Miracle Moms, Better Sex, Less Pain
by Belinda and Larry Wurn

Adhesions in the pelvis can cause pelvic pain, painful intercourse, and fertility problems.

At 33 and newly married, Belinda Wurn was thrilled with her life. She had a great job as a physical therapist at the University of Florida and was married to her childhood sweetheart (the love of her life). Then came a shocker: Belinda learned she had an aggressive form of cervical cancer that required immediate surgery. It was a blow to her body and spirit. But it did explain some symptoms she had been having: weakness, pelvic pain, and excessive paleness. She soon began hemorrhaging internally, and it was life-threatening. After undergoing surgery, followed by extensive radiation therapy, Belinda was pronounced cancer-free.

But a year after her cancer treatments, Belinda experienced pain deep in her pelvis. Eventually, the pain grew and became unbearable. She returned to her doctor and was dismayed to learn the pain was likely due to adhesions that had formed in her pelvis as a result of the surgery. There was nothing he could suggest except more surgery, which he cautioned against—pelvic surgery often causes more adhesions to form. When physician after physician gave her the same response, Belinda entered the unwanted quest that tens of thousands of women begin every year—to find relief from chronic pelvic pain. This marked the beginning of a long, arduous journey. Thankfully, it has a happy ending for Belinda and women everywhere.

The Problem With Adhesions

Adhesions consist of thousands of tiny but powerful strands of collagen, called crosslinks. (Imagine a nylon rope made of tiny fibers.) When the body heals from a surgery, inflammation, infection, or trauma, these crosslinks rush in to cover and isolate the traumatized tissue. Once the body has healed, the crosslinks can remain for a lifetime.

With a tensile strength of nearly 2,000 pounds per square inch, the adhesions bind structures (muscles, organs and nerves) that need to be mobile to function properly. The adhesions can cause pain, disruptions in motility, dysfunction, and unwanted anatomical changes. When adhesions form in the pelvis, they can cause pelvic or period pain, painful intercourse, and fertility problems. Further, because adhesions can glue tissues together, they are a primary reason that fallopian tubes block or the bowel becomes obstructed.

Adhesions don’t show up on most diagnostic tests. Patients can feel the pain and tell their physicians about it, but the doctors often cannot see them. This makes the problem harder to diagnose.

The Quest

“Since surgery promised more adhesions, we decided to find a way to treat my pain that was less invasive,” Belinda says. Ellis¹ “Our quest led us through what we comically refer to as ‘an alphabet of continuing education courses in hands-on therapies’ in the U.S. and abroad. We studied with the leaders and developers of myofascial release, visceral manipulation, craniosacral therapy, several types of osteopathic manipulation, and a dozen other soft-tissue therapies—techniques that focus on muscles, organs, blood vessels, nerves, and connective tissue. After every course, we examined each technique, keeping and modifying the ones that seemed to decrease my adhesions and relieve my pain.

“Over the next 20 years, we continued to refine our work, eventually creating on our own, unique, 100 percent natural, hands-on protocol called the Wurn Technique®. Our technique breaks down adhesions crosslink by crosslink. When that happens, tissues become as mobile as they were before the adhesions formed. It’s a bit like going back in time for that part of the body.” (View images and learn more about adhesions at the Wurn’s Web site).

The Wurn Technique®

Unlike chiropractic, which focuses on the alignment of bones and joints, or osteopathic manipulation, which focuses on the alignment of bones and joints, and treats soft tissues, the Wurn Technique® focuses on problems causes by adhesions. A typical session involves one-on-one care with your therapist in a private treatment room. The therapy feels like a very deep massage, but, as Belinda jokes, calling it “massage” is like calling the Space Shuttle a plane. Patients describe it as feeling like a “good hurt” or “deep work that finds the places I have been telling my doctor about.” Patients receive two hours of therapy in the morning and two in the afternoon (with a break for lunch) on very site-specific tissues.

“We designed our programs for out-of-town patients because most of our patients come for therapy from out-of-town,” Larry says. “About 80 percent come from the U.S. and 20 percent come from other countries.” It generally takes five days to complete the therapy, so a typical session often starts Monday morning, and completes Friday afternoon.

