McLean Lab: Women’s Pelvic Health Research

Why research Women’s Pelvic and Core Health?  Despite western medical textbooks making note of women suffering from pelvic health issues since at least 1880, there has been little to no specific research looking into many of these issues.  Both male and female pelvises warrant deeper study; however women’s pelvises have been treated as merely a ‘variant’ of the male pelvis for most of modern medicine (for some interesting reading:  BBC Health Gap Articles). 

Dr. Linda McLean is one of the few researchers worldwide looking to change this – working to create a knowledge base to move Women’s Pelvic and Core Healthcare into this century.  Dr. McLean brings her own multidisciplinary academic successes to embrace a team of students, staff and collaborators from varied backgrounds, including psychology, physiotherapy, engineering, kinesiology, medicine and biomedical science.  The team works together innovating and building the tools needed in order for them to investigate the underlying biomechanical and neurophysiological roots in many understudied women’s pelvic health and core issues. She, her team, and her collaborators have broad interests including urinary incontinence; pelvic pain; motor dysfunction associated with pregnancy and delivery; investigating the use of  imaging to aid diagnostics for uterine fibroids; as well as development of predictive models of successful rehabilitation outcomes.