Why Your Pelvic Floor (& Its Health) Is So Important

The pelvic floor might often slip under the radar, but it’s actually a very important area of the body and has a massive effect on our bodily functions. To get a better understanding of why pelvic floor health is so important and what we can do to improve it, we spoke to Tara Murtagh, Physiotherapy Manager at the Coombe Hospital in Dublin. 

So, what exactly is the pelvic floor? According to Murtagh, the pelvic door is a group of muscles. “They run from the tailbone, right the way to the front to your pubic bone, and they come out to the two sides of the pelvis as well,” she says. “
These muscles help to keep us continent, help our bladder and bowel health, as well as facilitating pregnancy and the safe delivery of a baby.”

We’re all well aware of how important it is to exercise and look after the rest of our body, but maybe we should pay our pelvic muscles a little more attention. Murtagh explains why:

“Mainly for your bladder and bowel health. So that we have good bladder and bowel habits, so that we’re not leaking or being caused distress by urgency or a frequent need to go to the bathroom,” she explains. “It also helps us then go about our daily activities, such as exercising or playing with your children, without being interrupted by symptoms, or being woken up at night needing to go to the bathroom.” 

As women, our bodies go through massive hormonal changes at different stages of our lives, and these changes in turn have a huge effect on our pelvic floors. Although exercising those particular muscles might not seem so important to us at this current moment, there are times in life where a strong, functional pelvic floor will make all the difference to us. 

“Pre-pregnancy, during pregnancy, they’re all times when the pelvic floor is going through huge amounts of change,” Murtagh explains. “If we’re approaching menopause, we know that there’s some decrease in the muscles that happens during that time. If you’re waiting until you’re postmenopausal before dealing with pelvic floor exercises or symptoms, then you’re exercising a muscle that’s already weak.

“It’s going to take longer to learn those exercises and to see the benefits of them. If you’ve already been doing the exercises throughout your life, you’ve built up that muscle ahead of going through menopause, so the impacts of menopause are going to be significantly less than if you only started when symptoms were already onset.” 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Jessica Pumple | Pregnancy Postpartum TV (@pregnancyandpostpartumtv)

So, exercising and looking after our pelvic muscles is important, but how exactly do we do that? 

“There’s loads of ways we can try to activate our pelvic floor, some of the most common ones would be imagining that you’re tightening from the back passage, bringing that forward and tightening around the vagina, then closing around the urethra,” Murtagh says. “You’ve got this sensation of squeezing the pelvic floor, feeling a definite sense of lifting up while continuing to breathe normally, and then you let go fully of the pelvic floor, allowing everything to relax.

It might be difficult to visualise this exercise and make sure you’re doing it correctly. There are loads of different scenarios that people imagine to help them understand the movements better.

“Some people will picture a thick milkshake with a straw in it. So imagine trying to tighten around the straw and suck the milkshake up through the straw, and then trying to let go of the straw.”

“Others imagine an internal zip zipping up the pelvic floor. There’s loads of different images and techniques that people can use, so it’s about finding one that works for you and then sticking to that.

“We want to make sure that we’re squeezing and lifting correctly, isolating the muscles, not bringing in your legs or your tummy, and not holding your breath. And making sure that we fully let go after a contraction as well. We’re trying to keep hold for as long as we comfortably can, so everyone will have a different length of hold.”

How often you should be doing these exercises depends on your symptoms, but in general, Murtagh recommends doing three quick sessions a day – morning, afternoon and night. Your pelvic muscles are small and become fatigued quickly, so don’t overdo it. “Little and often” is the best way to strengthen the pelvic floor.

This exercise isn’t the only way we can take care of our pelvic floor. A good diet including fruit and veg can help us maintain a healthy body weight, which in turn relieves pressure on our pelvic floor. Getting enough fibre in your diet, by eating nuts and pulses, and staying hydrated, will help to avoid diarrhoea and constipation. Murtagh recommends activities such as pilates, yoga, swimming and cycling, as these will all strengthen the pelvic muscles and keep the pelvic floor safe.

Unlike other muscle groups, it may not be obvious that your pelvic floor isn’t in great shape. There are symptoms that can indicate poor pelvic health, most of them concerning toilet habits. “Some of the symptoms that you’d have if you have any pelvic floor issues would be leaking urine, usually when you cough, sneeze or laugh. If you often feel the urge to go to the bathroom and don’t make it there on time.

“If you have difficulty starting a stream when you do go to the bathroom, this is another symptom. Normal frequency for the bladder would be between four to eight times of emptying the bladder per day, so if we were going more often than that, that would be another symptom.

“Ideally, we’d be able to sleep overnight without emptying the bladder, but anything up to once a night is still considered within the normal range. If you were waking up more often than that, that would be another symptom.”

Murtagh also warns that more serious pelvic issues, such as prolapses, can be accompanied by a “a sense of heaviness, dragging or pressure, or if you see anything bulging out through the pelvic floor.” Pain during intercourse is also an indicator of pelvic health issues.

So, there’s the run down on pelvic floor health, why it’s super important and how we can look after it. If you are suffering symptoms of a weak pelvic floor, or simply want to get a deeper understanding of pelvic floor health, we recommend you speak to a medical professional who can help you figure out what works for you.