Pelvic floor rehabilitation

The pelvic floor

To start, we looked up the definition of this word — rarely used in our everyday vocabulary and little known. So let's start from the beginning: the perineum is a region located between the anus and the genitals, divided into two equal parts by a midline called the raphe. To put it more simply, the perineum is the muscle that surrounds and supports the external genitalia of a woman, running from the vulva to the anus.

The pelvic floor is found in both men and women but differs slightly. In women, it encompasses the lower end of the digestive, urinary and genital tracts, and in men, it contains the lower end of the digestive tract, and only part of the urinary and genital tracts.

If you want to know where it is located inside you, the best way is to sit up straight and imagine you are holding in a "fart". Not very classy, we'll grant you that, but very effective for targeting this area, as you won't be contracting your buttock muscles but rather the entire pelvic floor area.

We will focus more specifically on the female pelvic floor, known as the "pelvic floor", in order to explain how it works and what it does.

The tissues that make up the pelvic floor muscle help to support the organs and the structure of the lower abdomen, whilst controlling the opening of the vagina, anus and urethra. All these muscles are actively controlled by the brain and spinal cord.

The perineum is a muscle used daily during urination, but also during sexual intercourse, as it plays a key role in the quality of our orgasms.

Pelvic floor rehabilitation

Pelvic floor rehabilitation is not exclusively reserved for post-partum women. Because yes, ladies, there's no age limit for having a rock-solid pelvic floor!

It is during a woman's life that certain key moments can be identified during which she should undergo pelvic floor rehabilitation for therapeutic gold preventive purposes. This is because the muscles are subjected to significant pressure, largely caused by pelvic floor dysfunction due to hormonal changes.

First and foremost, your pelvic floor needs to be toned in order to ensure good control of your urinary and digestive functions. Over time, your pelvic floor may relax, for a whole host of reasons such as:

- pregnancy

- menopause

- age

- intensive sport, etc.

This can cause minor urinary leaks during exertion, gold even urinary gold faecal incontinence. Not very glamorous at all!

Pelvic floor rehabilitation has many advantages, including being very easy to incorporate into everyday life, as it requires little equipment and can be practised with a healthcare professional gold at home. To undergo pelvic floor rehabilitation with a physiotherapist gold midwife, your GP gold gynaecologist has deemed it appropriate to prescribe sessions for you due to an intimate dysfunction.

But you may also feel the need yourself to tone your pelvic floor, whether for incontinence issues gold for your sex life. In that case, a whole range of exercises is available to help you get your pelvic floor back in shape (so to speak)!

Rehabilitating and toning your pelvic floor at home on your own

Ladies, many of you wonder which are the best accessories to maintain and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles at home, without necessarily consulting a specialist.

For this reason, there are different levels of tonicity depending on your pelvic floor: you will find many very suitable accessories to maintain your pelvic floor and work it while controlling your pelvic muscles.

At Passage du Désir, we have selected the best products on the market, to make your choice easier.

Kegel balls

We will start with an accessory that is still very much misunderstood by people. Many believe that kegel balls, which are inserted into the vagina, were specifically designed to stimulate and provide pleasure to women (which is not entirely true).

In fact, kegel balls are designed to strengthen the pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor muscles naturally contract automatically to retain the kegel balls inside your vagina. You can wear them at any time of day while going about your daily activities. This practice is called the passive method, as you don't even realise that your pelvic floor is working on its own. Then there is the active method: while doing Kegel exercises, you become aware of the different contractions of your pelvic floor.

The two possible uses of kegel balls will allow you to tone and strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.

There are two types of kegel balls: those with a fixed weight gold with variable weight.

— Fixed-weight kegel balls: If you choose this model, you need to have a perineum that is not too weakened in order to be able to retain them. Fixed-weight kegel balls are presented in the form of two balls, with a fixed weight of 80 g in general. They are most often recommended for maintaining pelvic floor muscles, so if you have just given birth, do not choose this model unless your perineum has more gold less recovered.

— Variable-weight kegel balls: These variable-weight models are specifically designed for women with a weak pelvic floor (as well as minor everyday intimate discomfort), as they may not have enough strength to retain fixed-weight kegel balls, which is why they need lighter weights.

Connected biofeedback device:

There are currently interactive connected devices specially designed for the pelvic floor that work like a session with a physiotherapist. When you are at your midwife's or physiotherapist's, during the session, you must contract your pelvic floor when the device signals you to do so. The probe inserted into your vagina transmits measurements to the screen so you can visualise your contraction in real time.

The connected devices available at Passage du Désir work on the same principle! You have the connected pelvic floor probe from Perifit, which consists of the vaginal probe equipped with sensory sensors and its downloadable app. 

We have the latest release from LELO, the Luna Smart Bead which is intuitive so no need to download an app. It is equipped with sensors that respond to contractions, allowing it to determine the training that suits you best. All you have to do is contract the moment you feel the small vibrations, and when they stop, you relax. You'll be able to progress through its five vibration levels.

All of this is to say that if you take good care of your pelvic floor, your sex life will only improve, as a strong pelvic floor multiplies orgasms tenfold (a word to the wise)!! So ladies, when do we start??