Dr. Jen graduated from Maryville University with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy. She was one of only 40 students to be accepted into the accelerated direct entry program, meaning she was in the graduate program as a freshman. She obtained her Bachelor of Health Science while in the physical therapy program as well. With well over a decade of experience in the field, you can be assured that you are being treated by someone with experience, and not a new graduate with minimal to no advanced training.

She is certified in incontinence, pelvic pain, and bowel dysfunction through the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA), the governing/accrediting body of all physical therapists in the United States. In addition to being able to perform internal vaginal assessment and treatment, she is also able to assess and treat rectal dysfunctions as well. Many pelvic floor therapists do not have the advanced pain or bowel training, which allows Dr. Jen to provide more comprehensive treatment than those who have only been trained in incontinence. Many pelvic floor providers have not been trained in any internal techniques and therefore do not have the skills and will not accurately assess your pelvic floor.

She is a Prenatal and Postpartum Core Exercise Specialist (PCES). This in depth training has been completed by only a few physical therapists in the state of Missouri. The extensive education provided in this certification ensures that women who are pregnant or have given birth are treated with the most up to date and effective treatment to ensure pain-free and active pregnancies, as well as a return to full health after delivery.

She is also certified ASTYM provider., allowing her to effectively treat soft tissue and fascial issues.

Incontinence (urine, gas, or stool)

Nocturia (waking more than once a night to go to the bathroom)

Urinary frequency (urinating more than once every 2 hours)

Overactive Bladder (OAB)

Pelvic and perineal pain

Interstitial Cystitis (IC)

Pelvic Floor Tension

Vulvodynia

Dyspareunia (Painful sex)

Postpartum Muscle Weakness

Sexual Dysfunction

Muscle Spasms

Constipation

Coccyx or tailbone pain

Pelvic floor Muscle Weakness

Prolapse management

Pre and Postoperative (hysterectomy, laparoscopic female procedures, etc)

Symptoms of Endometriosis and PCOS

While internal assessment and treatment is generally deferred for at least 6 weeks, there is a lot pelvic floor PT can do to help with any leaking, constipation, and pain that you may be having immediately postpartum. Dr. Jen can educate you and give you simple but effective exercises or activity modifications to use in these early weeks.

Yes! We know life with little ones can be crazy. It is hard to juggle self care and child care! That is why we are committed to making things as easy for mom as possible. We have a bouncer, sit and play, tent/playhouse, and a variety of toys for different age levels to keep your little one happy and occupied while you work on you!

Absolutely not! There are some exercises, support systems, or activity modifications you can begin immediately that can help alleviate any symptoms that you may be having.

Many women come to pelvic floor PT after discovering their pelvic floor is tight and causing pain or leaking. Pelvic floor PT does not just encompass the pelvic floor. Dr. Jen can assist in making sure your pelvic floor is at a good resting position, ensure you know how to relax the pelvic floor to make the most of each of your pushes, and educate on different positions or activities you can do to give breech babies the most room to flip into the head down position. Additionally, Dr. Jen works with many midwives and doulas in the area, and can help facilitate meeting with one or more of these providers who would work well with your personality and birth goals.

Yes! Your pelvic floor held a baby in for 9 months. That is a lot of extra weight, pressure, and overall work. It has been working overtime and can definitely be compromised, even if you had a C-section. When you have a C-section, the incision is made through your abdominals right above your pubic bone, which is very closely related anatomically to the pelvic floor. There can absolutely be carry over of trauma. Additionally, if your abdominals are weak, your pelvic floor has to pick up the slack as the abdominals are not capable of providing the stability and support they were before being cut. Also, many women labor before ending up with a c section. There can be pushing and various vaginal techniques and interventions attempted that can impact the pelvic floor, even if baby is not born vaginally.

No! The pelvic floor is mostly a muscle. Just like any muscle, if it is weak, a little focus and it can get stronger, and if it is tight, it can be taught to relax. There is a never a stage where you are too far postpartum or too far post menopause where pelvic floor PT cannot be beneficial for you.

Yes! We are centrally located, so anyone in St. Charles, St. Louis, Lincoln, or Warren County could be within our home care radius. Give us a call and we can work out the details!

