Is COVID-19 effecting your pelvic floor?

During that last year and a half we have all experienced a new “normal”. Unfortunately that new normal has included a lot of stress and worry. 

There is a strong connection between stress and pelvic floor dysfunction. Stress and anxiety can create new pelvic floor symptoms or make your symptoms worse. 

The pelvic floor muscles function to close and open to allow you to pee and poop when you need to. They work to hold things up (your organs and your body) and they allow you to participate in sexual activities. They also contribute in helping pump blood and lymphatic fluid (your cleaning system) back to your heart. 

If you have a pelvic floor dysfunction you might experience leaking urine or feces, not being able to hold back gas, increased urge to pee or poop, difficulty fully emptying your bladder or bowels, pelvic pain and/or pressure, low back pain, and hip pain.

If you have increased stress in your life (thanks COVID-19), you might subconsciously contract your pelvic floor muscles (and other muscles in your body). Muscles that live in a state of constant contraction can end up being tense and painful. Some people experience tension headaches from stress and other people experience pelvic floor dysfunction from stress. 

Even though many people think of pelvic floor dysfunction being caused from weak muscles (leaking urine), many dysfunctions are actually caused from the muscles being too tight because they are in a constant state of contraction. Even leaking urine can be from your muscles living in a shortened position (a constant contraction), thus they do not have their full range of motion to perform a strong contraction to stop your urine from leaking out.

Having strategies in your life to help decrease your stress is important to good health. One technique that can help is diaphragmatic breathing. Here is a video on diaphragmatic breathing. This technique can help calm your nervous system to help your muscles relax to decrease your symptoms. 

This post is just talking about what the added stress in our lives from COVID-19 can do to our muscles. COVID-19 has been shown to cause many different symptoms. Many of them impact our pelvic floor (coughing, inflammation, nerve issues, etc). 

If you have noticed increased back, hip, and pelvic pain, difficulty with peeing or pooping, decreased sexual desire or pain with intercourse, decreased strength or motivation to exercise in the past year and a half, you might benefit from seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist.