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become displaced and sag down into the vagina. It is very common
in Australia and New Zealand and occurs in about 40% of women.
Symptoms tend to become exacerbated towards the end of each
day and if left untreated, they will generally worsen over time.
- in men, this may be felt as a bulge in the rectum or a
feeling of needing to use the bowels but not actually needing to go.
Like other muscles in your body, the pelvic floor can be
strengthened with regular exercise. Building pelvic floor strength
enables the muscles to better support your pelvic organs, improves
your bladder and bowel control and can stop accidental urine,
faeces or wind leakage.
It can also reduce your risk of prolapse, improve your recovery from
childbirth and gynaecological surgery, and increase your sexual
pleasure. A continence therapist can help you learn how to exercise
your pelvic floor.
Doing just a few pelvic floor exercises every day will help to treat
bladder weakness or prolapse symptoms, and will help to prevent
problems later on.
3. HOW TO PERFORM PELVIC FLOOR EXERCISES
Once the "Elise" has helped you develop control of the pelvic floor
muscles and built muscle strength, it is recommended to make
Pelvic Floor Exercises (sometimes called Kegel Exercises) part of
your daily life. Kegel exercises can be done at any time and are
very discreet so you can do them almost anywhere; lying in bed,
sitting at the computer or waiting for a bus. It is a good idea to try
and develop a routine which you can repeat each day.
First of all, it is important to find your pelvic floor muscles and feel
them working. So here are a couple of techniques which might help:
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1) Try inserting one or two clean fingers into your vagina and then
squeezing the surrounding muscles, lifting up and towards your belly
button – a squeezing and lifting sensation.
2) Another way is to try and stop the flow of urine during urination. If
you are successful then you know you are exercising the correct
muscles.
Note: These techniques are just to help you confirm that you are
using the correct muscles. It is important to have an empty bladder
before starting the exercises.
•
Try to remember the lifting and squeezing sensation and when
you are ready try to recreate it just using the muscles you
identified earlier; don't tense the muscles in your legs, stomach
or buttocks and remember to breathe normally.
•
Aim to hold each squeeze or 'contraction' for between three and
five seconds, then release and relax. You should feel a 'letting
go' of the muscles. Rest for five seconds and then repeat. Try
and do about ten squeezes in this way. Repeat the whole
process three or four times a day.
•
Over a period of time try to increase the muscle contractions up
to about ten seconds, but remember to rest in between each
squeeze for longer periods.
Note: It is important to aim for quality contractions, not quantity, so a
few good hard squeezes are better than a series of weak ones.
Do not worry if you find holding for 3 seconds difficult at first. Just
squeeze for as long as you feel comfortable. The more exercise you
do, the stronger the muscles will become and the longer you will be
able to squeeze.
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