Pelvic Health? What Is It and Why Give a Sh*t?
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Anxious Pelvis Podcast. This is for my anxious girlies or anyone else who wants to listen, where we will unclench our tension. Unlearn the bullshit that you've been taught, and find out about the stuff that you should have been taught about your pelvic, sexual, and mental health.
Because it's all connected.
Hello and welcome to our first full episode of the Anxious Pelvis Podcast. Today we are going to be talking about why should you care about your pelvic health? What even is it I, you don't really understand. You keep hearing this buzzword going around pelvic health, pelvic floor, but what exactly is involved in that, and why should you give a shit?
Well, let's talk about it. I'm Gina, your host, a pelvic floor occupational therapist, and if you'd like to know more about me and this podcast, just head over to the introductory episode right before this one titled, welcome to the Anxious Pelvis Podcast. All right, my friends, I want you to imagine something.
[00:01:00] You can close your eyes if you want. Do not close your eyes. If you're driving, keep them open. I don't care. But I want you to just try to really picture this. It's maybe five years from now, 10 years from now, one year from now, but you're going to meet out some friends for dinner and drinks, and you're getting ready, but you're feeling super bloated.
You haven't pooped in three days. You had no success and you genes hurt on your stomach. You're having abdominal pain. You're uncomfortable, you're excited, and you love your friends, but you're also feeling this buzzy anxiety to be out in the town. You haven't really been out in a minute and you're just feeling really fluttery in your chest.
You're already feeling uncomfortable as you get ready as well. Oh, and almost forgot. You have to put on your little panty liner because just in case the jokes get too strong at the table, you are now leaking pee before you leave to go out with your friends. You go pee because well just in case. [00:02:00] And then you get to the restaurant and then you pee again just in case you have to go during dinner.
And then mid dinner, you end up having to leave the conversation anyways because you have a strong urge to pee, especially after you had a few drinks, a couple hours go by and your low back. It is hurting a little bit in your tailbone too. You've been sitting in this chair for too long and you're not feeling good.
You really wanna be hanging out with your friends still, but. You just keep having to pee. You're feeling constipated and bloated. Your low back is hurting. Your tailbone is hurting, so you know what you say. Sorry guys. I gotta call an early night and go home. You fast forward and you come home to your significant other, and this person is trying to get funky tonight with you.
And not only do you still feel bloated, but your vulva is irritated because you did in fact end up leaking a little bit and this pad has been on the whole time. Your back still hurts and your libido is feeling low. You're like, fuck that. But you know what? Things start to progress and you say, Hey, whatever.
Let me just give it a [00:03:00] shot, and then ow, fuck, insertion hurts. Get that thing away. You say, screw that. You turn around and you go back to bed and continue to have pain, bladder issues and bowel issues. The next day you're feeling frustrated with your body, disappointed that that was your night, and honestly, maybe a little bit hopeless that that's going to just get worse and continue to be your future.
Everything that I just described super common. Also, everything I just described does not have to be your normal, but you know what? We're gonna take this a little bit further now. The next day you go to the doctors, you tell them, Hey, I've been really constipated. I'm lucky if I poop like two times a week.
I'm not really sure what's wrong. It's also really hard to get out, and I've been doing a lot of straining and the stool's really hard, and I'm just really afraid that I'm gonna get some hemorrhoids. I've actually already started to see some blood on the toilet paper every now and then. They go, Hmm, okay, well I'm not really seeing anything medically wrong [00:04:00] here, but just try eating more fiber.
And you're probably just stressed. This is honestly just pretty normal at your age. So you say, oh, all right, well. Not super helpful, but okay, I guess this is just is what it is. And you tell them, well, also I have been having pain with intercourse as well. Is that normal? And they say, you know what? At your age it actually is.
But if you wanna try drinking wine for the pain and anxiety, that could help. But there's not much else I can do because everything just looks normal. So you're feeling frustrated, disappointed, and you don't even bring up the fact that you've been leaking because you don't really feel like this visit has been very helpful because, well, it hasn't been, and so you just don't even bring it up 'cause you think it's normal anyways, and you move on.
So that sounds like a really fun 24 hours, right? Yeah, no, it really does not. And for some of you, parts of that story can easily be your current reality. How that doctor's visit could have gone was. [00:05:00] Okay. Yeah, I hear your concerns. Um, let's see. I could take a look at some other things that could be going on, and we can also get you a referral for pelvic floor therapies that they can take a further look at some possible options for you, because this isn't something normal that you have to experience.
So we're gonna try to get you the help that you need. Wow. Wouldn't that be a fairytale? I do wanna quickly acknowledge that there are a lot of incredible providers out there that would respond in that way, and Pelvic health is growing, increasing awareness. It's a broken system, not a broken person. A lot of these providers are not only burnt out, they are.
Limited to a certain amount of time with you. They are restricted by a lot of insurance barriers, but also there isn't really a lot of pelvic health awareness overall, and that is, again, increasing. But a lot of these people might not actually really have the knowledge of a pelvic floor provider being out there for you.
It doesn't mean that that's okay, but just again, it can be a problem with the system and not [00:06:00] just the person. And there are a lot of great providers out there too, some of which you'll get to hear on this podcast. And guys, that was just the 10 year vision, five year, whatever. I didn't even get to the part where all of that was ignored continuously.
