to expect more from my pelvic floor!

[thrillsandpills]

aibu to expect to be able to do a fairly- jumpy-around aerobics class without coming out of it smelling like wee, i'm only 43! (although have had 3 children) - still i expect more from my pelvic floor, godammit, i refuse to turn into an old smelly wee lady just yet

I follow a woman on twitter called @GussieGrips. She is a pelvic floor expert, if you are on there get in touch with her. Plus she tweets every day reminding all her followers to do their pelvic floor exercises. She may well be on here too, think she has mentioned mumsnet on there.

Yanbu BTW, but I believe there is still hope!

Y'know, I was going to mention gussiegrips too - she's definitely on here . And clench!

Excellent. Just tweeted her, so hopefully she will make her way over.

great, thanks for the advice but.....be gentle with me here...does that mean i actually have to join this twitter thing!

Order the Kari Bo Core Wellness DVD. It's free from www.corewellness.co.uk and do it 3 times a week til the leaks stop and once a week after that. Or pester your GP for a gynae physio appointment.

Not necessarily. She is a MNer, so hopefully she will reply to you on here.

The twitter thing is dead good though, but that's another thread.

GussieGrips has got a thread running here , although it's not about pelvic floors as such. unless you count a prolapsed quail

Swoooop. (that's me flying in with my cape crocheted together out of tena pads)

Sorry to have not responded - been attending to a minor drama at Chez Gusset. All sorted now.

So, to answer your question - yes, you should expect more from your pelvic floor.

And, you're not unusual sorry, if that sounds like a judgement 1:3 women aged 35-55 pish themselves a bit. Happily, the evidence is that 70-80% can be cured by doing pelvic floor exercises. Cured, as in, cured. Not as in, "not too bad if I do yoga but I can't manage zumba"

The problem is that we don't really talk about it properly - it remains a taboo subject, which is a shame as it's sooooo common. Seriously, look at your aerobics class and you'll find yourself guessing which of them has got a pad wodged up against their crotch (usually the ones with a sweatshirt tied round her waist).

The disappointing thing is you have to do the exercises daily. And, that's after 3 months of doing them 3 times a day. If you don't do them they don't work (this isn't rocket science) and you'll leak.

Also, it's a progressive thing. 50% of women over the age of 50 have some sort of prolapse. You know, when your fanny falls out. Like, in stages, bit by bit, not all of a sudden. But, if you want to scare yourself into complying - read the thread for folk with prolapses - that's not funny at all.

Up to a grade 2 prolapse can be treated conservatively by pelvic floor exercises, weight management yawn, good bowel management and avoiding stuff like heavy lifting. Beyond that, there's pessaries to wodge it all back up there (even a couple of types which can stay in place when you have sex, bargain) or an op to sling it where it belongs.

I've got a really bad website (must get around to doing something to tart it up a bit) and there's a page on there with the exercises - www.gussetgrippers.weebly.com which I'll link to rather than writing it all out again as I'm off on the school run in a mo. ie, I'm not trying to advertise, not selling anything!

And, I'm using twitter as a training tool - cos you'll forget to do them, we all do. @gussiegrips, when I tweet, you twitch your twinkle. And, no, twitter's not compulsory - get into the habit of doing them when you brush your teeth, or, set your phone with a ringtone to do them (if I were being funny I'd suggest anything by wet wet wet)

Will write more in a bit, just nipping out to get the only miniGrip who's at school today. Pathetic kids, the Grips.

Oh, and remind me to tell you about pessaries you can buy. There's a good study suggesting htat if you are doing something where you'd wear a sports bra that you should be using internal support too.

And, then, don't let me start ranting on about how pelvic floors are feminist issues and that if men were rendered incontinent and sexually dissatisfied by parenthood then something more would be done about it tan "oh well, you're a mum now "

Isn't somebody's MN username something like Remindertodopelvicfloorexercises? I am grateful every time i see a post from her as it does indeed remind me!

I am a little bit in love with gussiegrips

She knows her stuff, that's for sure.

Have had my own issues with overactive bladder and urge incontinence this year, and your info and manner have been a great help GG. I initially did a search when I first had the symptoms (ie nearly pissed myself putting the key in my front door) and one of your threads came up.

Have been on Mirabegron for about 6 weeks now which has helped considerably, am now waiting for physio with a view to coming off the medication altogether.

Couldn't agree more with your final point.

Lots of options for you OP, good luck!

I sorted mine by taking the advice from a mate and it was this. Buy a (cheap) digital watch that can be set to beep every hour. Every time you hear the beep, do 20 squeezes. You will soon be doing squeezes to any beep which is alarming at the supermarket checkout but....it worked for me. Within six weeks the most worrying aspect of this had gone and it's a great way to maintain the progress.

Hmm I'm glad I found this. I've had very slight stress incontinence problems for a while - but only when I'm vomiting ( rare occurrence) or have a bad cough (also usually rare). However I got a cold in mid-October that led to a chest infection and a lot of coughing ( still not totally got rid of cough) and I found that the stress incontinence has suddenly got a lot worse ans is a problem with much more mild coughing.

Gussie - thanks for you website and exercises. Is it right that the 10, 10, 3 means that you do the first 2 exercises 10 times and the last one 3 times ( and then you repeat all of this 3 times a day) ?

try these

OK, so should you expect to have perfect bladder control at all times or would you say that someone who has had 5 children, drunk 3 pints of water and then got on an Olympic strength trampoline should expect to have a moment of panic? before dashing to the loo!

