Biography

Stéphanie Thibault-Gagnon

Stéphanie is a clinical physical therapist, researcher, and instructor. She practices primarily in pelvic floor rehabilitation since obtaining her degree from McGill University in 2007. She is trained to work with women and men with pelvic health problems, such as urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, colorectal disorders, genital and pelvic pain, painful sexual intercourse, as well as pregnancy and childbirth-related issues. 

In addition to her clinical practice, Stephanie received her doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Science from Queen’s University in 2019 for her research work on pelvic floor dysfunction in women with vulvodynia (chronic vulvar pain). She has worked with numerous multidisciplinary research teams in Canada and Australia, which include urogynecologists, psychologists/sex therapists, and engineers. Her experiences allowed her to understand the importance of a multidisciplinary and biopsychosocial approach for understanding pelvic health problems. Stephanie has given over twenty presentations at international and regional conferences, and has received several awards for her research, including from the International Pelvic Pain Society and from the National Vulvodynia Association. She has published ten peer-reviewed articles and one textbook chapter. She has developed an expertise on genito-pelvic pain and on innovative methods for evaluating the pelvic floor such as transperineal ultrasound imaging.   

Given her interest for the advancement of research and knowledge translation she makes a point to stay on top of the most current evidence in pelvic health. In addition to teaching with Bia, she acts as a mentor to young physical therapists working in pelvic floor rehabilitation, she is a collaborator for research projects in pelvic health, and she presents numerous workshops to the public in hopes of helping as many people as possible to maintain good pelvic health throughout their lifetime.

Publications:

• Relationship Between 3-Dimensional Transperineal Ultrasound Imaging and Digital Intravaginal Palpation Assessments of the Pelvic Floor Muscles in Women With and Without Provoked Vestibulodynia

• Differences in Pelvic Morphology Between Women With and Without Provoked Vestibulodynia
• Active and Passive Components of Pelvic Floor Muscle Tone in Women with Provoked Vestibulodynia: A Perspective Based on a Review of the Literature
• The temporal relationship between activity of the pelvic floor muscles and motion of selected urogenital landmarks in healthy nulliparous women