And you maybe tried some fads on the internet, gave up hope, just kind of went on with life. And now your symptoms are way worse. You are leaking shit. You're in pain every day and no judgment because these are real things happening to real people all of the time, no matter your age. So that's why we need to address them because it's not just when you're older.
This can happen at any age. I repeat, you can be leaking shit urine, having pain with sex, any of this at any age. And you know what? A lot of this story is preventable. Plus when you ignore the things or go longer with habits that might not be helping you, then it may be even harder to address them in the future.
Doesn't mean that you can't address them, but it's even more [00:07:00] helpful if we can address them sooner. Also, I say this with zero blame on you as an individual. The system has been working against you. You've been fed information that isn't true or works against you, or you are just not given any support to begin with at all and not told information about your body to help you get out of these situations, but that is why we're here.
And you know, a lot of you are experiencing issues right now, whether that be big or small, and those of you experiencing issues now, especially bigger ones, I don't have to tell you how much this stuff really impacts your day to day. You might have to be calling out of work because you're having extreme period pain or back pain, or you end up thinking you're gonna be on the toilet all day and you're not sure if you can even come in.
Or maybe you're afraid to play with your kids because you don't wanna pee your pants, or maybe you're avoiding dating or avoiding intimacy with your partner because you are having pain with sex. Maybe you're having difficulty [00:08:00] inserting anything at all, and it's keeping you from being able to even get a pap smear at the gynecologist.
These things really impact your day to day. So let's rewind a bit. Like what? Okay, Gina, I still don't even really get what the pelvic floor is. I hear you. But like, what is this thing? What is the pelvic floor doing in my body? Well, it's kind of like a hammock of muscles sitting at the bottom of your pelvis and what's chilling on that hammock.
You have your pelvic organs, so this can be your bladder, your uterus, if you have one, and your rectum. In your pelvic floor, it's kind of like a door or a gate to keep things in or out of the body, like pee poop babies, penises toys, menstrual products, whatever you got coming in or out. It's also helping your body with stability.
It's helping you with walking, standing, sitting. It is working together with your core and your back, and really your entire body is influencing the way that your pelvic floor functions. It's helping you pump blood to your [00:09:00] body. It's helping you receive pleasure and it's impacting your fertility. So yeah, I mean, what is your pelvic health?
It's your ability to pee to poop without experiencing pain and doing it in a way that supports your bodily functions. It is not experiencing pain with insertion or arousal, being able to engage in an orgasm. Um, it is an influence on your fertility and your menstrual health, and it's your gut functioning overall.
It's if you feel like you have an urge to pee frequently or maybe even not at all, it, if you're having pain anywhere from the low back, the abdomen, um, the tailbone, even around the glutes, it is if you're having pain. Anywhere around the genitals, the anus, the perineum, which is that space between the genitals and the anus.
It can be involved if you are [00:10:00] experiencing a hernia, if you're pregnant, if you're having any kind of surgery in that pelvic region, then you want to. Get your pelvic health in check. Okay? So you get it. You get it. It's important. You see the habits you engage in every day are impacting your pelvic health.
So if we can adapt them for the better, why wouldn't we? Plus when we don't have this knowledge, I mean that lube that you grabbed at the pharmacy. Strong chance the ingredients aren't great, and I'm not even talking about if it was, you know, cherry flavored or meant to get really hot or cold. I'm talking about everyday lubes that are out there that can have ingredients that aren't helpful for our pH, for our microbiomes in the vagina and the vulva.
And so then when you're getting more infections or you're feeling really irritated or even pain and you don't know what it's from. I'm not saying it is from this and we'll talk more about all things that can influence that, but yeah, I mean that lube that they were selling at whatever pharmacy, [00:11:00] good chance that it wasn't great and okay, now you're sold that you need this feminine wash to make your hoo-ha smell like roses and citrus trees.
Yeah, no you do not. And your doctor told you that your severe period pain was totally normal. Yeah. No, you are leaking, but you know what? You were pregnant and that's just how it is. No. That is not just how it is. When you are informed on your pelvic health, you can better advocate for yourself. Buy those products that are actually helpful.
Avoid the products that are treating you like they're prey. Get the right test that you need at the doctor or know the right doctor or provider to even go to to begin with, or know the ways that you can manage your symptoms yourself. Get your power. Knowledge is power, y'all and I am here to help you get it.
So let's have power in our advocacy, power, in our knowledge, power in our pelvic floors. Let's be in the powerful pussy club. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter your [00:12:00] gender. Everyone has a pelvic floor. Let's nurture it and take control of our own bodies. If you wanna have a better understanding of what's normal or not normal that you're experiencing right now, or some things that can possibly cause pelvic floor issues, go ahead and go into the show notes and get a free ebook that talks all about it, and let me know what you think.
Let me know what comes up for you. Well, that's it for today, fam. I want you to take power of your pelvic floor and know that your pelvic health includes so much and impacts you day to day, your bladder, your bowel, your menstrual health, your pain throughout your low back, your abdomen, your pelvic floor itself, your sexual functioning, your fertility, your pelvic health is.
So much so take power of it and I'm here to help you get there if you need it, and I will see you next time.
