3 ways pelvic health gets overlooked
It’s sad to say that even in 2024, pelvic health and pelvic floor symptoms do get overlooked.
Here are 3 reasons why I think this is…
It's been normalised (and often dismissed)
And this is something we may do to ourselves too!
How often have you heard the following:
“What do you expect, you’ve had a baby/babies”
“It’s JUST part of getting older/being menopausal”
“No one I know will even get on a trampoline”
Once something is normalised, this is what women are told and their symptoms often dismissed. This is not OK.
It's so common
Particularly amongst female athletes.
Research by Elks et al in 2020 showed that leaking affected up to 50% of all women whilst exercising and 84% of those who do CrossFit.
Stats on female rugby players show that 63-88% of female rugby players had stress urinary incontinence with 43% having rugby related stress incontinence (McCarthy-Ryan et al, 2024)
It's ignored (or provocative activities are avoided)
It can be so much easier to avoid certain activities or put addressing them at the bottom of your to-do list while you look after everyone else.
Research by Dakic et al, 2021 showed that 46% of those experiencing pelvic floor symptoms stopped exercising and 42% who experienced symptoms in high impact exercise, stopped participation.
But here’s the thing…research shows that if someone is leaking with exercise, they are 9 x more likely to leak later in life (Bo & Sundgot-Borgen, 2010). Plus we can’t avoid the need for more strength and impact based activities as women age – for both muscle and bone mass.
I can guarantee you are not the only one leaking in your gym class. Or the only woman in your office experiencing prolapse symptoms. And you are not the only one saying “mummy can’t do that” to your little one.
Here are 3 things that can help
Education – understanding how your pelvic floor and whole body works. Even research shows that education can help improve symptoms.
Thinking beyond just the pelvic floor – the pelvic floor interacts with the rest of your body (and brain) so you may need a solution that goes further than just pelvic floor exercises.
How movement and movement strategies can help – how you can incorporate the pelvic floor into training and find a symptom free threshold to keep nudging along.
Interested in a FREE PELVIC FLOOR SESSION where I’ll be talking about an active approach to pelvic floor rehab? Click the link here to sign up
Beth Davies is a highly experienced personal trainer and coach with over 10 years experience in coaching pregnant, post-natal, or female athlete clients with pelvic floor dysfunction. Her programmes educate, empower and support women back to training or their active life, eliminating symptoms and building strength and confidence. She has been featured in women’s lifestyle magazines and websites, including Stylist, Metro, Woman & Home and Marie Claire UK
Beth’s trains and coaches women with pelvic organ prolapse or who are pregnant or post-natal, and provides 1:1 and face-to-face personal training in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, and online across the UK and Europe.