Kegel Queen: Recent Episodes
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We’re all human beings, of course. But after an encounter with the health care industry, it’s easy to feel less like a human being and more like a cog in the vast Big Health machine. Health care settings often feel and function like factories. The patient is the product, proceeding through an assembly line of receptionists, technical assistants, providers, and labs. The system is demoralizing and dehumanizing, not just to patients, but [...]
INNOVO urinary incontinence treatment “shorts” suddenly seem to be everywhere. Kegel Queen members are asking me about them, they’ve been on TV, and women are even receiving promotions in the mail. But there’s one big mistake to avoid with INNOVO. What’s the mistake? Using INNOVO. What is INNOVO? INNOVO is a device that delivers low-voltage electric current, like an itty bitty shock, to stimulate your muscles to contract, including your pelvic floor muscles. Your pelvic floor [...]
“These two threads that run through our life — one pulling us into the world to achieve and make things happen, the other pulling us back from the world to nourish and replenish ourselves — can seem at odds, but in fact they reinforce each other.” ― Arianna Huffington, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time Angela is a working mom in her fifties with teenage kids. (Angela is [...]
Beth* is a Kegel Queen member who suffers from Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), an inherited connective tissue disorder. Six weeks after joining the Kegel Queen Program, Beth wrote to me. Lightly edited for clarity and privacy, this is Beth’s story. Hi Alyce, I was able to reverse my stage 3–4 prolapses (both cystocele [prolapsed bladder] and rectocele [prolapsed rectum]) with a combination of kegels, breathing exercises, and posture work. I caught bronchitis [two and a half [...]
Rebecca’s Story Like millions of women, Kegel Queen® member Rebecca* suffered with vaginal dryness after menopause. Nothing she couldn’t live with, just a minor daily discomfort. Then, to address a completely unrelated health issue, Rebecca — who happens to be a medical doctor — started taking coenzyme Q10. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10, also called ubiquinone) is a chemical found in every cell in your body. It’s an essential part of your cells’ ability to turn [...]
My number one secret to staying in shape? Short workouts. A few minutes of strength training in the morning (in my home office, usually in my pajamas) is something I can easily commit to and easily achieve. And I’m thrilled with the results: this is the strategy that got me, in my mid-forties, into the best shape of my life. Recently I’ve been looking for a way to optimize [...]
Anaïs Salibian practices and teaches Rosen Method Bodywork. In Rosen work, the practitioner lays hands on the client, using gentle touch and words rather than manipulation, to help the client discover and release patterns of tension. This allows the client to experience greater emotional freedom and more joy, and often results in healing from chronic health conditions. Anaïs is also a writer, and offers classes on writing memoirs and writing to heal. Anaïs [...]
If you’ve ever attended a childbirth class, you’ve heard a lot about kegels. But what if most of what your teacher told you was wrong? You might have had the smartest, nicest, most caring, most conscientious childbirth teacher in the world. But if she was like 99 percent of childbirth teachers out there, she was wrong about kegels — when to do them, how to do them, and why. What Are Kegels, and [...]
How can this be such a huge secret? Millions of women suffer with vaginal prolapse: up to half of all women over 50 years old. One in five U.S. women will have dangerous surgery to treat this condition. (One in five! This could be you, or someone you love, if you don’t take action to avoid it.) In spite of these enormous numbers of women affected, most women have never heard about prolapse, [...]
Women often ask me about rectal prolapse: do kegels help? There are two types of rectal prolapse, and the answer is different for each one. First, let’s look at some definitions. The rectum is part of your large intestine. It’s the last part of the large intestine that feces (a.k.a. poop) moves through before it gets to the anus. The anus is the opening. I’ve noticed that people seem to really hate using the [...]
The term “prolapse” in this article refers to pelvic organ prolapse, or vaginal prolapse: prolapsed bladder (cystocele), prolapsed rectum (rectocele), prolapsed small intestine (enterocele), or prolapsed uterus. I know two sisters. They’re real people, but I won’t use their real names. Let’s call them Deena and Lydia. They both live in their hometown, and they’re good friends. They work together to take care of their aging parents and spend holidays together. When Lydia [...]
Are your muscles saggy, or toned? That’s a question you can easily answer about your arms, your abs, or your thighs. But what about your vagina? Did you know you even have muscles there? Or that they can be just as saggy — or just as fit — as any other muscle in your body?
What Are the Vagina Muscles?
The muscles around your vagina are part of the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is a bowl of muscle between your legs. It’s a hammock of muscle and connective tissue that does many different jobs in your body, including holding your insides where they belong (i.e., inside you). The pelvic floor muscles surround the vagina, giving the vagina its tone, structure, and firmness.
What Do the Pelvic Floor Muscles Do?
The pelvic floor is something most women don’t think about, or even know about, until something goes wrong. When it’s not working right, the pelvic floor can cause big trouble, because the jobs it does in your body are so important.
Here’s some of what the pelvic floor does for you, every day:
*The pelvic floor controls your bladder and bowel release.* These muscles decide when you pee and poo — and this one is really important — when you don’t pee and poo.
The pelvic floor stabilizes the base of your spine. Care for a little back pain, anyone? No? I didn’t think so. The very end of your spine, the sacrum and tailbone, are connected to your pelvic floor. Pelvic floor problems can affect the tailbone and sacrum, and move like dominoes up the bones of your spine.
The pelvic floor holds your organs in place. Who knew this was such an important job? Don’t organs just stay where they’re supposed to be? Not always. Your bladder, uterus and rectum (your pelvic organs) sit inside the pelvic floor “bowl.” They’re supported from the top and sides by ligaments that help hold them up, and they’re supported from behind and below by the pelvic floor. For a surprising number of women, those pelvic organs don’t stay in place… more on that in a moment.
The pelvic floor makes sex awesome. “Awesome” is a highly technical term used to describe great sex. You already know that the vagina gets its structure from the pelvic floor. You may not know that there are pelvic floor muscles specifically attached to the clitoris (and that your clitoris can actually move back and forth when you learn to control these muscles). A healthy pelvic floor helps with good circulation to your sex organs, which is essential for arousal, lubrication, and orgasm. And one of the major sensations you feel during orgasm is contractions of the pelvic floor.
What Happens When the Vagina Muscles Aren’t Working Right?
If your pelvic floor isn’t working right, here’s some of what can happen:
- You can’t control your pee and/or poo (a.k.a. you need pads or diapers).
- Your back hurts.
- Your pelvic organs fall out of place into your vagina (you have pelvic organ prolapse).
- You have mediocre sex. (Okay, I realize there could be a lot of other reasons for mediocre sex, but that’s a whole different discussion.)
Hear these words, my friends: If the pelvic floor ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
How Can I Tell if My Vagina Muscles Are Strong?
Pelvic floor problems can happen because your pelvic floor is too tight, or too lax. Either way, the muscles aren’t strong and aren’t working properly.
If everything seems to be working right “down there,” and you don’t have any of the problems I listed above, your pelvic floor is probably just fine.
But if you do have one or more of those problems, maybe your pelvic floor ain’t happy.
How Can I Make My Vagina Muscles Stronger?
That’s a really important question, but strength is only part of the equation. The happiest pelvic floor muscles are not just strong, but have the right tone — not too tense and not too slack. Having great control of those muscles is the other piece of the puzzle.
How do you get all that? Kegel exercises — but not just any kegel exercises. Most women are doing kegels completely wrong, even if they learned how from a doctor, midwife, or childbirth teacher. Real kegels that really work are the only kegels that can make your pelvic floor happy, and make you happy too. Check out my webinar for your first easy step toward doing kegels right!