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The Dudley MP, who is a physiotherapist, said she had worked closely with women to help them manage the challenges of pelvic floor dysfunction.

It was only years later, when Fleischacker was diagnosed with pelvic floor dysfunction, along with the vulvar pain condition vestibulodynia, that she understood why her body required such extreme measures for a routine exam.

For example, pre-exam anxiety can cause the pelvic floor muscles to tighten, increasing the likelihood of pain.

Kaitlin Bonfiglio, who avoided pap smears for over a decade due to pain from her pelvic floor dysfunction, was so astonished when her doctor offered her an at-home test that she actually cried.

As founder of the Pelvic Floor Society, he drew heavily on claims he had made in medical publications about the success rates of the rectopexy mesh surgery he pioneered.