YES! At StL Women's PT, we primarily provide care for prenatal, postpartum, incontinence, and pelvic pain issues. This is because there are not many providers certified in these specialties, and these are the women who typically find us. That being said, Dr. Jen has extensive outpatient orthopedic experience for nearly a decade prior to transitioning to mostly pelvic floor PT. She worked very closely with her first clinic director, which is where she learned professional level shoulder rehabilitation, both surgical and nonsurgical. This clinic director worked directly with the St. Louis Cardinals and has treated athletes from over 20 MLB organizations. Outside of having this unique but highly effective approach to shoulder rehabilitation, Dr. Jen also spent 2 years working almost exclusively with total knee replacements and total hip replacements. She would see the patients in their home immediately after discharge from the hospital and then worked to transition them into the clinic. If you are a woman who feels more comfortable receiving one on one, individualized care from a female therapist, then StL Women's PT is for you! Uncertain because your ache, pain, or problem was not listed above? Give us a call and we will let you know if we can help.

No, you do not!  You can make an appointment at any time. 

Most providers that are in network will still require a referral for PT.  This is because insurance will not reimburse them unless a referral is present.  Seeing an out of network provider allows you to skip the time and financial costs of making an appointment with a provider just to get a piece of paper to take to the physical therapist. 

The Doctor of Physical Therapy will spend an entire hour with you.  She will start by going through your medical history and getting a good understanding of what problems you are experiencing and how these are impacting your life.  She will then perform an evaluation looking at your hip and back range of motion, core strength, and posture.  With your consent, she can then perform an external and/or internal pelvic floor exam.  This allows her to get a good understanding of your pelvic floor muscle tone, strength, and coordination.  She will then spend time explaining what she found, how these deficits are causing your current symptoms, and how they will be fixed.  You will leave the initial evaluation with a good understanding of what is going on, as well as a timeline and plan of how to meet your goals.

Of course this varies patient to patient, but the average number of sessions is 5-6, with most clients beginning to see improvement around 2 or 3 visits.  Our individualized care works-our women get better faster, saving you time, money, and frustration.

Yes.  This is 100% up to you and your comfort level.  Being on your period, no matter how heavy, does not impact the ability of your physical therapist to evaluate or treat you.

You do you. It makes no difference to us, and we have seen it all. Chances are we won't even notice if you do or don't. No need to apologize for not being all neat and tidy. No need to wonder if you are the only one going al natural (you aren't!). We are looking at your pelvic floor, not your grooming preferences. So relax and stop worrying!

We are an out of network provider.  This means that you would utilize your out of network benefits instead of your in network benefits.  We provide you with superbills (a fancy name for a medical receipt that include the necessary codes) to send self-claims to your insurance company.

Changes in many health insurance plans and deductibles have actually made it cheaper to not use your insurance for some services (like PT) if you have high PT copays or a high deductible. 

Why is insurance not billed at St. Louis Women’s Physical therapy and how can that actually save me money?

The short answer is that insurance companies dictate or strongly influence the treatment that patients receive at “in-network” clinics, and we refuse to allow that to be the case at St. Louis Women’s PT.

The longer answer is that we are an out-of-network provider because the business model necessary for an in-network practice to survive rarely ever allows for the high quality care we insist on giving our patients. Due to progressively worsening reimbursement rates and pressure from insurance companies, the therapists at in-network clinics have to see at least 2 patients per hour (usually many more) and they often use technicians and assistants (PTAs) to provide much of the actual patient care. The care often includes modalities (i.e. biofeedback), and the majority of a patient’s time at the clinic is spent doing exercises they could do on their own time. Furthermore, these types of clinics tend to require patients to attend 2-3 appointments per week.

We do not believe that machines are nearly as effective as hands-on treatment, and we also do not agree with having you pay to perform exercises in the clinic that you can easily perform at home or at a gym. With something as personal as pelvic floor PT, we do not want to be bouncing back and forth between you in a room and other patients somewhere else. We want you to have our undivided attention. And we want to promote independence, not dependence.

All of our patients receive 1-on-1 care and hands-on treatment from a Doctor of Physical Therapy inevery session. With this hour long, 1-on-1 treatment approach, 95% of our patients only attend one appointment per week, and we work to get to once every 2-3 weeks. We also ensure short wait times-no 100+ patient wait list, making you wait 2-4 months to be seen. When you consider the time savings of fewer trips to the clinic and the value of resolving your symptoms so much faster than average, the out-of-pocket expense at St. Louis Women’s PT is a huge bargain.

