blew out your pelvic floor. Good luck going to the bathroom. And so it's just...
Kim (29:42.358)
Yep.
Tiffany Broadway (29:47.852)
Look, I mean, I think it's across the medical field and I talk to doctors about this all the time Like you got to speak up like people don't know What you know, and I think the problem is it's just it from a physician perspective, right? They know all of this and then they tell you but it's very clinical and you may not be understanding the clinical terminology and I think
Sometimes it gets lost in translation or it just doesn't get even spoken about.
Kim (30:18.262)
Yeah, yeah. I was fortunate to work with a physician here in Vancouver, Canada, where I am, who is really wanting to open up the conversation and spread awareness about obstetric anal sphincter injuries. And so we kind of, we got together a kind of a collaborative team from different fields with the intention of trying to create more awareness and having, and it was...
she did receive some funding for it to try to look at it as a model of increasing awareness for others. But that's, you know, the term Oasis, obstetric anal sphincter injuries are, is not commonly known about at all. And yet that this is a population that if, if anybody, if anybody needs pelvic floor physical therapy, this they absolutely do. Yet people are told, oh, we, you know, it took
they might have been told how many stitches they have. They have no idea what that means, what the implications are. And sometimes it's immediate, or sometimes it's several years later where they start to experience challenges and it comes back there. And they're, again, we hear that all the time. Why didn't anybody tell me about this? And they feel resentful, they feel angry, they feel depressed and hopeless. And again, all of those can still be felt, but I think at a lesser degree, if we had more awareness ahead of time.
Tiffany Broadway (31:19.844)
What does that mean?
Kim (31:46.978)
you know, before they're in the throes of dealing with this challenge.
Tiffany Broadway (31:51.656)
Yeah, it's heartbreaking. You know, you and I see this every day, right? And I think it just, it's heartbreaking and also rewarding when somebody actually, when women actually get treatment. And as long as I can, you know, fight the good fight and do our part, you know.
Kim (32:12.05)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what would you want people to know? In an ideal world, what do you think? What would you want pelvic health to look like in the future? If we've done our job really well, and we've created the awareness, and people have taken action, what would you want it to look like?
Tiffany Broadway (32:32.74)
So it's interesting, really early on, I had a conversation with a girlfriend of mine that I've known for many years, and we were talking about how 25 years ago, breast cancer was stigmatized, right? Nobody talked about it, nobody was like researching it, nothing happened.
and look at where we are now, right? Like we have a day, like there's billions of dollars of research going into it. And I think...
wow, you know, like that's an amazing progression over 20, you know, a 20 year span. And so I sort of look at pelvic health like that. Like it's not cancer. I mean, it certainly can be, but these are very serious situations that women deal with and it really affects quality of life drastically.
So I'd love to see pelvic health get to that scale of awareness where everybody can talk about it. And it's not just about wearing pink or anything like that. Right. This is this is real stuff. And I want women to be able to, you know, we can you can be at lunch and you can laugh that don't make me laugh. I'm going to pee. But I want that to be a real conversation. Like, oh.
You don't have to pee, my doctor fixed it. That's what I want to start to happen with pelvic floor health.
Kim (34:04.223)
Yeah, agree.
Tiffany Broadway (34:05.62)
And I or saying, Hey, I went to a physical therapy coach. They were amazing. Or I recommend you do this while you're pregnant before you have your baby. Start strengthening your pelvic floor. Right. And that'll really help. So I would just love the conversation to open up and for women that have a platform to not be scared to talk about it.
Kim (34:33.71)
Yeah. I, my hope is that we start to become less reactive and more proactive. And really I started in this line of work with the proactive intention there. Like I wanted people to know this while they're pregnant or even before they're pregnant. And what I found is that people don't take action as much from a prevention perspective. They'll take action when they have a problem to fix.
