Who here actually does pelvic floor exercises??

[ICanTuckMyBoobsInMyPockets]

And how do you remind yourself?
I've just started gone back to exercise in general and got a bit of a shock when a little bit of wee came out when I ran .
I was so paranoid I hardly moved the rest of the session.
I know I need to do them, surely I can't be the only one who does 2 squeezes then starts making a shopping list in my head?
Come on, spill not wee

Ahhh Nanky I love you. Yep now doing my pelvic floors

I only do them when I see something which reminds me. So maybe once every few months.

I don't pee myself, either.

Just lucky, I suppose!

Dylis LOL! You are so right! It would be a public service for all woman (and man!)-kind.

My pf is rather good! I've also had 5 fan births! Never an accident yet I have got to have an op on my arse instead though! Grade 4 piles!!! Not sure which is worse!

Lol nanky, you have cheered me up no end :)

Serious question though, can pfes make a real difference where rectocele and/or cystocele exists?

I do pfes regularly, but still have stress and urge inco. Inspite of previous physio (pre forceps delivery of dc3) only having a moderate effect, I've been referred back to physios. Not sure how pfes will help the gaping holes in the walls of my fanjo at the entrance, but realise I am not an expert. And I've read that only surgery can fix rectocele and cystocele.

Sorry you've got that going on, LackaDaisy - that sucks.

recto/cystoceles are essentially hernias in your uterus. The uterus is supported by long gristly bits of, well, gristly tendons. Think of them a bit like a spider's web pulling the uterus up into your pelvis so it looks like an inflated balloon.

Pregnancy, birth and age can damage the "strings" of the spider's web. So, some parts of the uterus can start to sag, a bit like a deflating balloon. That means that the other pelvic organs can drop down into the uterus...and beyond. The vagina can prolapse entirely out of your foofoo and that's just unpleasant.

Now, imagine you are looking down through your pelvis towards your feet. The pelvis is just a circle of bone. The thing that's holding all your guts in place is your pelvic floor. The muscles sit like a sling under the base of your pelvis. If it's a tight sling, there's great support, if not, then the pressure in your abdomen (when you cough/sneeze), or the weight of your full bladder can be too much for the saggy wee muscles to cope with - and you wet yourself.

So, yes, having a rock hard set of PFM's will help people with an ocele in that it will support the organs from below and reduce the leaking. But, if the uterus is like a saggy balloon and you have bits of your gut slipping into it - well, that's too much pressure in the wrong place and no, conservative management won't put the air back in your uterus-shaped balloon.

So, a small cystocele and a woman who's prepared to be a PF athlete - might improve sufficiently so you can get away without surgery. A bigger cystocele...doesn't matter what you do, gravity and the laws of physics will stop you from being able to manage it effectively. Get the surgeons to sling it back where it should be.

howevah - doing the exs pre op will aid your recovery and reduce the risk of it happening again - remember, these ligaments stretch with age (so, you may well have had eleventy-billion kids and be able to shoot ping pong balls at will, but give it ten years and you might find things are not quite as taught as you thought. Do Your Exercises!)

So, my advice would be - see the physio. But, see a specialist in Wimmins Ishoos. Your hospital or community service will have a continence specialist - that's who you want. They have all sorts of biofeedback devices and usually are involved with the urological studies you should be being subjected to having.

There's little point in your GP referring you to someone like me - I know enough to deal with the basics, but would panic slightly if you had bits of your innards dragging along the floor.

Dylis - that's a great idea. We should get the BBC in on the act too.

Or alan Rickman could give us a ring to remind us?

MuTu is awesome for pelvic floor - teaches you to use it all the time in the way you breathe, walk, lift, carry etc rather than having to remember to do specific exercises.

I just have sex, much more fun :)

Nanky - you have another fan here. I love those descriptions.

Dear lovely MN - can you move this out of Chat? So that when I forget next month and want to remind myself what I promised I would do, the thread is still floating around.

Would anyone mind?

report the thread and they will do it for you :)

I developed a cystocele and rectocele after having 3 large babies with very quick deliveries.