The Typical Patient

Belinda says, “Most of our patients have severe or long-term pain complaints. About 25 percent have no pain, but have decreased function such as infertility, blocked fallopian tubes, or poor digestion. About 25 percent of our patients are physicians, nurses, pharmacists, or other healthcare professionals. We tend to treat the most complex cases, including longstanding pelvic pain, women who experience pain during intercourse, post-surgical adhesions from hysterectomy or c-section, partial bowel obstructions, blocked fallopian tubes, and women experiencing fertility issues who have been unsuccessful trying the traditional medical model.

“Another population that seems to benefit greatly are patients who have been physically or sexually abused, and have both physical and emotional scars from their history. (This includes genital scarring from early childhood for women who lived in cultures practicing female circumcision). Our work addresses their physical scars, and it seems to help many of them understand that touch can be gentle, respectful, and caring—much different from their prior traumatic experiences.

“Most people have very favorable outcomes, partially because we conduct an interview and take an in-depth medical history before accepting a person for therapy. (We aren’t able to accept individuals with certain conditions, for example active cancer or infection, high BMI, or hemophilia.) Because each of our patients has lived in her body all her life, we recognize that each has an intimate knowledge that may be vital to her improvement. For that reason, we find it essential to inquire and to listen deeply to our patients. In fact, we invite each woman to be an integral part of the team that’s addressing her needs. We know this is an important part of our success,” Belinda concludes.

The Studies Support It

“We knew we were onto something big when patients started telling us about some surprising results, including tremendous relief of menstrual and endometriosis pain. Some women started reporting toe-curling or first-time-ever orgasms; others were having dramatic increases of desire or lubrication, despite advanced age. These are results we never expected, and that Western medicine has never seen before. We were surprised and pleased that a natural therapy that addressed adhesions could elicit such profound results.

“We gained scientific credibility for the Wurn Technique® after Richard King, M.D., research gynecologist and former Chief of Staff of North Florida Regional Medical Center, reviewed some of our patient histories,” Larry says. “Dr. King worked with us to conduct and publish scientific studies which showed that the Wurn Technique® successfully opened blocked fallopian tubes, relieved endometriosis and intercourse pain, and improved sexual dysfunction such as decreased desire, lubrication, and orgasm. To date, seven studies have been published or cited in some of the most respected, peer-reviewed journals for women’s health.”

The Best Is Yet to Come

“Presently, we have three Clear Passage Therapies clinics, including our home office in Florida, with branch clinics in southern California and Iowa,” Larry says. “We hope to train other physical therapists and grow into other parts in the U.S. in the near future.”

The Wurns estimate that their therapy has eliminated pain or improved function in thousands of complex cases over the last two decades. “It feels so great to give someone back their life,” Belinda says. “Believe me, I know personally exactly how they feel.”

To learn more about the Wurn Technique®, view images and explanations of some of the conditions discussed in this article, or request a free consultation visit the Wurns’ web site. Unlike drugs and surgery, there are few risks or side effects to hands-on therapies, so give them a try. You have nothing to lose but your pain!

The 20 year adventure of Belinda and Larry Wurn to find relief for her and other patients is chronicled in a new book Miracle Moms, Better Sex, Less Pain. The book gets its title from the three areas where the Wurns have seen the greatest success.

As Belinda Wurn says, “It’s a real lesson in personal empowerment. Neither Larry nor I could accept the fact that I would have debilitating pelvic pain for the rest of my life. We set out to help me regain my life. After I did, we thought that perhaps others could benefit from the great manipulative therapies we found out there, and the work we developed so I would have relief. The adventure continues to unfold as researchers encourage us to study positive effects we are witnessing in all kinds of areas. This journey has been so incredible that we felt we had to write about it. The heart-wrenching patients’ stories help personalize the book far beyond our own story.” Many of these are conditions for which Western medicine offers no options besides drugs to mask the pain or surgery, with the risk of more adhesions.

Learn More — Additional Resources

• Miracle Moms, Better Sex, Less Pain, By Larry and Belinda Wurn

References

1. Ellis, H., et. al, 1999. Adhesion-related hospital readmissions after abdominal and pelvic surgery: a retrospective cohort study, Lancet, 353:1476-80.