Mmm Lindor - blush
Right, girls, hunker down.
The FACT is that 1:3 of mumsnet readership piss themselves. If you want references, I'll happily PM them to you - but meanwhile, reflect that tena is Big Business, and that exists for a reason.
And, Hanikam I am glad you don't have this bother. But, look at your pals. A third of them wee when they squee.
They are embarrassed. Their self esteem suffers. They become depressed. Their sex life dissolves - apart from worrying that she is reeking of pish, she's got no hope of having an orgasm because her saggy muscles won't let her. They stop going out to play incase they need a wee and disgrace themselves in public - because, the fact is that it is excruciatingly embarrassing.
But, if a THIRD of us do it - why should that be? And, by the way, that's a third of women aged 35-55. Once you are over 55 it's 50%. Don't think that not having had kids will save you. Or that having casearians will. These are risk factors, not insurance policies.
And, whilst I've I'm on my high horse - it's not just wee. Women poo themselves. You get yourself a hernia in your vagina like a rectocele and you might find you can't poo, or are fecally incontinent. Ghastly way to live, you either shove it all back up there with your fingers inside your vagina, or you use a tool, or you get yourself a douche prescribed. Oh yeah, and you can have your bladder sitting in the way, or the whole jingbang can just fall right out.
Did you all know that? No, course not. That's my fault. I'm a physio, and my profession does not do enough to teach you all about WHY you need to know about your pelvic floor and why you want to have a smashing one.
A third of us have pelvic floor weakness. Of that third, 40% have prolapses. It's a political disgrace that women are living with these distressing, painful, unrelenting conditions. These are women you know. Women who laugh about trampolines as being an unobtainable ambition, but who might not be sharing that they pish themselves during sex.
And, yes, menfolks have duff pelvic floors too. Got a man who farts when he gets up out of the chair? Drives you crazy with his skid marks? Dribbles all over your bathroom floor? Has premature ejaculation? He doesn't need to put up with it either... but men's continence is even more of a taboo than ours.
I want a mumsnet campaign. The good thing is that, just doing yerblardyexercises WILL help and can cure (depending on whether you've just got stress incontinence or have prolapse, and to which degree that is)...who's with me? I have woad.
Seriously though - don't put up with it. See your GP. See a women's health physio, a continence nurse, or feel free to PM me.
Don't ignore it. Google image "vaginal prolapse" if you need convincing. And, let's bust this taboo. I love the smell of taboo busting in the morning....
(best not do that google search at work, kai?)