We have been learning about vaginal health in these related articles. A good question to ask yourself is why is this all important? You should be wondering how a strong vagina impacts women’s health, right? If you are just learning about pelvic floor health or are a little further down this road, you should educate yourself on the benefits of having a strong, healthy vagina and how that impacts your everyday life! Keep reading, because in this article you will learn why having a strong vagina is important to urinary, sexual and bowel health; how your self-esteem is impacted by the strength of your vagina, and how keeping a strong vagina will benefit you in your later years. Let’s dig in together!
What Muscles Make Up The Vagina?
Before we go further, we need to understand what we are talking about, exactly, when we talk about the muscles involving the vagina. Simply put, all of the muscles that make up the vagina are called the pelvic floor.
The pelvic floor, however, is composed of more muscles than just the vagina muscles. Take a look at the image below.
The pelvic floor is a complex group of muscles that acts like a hammock supporting the bladder, vagina and colon/anus. You can also think of the pelvic floor like the bottom of a shopping bag. The bottom of the shopping bag needs to be strong in order to support all of the contents it is holding.
Now, let’s dive deeper into how a strong vagina impacts women’s health.
Why A Strong Vagina Is Important
When you have your first baby, you are expecting lots of things. You may expect sweet memories made with your first child, a great breastfeeding journey, and the joy of growing your family! What many mothers are not expecting is all of the health effects having a baby has on your body. These health effects may include hemorrhoids, urinary leakage, perennial tearing, or dealing with the pain of a dry vagina due to low estrogen levels. Many of these naturally occur. However, they often take mothers by surprise.
Another naturally-occurring health effect your vagina faces after pregnancy is weakening of the pelvic floor – or the muscles that surround and make up the vagina. This happens for women who give birth naturally or via C-section. Both will have weakened vaginal muscles.
Why is this important? How does having weak (or strong) vagina impact women’s health? Let’s take a look at a few key points.
Urinary Health
One function of the pelvic floor (the muscles that surround and make up the vagina), is to support the bladder. When the pelvic floor is weak, the muscles that control the flow and stop of urine are unable to hold things back effectively.
Consequently, women may experience leaking throughout the day. This can happen when sneezing, coughing, walking/jumping, or exercising.
Colon/Anal Health
Secondly, the pelvic floor helps support the colon. Just like the bladder, when the pelvic floor is weak, the colon has a more difficult time holding its contents back. Some women may experiencing pooping their pants after giving birth. This is why.
Having a strong vagina will enable the colon to function better and hold its contents until it is time to go to the bathroom.
Sexual Health
Let’s keep looking at how a strong vagina impacts women’s health. For women, having a strong vagina impacts their satisfaction with sex. The vagina is able to squeeze and relax. During intercourse, the vagina squeezes. This gives the sense of pleasure and fun. However, if the muscles are weak and unable to squeeze very well, there could be little to no sensation during intercourse. For some women with weak pelvic floors, sex could seem “boring” to them because they simply can’t feel anything!
As the pelvic floor gains strength back, more and more feeling will return during intercourse! Having a strong vagina impacts the sexual life of a woman!
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Tailbone Pain
When looking at the side of the pelvic, the pelvic floor muscles can look like a hammock. One end connects to the pelvic bone and stretches to connect to the tailbone. What “sits” in the hammock are the bladder, colon, and vagina.
Since the pelvic floor is connected to the tailbone, there is sometimes tailbone pain associated with having a weak pelvic floor. This can happen if the pelvic floor muscles are too tight.
Let me share my story with you so you can better understand. After I gave birth to my first daughter, I would feel pain in my tailbone whenever I laid on my back. It felt like something needed to pop. I would have my husband push on my knees to try and get my tailbone to pop, but it only added to the pain.
It wasn’t until 4 years later that a pelvic floor specialist gave me some simple stretches to do to help relax the pelvic floor muscles attaching to my tailbone. After one simple stretch session, I laid back down on my back and the pain was gone! I had dealt with pain in my tailbone for 4 years before finding relief in the most simplest way!
Impact On Social Life
For some women with severe urinary or bowel issues related to having a weak pelvic floor, it may be a real struggle to have a healthy social life. The fear of wetting yourself or leaving a trail of odor wherever you go may be enough to keep you bound to the safety of your own home.
If this is you, I hope you will read to the end of this article because there is hope for you! Please don’t tell yourself that this is just the way your life is going to be from now on, because it does not have to be!
Self-Esteem
One critical area how a strong vagina impacts women’s health is self-esteem. This key point may not get as much attention as it should, so let’s talk about it here.
Hopefully by now you can understand why having a weak vagina directly impacts self-esteem. I mean, if you are in public and suddenly wet your pants or struggle to hold your poo back, you could imagine how embarrassing this could be!
Having a strong pelvic floor and vagina gives you good self-esteem and confidence to enjoy your day without worry or shame!
Having Good Quality Of Life
Really, it all comes down to having a good quality of life. What do I mean by this? Well, would you prefer to either deal with urinary leakage, trouble holding your bowel movements, and have a less-than-satisfactory sexual life? Or would you prefer to have confidence knowing you are not going to wet your pants or poop uncontrollably? Would you enjoy having a more pleasing and satisfying sex life?
The quality of life you have is largely determined by your current state of health. Sure, having a positive outlook on things does help a lot too. However, if your body functions well, you will enjoy life more! If your body is unhealthy in one way or another, then you will tend to not fully enjoy life as much.
Time To Take Control!
I have good news for you! There is hope for you to strengthen your vagina and pelvic floor muscles! You can stop that urinary incontinences, pooing unwillingly, or struggling to enjoy sex. There are great tools and programs out there to help women strengthen their pelvic floor!
One simple way to do this is by purchasing kegal balls you can use to strengthen your vagina at home. Check out my article Best Kegal Balls For Strengthening The Vagina to see which ones are best for you!
Another option is to reach out to your doctor for a referral to a pelvic floor specialist. They are trained to help women strengthen their pelvic floors in a tailored way.
Whatever you decide to do, there is hope for you! The body is able to heal and improve itself with a little bit of TLC, consistency, and determination! You got this, Mama!
Leave A Comment Below!
What struggles do you face related to having a weak pelvic floor? Was there something that encouraged you most from this article? Share your thoughts with us in the comment below! We would love to hear from you.
Want To Learn More?
If you would like to learn more about perineal and vaginal health, be sure to check out the other related articles below!
Best Kegal Balls For Strengthening The Vagina
Best Vaginal Moisturizers And Lubricants
Perennial Tears: Prevention And Care
The Pelvic Floor Wand – How To Relax And Massage The Pelvic Floor Muscles