Your Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor is a group of muscles, ligaments, and connective tissue in the lowest part of the pelvis. It provides support for your internal organs including the bowel, uterus, vagina, and rectum. To find it, touch your pubic bone and then touch your tail bone - your pelvic floor is between them.

Problems with your pelvic floor can have a strong impact on your physical and emotional wellbeing. For example, you may pee a bit when you run, jump, trip, cough, sneeze or laugh. It is common to feel frustrated, sad, or embarrassed about leaking urine, and that’s one of the reasons why many women don’t talk about it.

A common myth is that pelvic floor problems are a normal part of aging. This is definitely NOT true, and there are steps you can take for both prevention and treatment of pelvic floor disorders.

A pelvic floor disorder occurs when there is an impairment in the function or injury of the pelvic floor. This can involve muscles, connective tissue or the pelvic organs and can cause bladder or bowel leaking, uterine or vaginal prolapse, sexual issues, or pain. Most of these disorders appear later in life, after several injuries to the pelvic floor. However, you may experience some symptoms earlier, especially after you give birth.

Most of your symptoms will resolve over time, but some might not go away. If your pelvic floor isn’t functioning as it should, there are solutions. Many health care professionals can help you make sense of your symptoms, prevent further injury, and offer treatment options.

Please seek help if you are not sure what’s happening.

You may be born with certain traits that increase the risk of developing a pelvic floor disorder. For example, some women are born with tissue that is more elastic than most people. There are also other genetic factors that can increase your risk, so your family history might be important to explore. Sometimes, just the passage of time can affect your pelvic floor.

There are also life events that can alter the function of your pelvic floor.  Pregnancy and childbirth are perhaps the most common, but the risk of injury is not the same for all women and can depend on things like your baby’s weight or how your labour progresses. Having a physically demanding job where you are required to lift weights daily or stand for many hours can lead to problems. Further, any repetitive strain on your pelvic floor - such as obesity, a chronic cough, or constipation – can also create problems.

Pelvic floor disorders are usually not life-threatening. If you have mild symptoms and your daily life is not affected, you may decide to not seek treatment right away. However, you may want to implement some of the options we have to help prevent your symptoms from getting worse. A consultation with a pelvic floor health care professional could be a helpful step to learn more about these options.

If you are significantly bothered by your pelvic symptoms, there are treatments that can help. They can be conservative treatments (non-surgical), which might include options like pelvic floor muscle exercises, lifestyle changes, a pessary, or medication. Some women may need surgery, but less invasive options are always considered first because they carry fewer risks.