Hypertonic pelvic floor

[HRTORNOT1]

Does anyone else have hypertonic / tight pelvic floor and can offer any advice? I’ve got it really bad. Constant burning and pinching, nearly always in pain. I’m so annoyed as the GP said I needed to do pelvic floor exercises as I had some very small leaks so I followed that advice and did Kegels three times a day and then all this pain started. I have seen a pelvic floor physio and I’m doing the diaphragmatic breathing she advised but doesn’t even seem to make much difference. I’m scared I’ll feel like this forever :(

Yoga helped mine. Don't do pelvic floor exercises they'll tighten it more. Look up Dr Bri on youtube

Yes the physio told me to never do pelvic floor exercises again. I stopped them several weeks ago. I’ve being doing yoga as well. How long did it take for yours to get better @HulkHogansHair ?

3 to 4 months. Did the physio manually down train your pelvis ?

Are you using vaginal estrogen @HRTORNOT1? This may also be contributing to the issue.

Yoga with Adriene has a pelvic floor video specifically for this!

I have had this most of my life, but only realised in my 30s. The only thing that helps is massage - I know, weird, but it will help

Sorry meant to add

Extended/ wide child's pose can also help

And, it may be that your PF is tight because it is having to take the burden of other muscles not working properly. This is quite common
For example, glutes or adductors not doing their job, or being themselves too tight and "pulling" on the PF

I would strongly suggest sports physio to look holistically. People often talk about the PF like it's all on its own. It's not, it's a part of a wider functional system.

I had Lichen Sclerosus and it was treated promptly, went into remission. But I still had pain. At first docs thought it was nerve pain but then decided it was that my pelvic floor was anticipating pain so the muscles were tensing up. I saw a pelvic floor physio for about 6 sessions, did breathing exercises but to be honest the best thing was when my mind was on something else i.e. gardening, gym, looking after grandchildren anything really that took my mind of it. I do think swimming helped. Good luck.

She got me to do diaphragmatic breathing and to bare down.

Yes but I had this problem before starting the vaginal oestrogen. Would the oestrogen make it better or worse?

What type of massage? Internal pelvic floor or something else?

Did it get better in the end?

Apologies I meant vaginal atrophy could be causing some of your symptoms so it is good that you are on topical estrogen.

Edited to say sorry for quoting the wrong post above.

She should have done an internal massage to release the tension in the pelvis.

I bought a pelvic wand on the advice of my women's physio. She showed me how to use it to release the tightness. Also got Vagifem pessaries.

Yes I was starting to get vaginal atrophy and the oestrogen pessary has really made a difference there.

I’ll ask her about that at my next session.

Pilates really helps with PF issues. You learn much better control of all the muscles in your core and how to activate them.

@HRTORNOT1 it did get better. I have odd days where I can feel the muscles are tense and sore but I know it will pass. I think the problem at first was because it was painful I would get stressed, which caused it to stay painful. It is hard to switch off. That is when going for a swim or a walk would help.

I just massage around the area externally (it is not sexy! Just the muscly bits). For me it's worse on one side than the other which backs up someone's comment above that it's compensating for other weaker muscles, and a bad posture/gait. (My glutes are weak!) I have been to a physio and it's better than 10y ago but it's hard to keep up with exercises

Thanks everyone for your replies. It’s such a horrible condition isn’t it. I can’t even tell when I need to pee anymore. Sometimes I just get bladder squeezes rather than the usual pressure. But most of the time it’s constant burning and pinching and I don’t know when I really need to go or it’s just the pelvic floor pinching :(