Los Angeles Pelvic Floor Doctor and Founder of Fusion Wellness PT
Heather Jeffcoat (she/her/hers) is the author of Sex Without Pain: A Self-Treatment Guide To The Sex Life You Deserve and a recognized expert in the field of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy. She is also a recent past President of the Academy of Pelvic Health Physical Therapy from 2021-2024, and she served many years on the Advisory Board of the International Pelvic Pain Society. With her expanding mission to provide access to the specialized pelvic health services her office offers, she also launched the Empower Health Fund in 2019, a nonprofit with 501(c)3 status, providing no-cost care to low-income, marginalized populations. She has also been a featured guest on CNN, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Livestrong, the award-winning Sex With Emily podcast and Sirius XM show, Mom.me, ABC Radio and many others.
Before launching the Fusion Wellness PT website she was a regular contributor to ICA Update, L.A. Parent Magazine and the Childbirth Education Association Journal, where she hosted a long-running quarterly column entitled “Perinatal Wellness”, and she was also a guest blogger multiple times for the Women’s Health Foundation.
Heather’s book on self treatment of female sexual pain is featured as a recommended resource in Dr. Amy Stein, PT and Dr. Iris Orbuch, MD‘s book Beating Endo. Her passion to providing quality care extends from girls with abdominal and pelvic pain, to pregnant moms, to postpartum athletes to olympians – and everywhere in between.
Heather also developed a course to further her mission of improving women’s sexual health and it made its debut in Istanbul, Turkey in Spring of 2019. In Summer 2019, she worked with the Chinese Olympic Committee‘s summer and winter athletes in Beijing. She has always kept up on her sports and orthopedic knowledge base, which her patients appreciate.
She brings a whole-body approach to her work with women’s sexual dysfunction and pain disorders. She understands that many of her patients rarely have isolated pelvic issues – and the majority also come with hip, back, neck or other orthopedic dysfunction that could be driving their pain further away from a solution unless the bigger picture is addressed.
As she began receiving numerous emails from people around world, Heather realized there was a lack of access to quality pelvic floor physical therapy providers. She believed that women deserved better answers and a treatment plan for the painful sex they were experiencing, so she created her book as a way to get her proven techniques to all who needed it.
Heather received a BS in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience from UC San Diego, and her Doctor of Physical Therapy degree from Duke University. Additionally, she is a Certified Fascial Stretch Therapist through the Stretch to Win Institute, and received her Comprehensive Teacher Training Certification in Pilates from BASI.
Heather specializes in treating Orthopedic and pelvic floor dysfunction diagnoses throughout womens’ lifespans, and she enjoys her work with pregnant and postpartum women seeking to optimize their physical health. Her special interests are:
- treating pregnancy and post-partum related disorders (sexual pain, incontinence, back/hip pain, diastasis recti, incisional/scar tissue pain and burning post C-section, vaginal scar tissue pain, hysterectomy or laparoscopic surgery)
- pelvic pain (vaginismus, vulvar vestibulitis, levator ani syndrome, pudendal neuralgia, interstitial cystitis (IC)/ painful bladder syndrome (PBS))
- voiding dysfunction
- sacroiliac joint (SIJ) dysfunctions
- persistent genital arousal disorder (PGAD)/persistent sexual arousal syndrome (PSAS)
- painful orgasm
- anorgasmia (no orgasm)
- diminished orgasms
- coccydynia (tailbone pain)
- irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), constipation, etc,
- neck pain
- TMJ disorders (temporomandibular joint or jaw pain)
- tension headaches
- low back pain
- hip pain
- shoulder pain and dysfunction (adhesive capsulitis, rotator cuff impingement, bursitis, etc).
She opened Fusion Wellness & Physical Therapy in 2009, owing to the changing healthcare climate at the time that emphasized the quantity of patient care over its quality. In a situation where she had to see two patients per hour that had complex pain conditions, incontinence, or all of the above, she knew that her patients deserved to be provided with actual care, not just the idea of care. With 55-115 minute sessions, her office is able to provide the hands-on treatment, skilled corrective exercises and other interventions by specialized and licensed physical therapists so they can get on the path to putting their pain or weakness behind them.
You can also stay in touch with Heather and the Fusion Wellness PT team by following us on InstaGram at @fusionwellnesspt, @dr.heatherjeffcoat. and our women’s health services @FeminaPT.