Kegal balls?

(Is that even how it's spelt?)

The link Ovary posted-that's what u need...

Sorry to have been a bit tardy - things at mine have been chaotic. Sigh.

Right, first of all, thanks for the love - am all puffed up.

Goingtobed - yep, bladder thingies like urgency and frequency respond remarkably well to a bit of medication and habit training. I was speaking to a continence nurse who says she has about an 80% success rate in everyone, that includes people with neurological impairments. Which is astonishing. Google "bladder diary" - I'll try and find a good link, but from memory, the American kidney association had a good one. It's amatter of thinking "I need to pee" and not going straight away, hang on for 30 seconds. Then, another, and another etc. The association between getting to your front door and going for a pee can be a strong one - I nearly drowned my neighbour once. Socially awkward.

Dinnae - you are absolutely right, it's the keeping-it-up that matters. Well done on you, that's a huge amount of dedication to make it habitual. Totally worth it, no?

Educating - also really common. The coughcoughcough is like RSI for your fanjo. Do the exs and, if it doesn't get better, get referred.

Exs are: "we won't pee with a 10, 10, 3"

1. Hold for a count of 10 secs
2. do 10 quick flicks in a row
3. imagine you've got a tiny wee lift in your vag. Take it to the first, second and third floor and lower it back down again.

so, one single hold x10secs, one block of 10 flicks, and one long, increasing contraction.

The important thing is to RELAX between each exercise. And, if you get pain, or, if it doesn't work - get referred.

Ovary - yep, there's loads of gadgets online. some are great, some are guff. There's no evidence (that I'm aware of) to say that gadgets work better than just doing your exercises on their own - but, there is a suggestion that if you've spent cold, hard cash on something you're more inclined to commit to the exercises. Which is only logical.

Most of them work because if you bung anything into your coochie your pelvic floor will automatically contract. So, that's how pessaries etc work. incostress is a commercially available pessary, it acts like a crutch under your bladder - so, if you leak when you run and you want to go to zumba then there's a suggestion that you should be using internal support.

There are other products, kegel8 have a huge site, with lots of evidence based gadgetry.

I'm personally not so enthusiastic about pelvictoner - he's got good evidence behind it, but, well, it's a bit pinchy. Ask me how I know...

And, you have to be careful as some gadgets wouldn't be advisable if you had something like a prolapse. and, loads of folk don't know they've got a prolapse.

From a physiological point of view there is no difference between buying an adult toy like loveballs, or buying vaginal cones. None. So, if the idea of buying an incontinence product makes you mortified - rock on down to your sex site and get something similar there which will let you kid on that you are just in touch with your sexuality.

Sexual function is part of the job of your pelvic floor - so, it's perfectly appropriate to use something a bit "sheckshee". You are a grown up, you are entitled to an orgasm.

To be perfectly frank - if you are looking at spending money on your fallen fanny, spend it on a private physio referral. Bespoke treatment and advice is always going to work better than buying something online - though, I appreciate that it's a brave thing to show your undercarriage to someone.

But, believe me, seen one low-swinging-chariot, you've seen em all.

Just - good question.

In theory, yep, everyone can be completely continent even after zillions of babies.

But, there are things which will increase your risk: birth trauma being the most obvious one. and, the more babies you have, the more that risk increases.

A tear/episiotomy are just damage to a muscle - so, you've got to work to get it back to good function, just like if you tore your calf you'd have to work at it to get rid of a limp when you run.

And, there does come a point where any muscle system will be overloaded - 3 pints of "water" on a trampoline would be a challenge for even my ninja-level pelvic floor.

So, if you don't have any other symptoms, any other time, I'd breathe a sigh of relief and just nip for a pee before trampolining.

water, yeah, right,

Thanks gussie for clarifying the exercises! I am now working on a "think pelvic floor exercises (pfe), do pelvic floor exercises" regime which led to the following today:
Singing at the front of church to help lead worship. Quiet bit with prayers. Thinks pfe does pfe. Nobody could tell and anyway they should all have been concentrating on praying.

Has anyone else done pfe in unusual situations? Perhaps we could have a competition?

so - it is tricky. If you want to fix your bingo wings you've got a vague idea about what your arm muscles do, so it makes sense.

Try doing them lying on your belly - that offsets the effect of gravity. If you can't feel anything, lie over a couple of pillows, which further helps gravity. If you still can't feel anything, bung something into your vagina that you can squeeze (NHS usually recommends a finger, disnae have to be. Just be careful incase it's something that could give you a splinter - tricky to explain at A+E). If you still can't feel anything - take yourself to see a medic or physio for some help.

It's a bit like riding a bike - once you've got the hang of it, it's a doddle.

There is a thing called an "educator" by Neen which is a bit like a plastic tampon with a stick attached. It sounds hideous, but works well - you bung it in, contract your pelvic floor, and if you are cheating by using your abs the stick will twitch up the way. If you are all clever and only usuing your pf muscles, then it twitches down the way.

So, if it's too awful to contemplate taking your floppy fanjo to show someone,t hat's another option. It's designed by physios and has good evidence behind it. (I don't work for Neen!)

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