I saw a marvellous, marvellous pelvic floor physio

I become obsessed with pfe. In the end I was subconciously doing them all the time. I always held them at about 50% when walking. I do not have any issues with the prolapses now - I can't seem to feel them anymore unless I go running (which I've sadly given up - although may resume with a new 'cube' product I've seen...). I have no incontinence issues at all which is surpising as my anatomy looks differnt now on ultrasound.

I bought one of those pelvic toners after reading the stuff on here (marketing disguised as a survey but hey ho). Its been fantastic I have to say, despite me being super cynical about it. Definite noticeable improvement within a week. Have taken up running and my pelvic floor really wasnt up to 5k on a treadmill before but am loads better now.

So... nanky, are you in Scotland?

(Have just started using the Aquaflex, fingers and other parts crossed that it actually works too... I dream of running without Bulgy Crotch Syndrome.)

You had me there, Ghastly - "how did she figure that out?" I was wondering. What a muppet.

Yes, I'm in Edinburgh. But, I'm not a continence specialist - I did some stuff on pelvic floors and core stability as part of a postgrad.

Colleagues started putting the PF referrals on my list because I'm completely unembarrassable - it's only a muscle like any other. And, getting your pf sorted can be life changing. I don't say that lightly - truly, people can become continence cripples because they are not confident that they can be dry long enough to do the things they want.

My background's in sports stuff, but now I am into getting properly elderly folk to exercise - love it.

Most of them have pelvic-dragging-on-the-floors...so, I get to lecture away to my heart's content.

Glad you've had good results, ladies - be vocal about it! If it was up to me we'd have fanjo evangelism - makes me so annoyed that women think it's an acceptable side effect of breeding and ageing. No need for it.

Reported thread. Hope it sticks.

nanky how come my fanjo was stretched enormously by a huge baby forceps, but although I could barely feel sex + felt someone had driven a bus out of me, I still never leaked? Is it possible to be very baggy but totally continent IYSWIM? (pf fully recovered now after months and months of faithful exercises and what a joy to have strength back)

I have found the best way to work out which muscles are your pelvic floor muscles is to stop your wee mid-flow. The muscles you use then are your pelvic floor muscles.

Madmomma - yes, is the short answer.

Continence is a balance of lots of different things. Your bladder has a muscle lining, and it is this muscle that's primarily responsible for letting you know when you need to pee.

As your bladder fills, it stretches. So the muscle (the detruser muscle) gets stretched. That's the feeling of needing a pee. When you are in control of your continence you can subconsciously contract your pelvic floor muscles which will hold the neck of your bladder shut - and give you time to get to the loo.

When you sit down to pee, the detruser muscle contracts, squishes the bladder - and you get to talk to the kids because they've followed you into the toilet.

But. If your pf is a bit weak, and your bladder is full, and you cough - the abdominal pressure that creates can be too much for your muscles to keep the neck of the bladder shut - and, woops.

You get a wee leak, enough to make your knickers wet but not so much that it's noticeable to anyone else. That's stress incontinence - add extra stress to the muscle and you leak a bit.

But, you know you've just wet yourself. So, you go to the loo more often - don't want THAT to happen again! And, then you get into the cycle of peeing when your bladder is not actually full - so the detruser muscle gets used to less stretch, so it tells you to pee earlier than it used to, so you pee every ten minutes because you are bursting...even though there's not that much pee to come out. That's urinary frequency.

So, it might be that you had really great pf control before the instrument delivery. Or, that you are a naturallly stretchy person and have muscles that stretched really well, so snapped back. Or, that you don't drink as much liquid as other people, or that you are more active than the average mamma and lose fluid as sweat.

I'm glad you are back to normal - and am secretly hoping that you have a smashing elastic fanjo incase you go for more babies!

puds - yep, that will let you know you are contracting the right muscles, as long as you have enough power to alter the flow of pee.

Just once a week though. A bit like weighing yourself, do it too often and it makes you go a bit funny.

Hi there
We are going to move this thread out of chat to ensure it remains water tight

But do keep bumped to keep in active

I do mine when washing my hands after going to the toilet, try and remember to do them at traffic lights too. Just pick an activity maybe washing the pots and do them everything you do it.