On top of that, the out-of-pocket expense for our treatment sessions is sometimes less than a patient would pay at a clinic that accepts and bills their insurance.

How is that possible?

As deductibles and PT copays have skyrocketed in recent years, many of our patients who have high PT copays or have not met their deductible pay less out of pocket for our treatments than they would if they went to a clinic that “takes their insurance.”  So before deciding on where to get PT based solely on which clinics “take your insurance,” make sure you know how much you’ll be paying at your in-network options versus an out-of-network clinic like ours.

These days, some insurance plans provide zero coverage for PT visits or require copays of over $50/visit. And if you have a deductible to meet, you’ll likely end up paying the full bill for your PT sessions until you meet the deductible (and these bills are often $200+ per session). However, you usually won’t start receiving those $200+ bills until after you’ve been getting care for 6-8 weeks and have racked up an enormous total balance (again, often being asked to attend PT 2-3 times per week).

Most people are quite unaware of the games their insurance companies play in order to pay out as little as possible and maximize their profits. In 2022, UHC made 30 billion dollars.  Billion with a B.  They have not increased reimbursement for physical therapy in 10-20 years.  Sometimes your copay is more than UHC is paying your therapist. 

As you weigh your PT options, it’s very important to:

1. Inquire with your insurance company about what percentage of the total PT bill you will be required to pay at an in-network clinic (especially if you still have a deductible to meet). If you will be paying 100% of the bill until you’ve met your deductible, ask the prospective PT clinic the amount of the average bill sent to an insurance company. In most cases, you will ultimately be paying the full bill until your deductible is met.

2. If you have met your deductible, ask how much your copays will be. Ask how many times per week the average patient is asked to come in for treatment.

3. Consider the quality of care you’ll be receiving at your various options, and how much value you place on receiving high quality, 1-on-1 care from the same Doctor of Physical Therapy rather than a PT Assistant (PTA), unskilled tech, or bouncing between different therapists each session.

4. Consider how often you’ll be missing work and/or time with family to attend your PT sessions. Again, you can ask any prospective clinic how many times per week their average patient is asked to come in for treatment and how many weeks treatment usually lasts. Ask the above questions, do the math, and you may be quite surprised at what you find! *

   One other thing to consider is whether or not you have just one deductible or if you have both an in-network deductible and an out-of-network deductible. If you have two deductibles, then claims from an out-of-network clinic like ours will not apply to your in-network deductible. With all the above information, you can now get a real sense of what your true costs will be, what level of care you’ll be getting, and then make the best decision on where to receive your physical therapy treatment.

This depends on the insurance you have, but YES, most NON-Medicare patients can send “self-claims” to their insurance company for their treatments at our clinic. You should be able to print claim forms off your insurance company’s website, and send it in with the needed receipts and treatment codes that will be provided upon request at our clinic.

The amount of reimbursement or application towards your deductible is completely dependent on your insurance plan. If you call your insurance company to inquire about what you can expect to receive, you should ask about if your plan include out-of-network benefits.

If the answer is yes, ask:

1. Do I have an out-of-network deductible?

2: Have I met the deductible for the year?  If not, how far away am I from meeting it?

3. Is there paperwork that must be filled out when submitting the out-of-network claims?  If so, do you provide that paperwork?

4. Do I need to be pre-certified for physical therapy sessions in order to receive reimbursement?

Medicare Beneficiaries: The US government has some interesting laws that control where Medicare beneficiaries can spend their healthcare dollar and persuade healthcare providers to enroll in their system. Because we are not Participating Medicare Providers, we can only accept Medicare beneficiaries as patients when the patient does not want Medicare billed for any PT services. This request to not involve Medicare in payment must be made up front by the patient and be made of the patient’s own free will. In other words, if you’re a Medicare beneficiary and are adamant about seeing us for your care even though we are not participating Medicare providers, we can help. However, the only way we can provide you with PT services is when you truly don’t want Medicare involved and you ask up front that Medicare not be billed or involved in your physical therapy care. If you do want to use your Medicare benefits for physical therapy, we cannot provide you with treatment at our clinic but we can help you find a good Medicare provider in your area.