And what I'm seeing happen in the menopause space right now is it is reactive. People are, are weighing the pros and cons about all the products that are available to help with this symptom. And you know, there's a huge long list of symptoms with menopause, but there's also the conversation happening of look at like with hormone therapy in particular, uh, bone health, brain health, heart health, looking at it from a preventive. Perspective. And so I'm hoping that because.
menopause, the conversation has sort of opened up a conversation around pelvic health indirectly because of genitourinary syndrome of menopause and vaginal dryness. I'm hoping that increased awareness will around kind of prevention and preventive mindset will trickle down into the vaginal health space, being proactive with vaginal moisturizer, vaginal estrogen before you have symptoms. And then these people then all start to go, you know what, I wish that I'd done this. And then they tell their daughters. And so
I'm hoping that in 20 years, every single pregnant woman is seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist and it's paid for by the government. It's standard of care paid for, accessible for everybody. And that it's just, it becomes the norm. That's just what you do when you're pregnant is you see a pelvic floor physical therapist as part of your healthcare team. And that it's something you do just like, you know, if we could have the same PR that dentists have that we...
Tiffany Broadway (36:14.817)
Yeah.
Kim (36:30.934)
I've been told to go every single year once or twice a year, even if we have no symptoms. I hope we have that same PR happening with the pelvis as well.
Tiffany Broadway (36:39.296)
Yeah, and I think we, you know, and I, as much as I'm passionate about pelvic health, it's really women's health in general. Women are just not, you know, it's just not a focus. And I think we've got to, we've got to do a better job at making women's health in totality a focus. And I think something that you said, I, yeah, I
Kim (36:47.434)
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Tiffany Broadway (37:07.04)
I was just talking to somebody about how this is like part of your team, right? So like, okay, you're pregnant. Now what? Not only do you go get your ultrasound, but you do go to your physical therapist and then you go to your classes, your breathing classes. And it's this whole picture so that you're starting to get the treatment, you know, early on. And I think
Yeah, I think from an insurance perspective, you know, hopefully in the next couple years, we'll get a lot more coverage for these things. I'm always fascinated. My intern has sent me recently to go get this, it's a calcium CT scan and I'm probably saying it wrong, but it basically checks for heart health and if there's any calcium block, blocks, right? And I'm
He says, hey, listen, it's not paid for. You have to pay for it. Insurance doesn't cover it. And I was like, what? So, wait a minute. So this could tell you if you're gonna have a heart attack in five years.
Let's not cover it. It was like $150. It was not, you know, it wasn't that much. And I'm thinking, how's that possible? Let's pay $40,000 in five years to treat somebody who has a heart attack or needs stents or all these things, but not pay that $150.
Kim (38:30.07)
Yeah, yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, several years ago, I had created a, I worked with these two other, they were two men with a medical device company who were actually had a focus on women's health as well. We collaborated a lot and we had partnered on this document that was trying to create the argument is exactly what you just said is that, hold on a minute. If.
Like, do you realize how much money would be saved for me and Canada, the government, if we put, put this in place, like pay for this one small thing and it could save thousands and hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars. And yeah, it's, there's no, no bites right yet, but hopefully tell the probe they're wealthy, right? It's kind of mind boggling. Yeah.
Tiffany Broadway (39:20.52)
some point, right? You have to kind of keep pushing is what I feel like. So we continue.
Kim (39:26.338)
So where can people find you and find more about what you're up to?
Tiffany Broadway (39:30.58)
Um, you can find us at our website, pelvic awareness project.com or on Instagram, same pelvic awareness project. Yeah. So.
Kim (39:41.714)
Amazing, amazing. Well, thank you for the work that you're doing and for all of the outreach and the advocacy and the access to information that you're providing for people. It's so needed and I really am grateful for you sharing.
Tiffany Broadway (39:57.136)
Well, thank you. Thank you for treating women and really getting this conversation started and really going at this for as many years as you have. I believe we're making a difference. One woman at a time. Awesome.
Kim (40:14.146)
Yeah, thank you so much.
