How to Know if Your Pelvic Floor Is Weak

by Aleksandra Tomkowicz August 17, 2022

There are many signs that your pelvic floor may be weak and it includes:

Wetting yourself when you laugh, exercise, cough, or sneeze
Leaking urine before you can make it to the bathroom and a frequent urge to pee
Pain during sex
Lower back pain
Not being able to control your bladder, bowels and flatulence

Wetting yourself when you laugh, exercise, cough, or sneeze

Ever worried about wetting yourself when you laugh, exercise, cough, or sneeze? You are not alone. This happens to so many women and it is called Stress urinary incontinence. But don’t worry, there is something you can do about it.

Stress urinary incontinence is one of the most common types of urinary incontinence and affects women, but also men. It is involuntary leakage of urine caused by a sudden increase in pressure in the abdominal cavity, not preceded by pressure on the bladder. At first, you can only notice a slight leakage of urine when you cough, laugh, exercise or sneeze, which - if left untreated - turns into a more severe problem.

There are some factors that can make your stress urinary incontinence worst:

childbirth
obesity
prostate surgery for men
smoking
high impact activities, especially done over many years

It is important to remember that stress urinary incontinence is nothing to be ashamed of and you never should feel embarrassed about it. Don’t ever limit or isolate yourself! You need to know that you can treat it.

Read our other article to learn more about it. - Do You Leak When You Sneeze?

Leaking urine before you can make it to the bathroom

Do you need to pee more than 8 times a day? Often you cannot make it on time to the toilet?

Don’t worry, more women have the same problem than you think. It is called urgency incontinence.

Urge incontinence, or urgency incontinence is when you feel a sudden need to pee, and you are unable to make it on time to the toilet. Usually, there is only a few seconds between the need and release of urine.

This type of incontinence frequently occurs as part of a group of symptoms called overactive bladder which is a frequent, often uncontrolled urination with a feeling of an intense pressure on the bladder. The symptoms of an overactive bladder are caused by a disturbance in the functioning of the nerves responsible for the proper functioning of the urinary system.

Please remember that those ‘Just in case wees’ are bad for your bladder. Basically, you are telling your brain that your bladder cannot cope. We highly recommend bladder training if this is you.

So, what is bladder training?

It is a form of behaviour therapy. Bladder training can be effective in treating incontinence. This includes increasing the amount of time between trips to the toilet and increasing the amount of fluid your bladder can hold.

It requires you to follow a fixed toilet schedule whether you feel the urge to urinate or not. When you find yourself needing to urinate before your designated time you should use urge suppression techniques like Kegels. So, think twice about those ‘Just in case wees’ that you do before you leave the house. You are training your brain that your bladder can only hold a small amount. Be the boss of your bladder!

I know the symptoms of an overactive bladder are very frustrating... But now you know that you need to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, so do it! :)

Pain during sex

Want better sex and orgasms?

If the pelvic floor doesn’t relax enough during sex, it can make sexual difficulties as painful penetration and reduced vaginal sensation. The strong pelvic floor can help to boost vaginal lubrication and improve blood flow during sex. In addition, if the muscles are weak but overactive, it can not only cause pain during sex but also reduced bladder control.

It is important to remember to talk openly with your partner and do not do anything when it causes pain. You need to know that you can handle the problem and improve your sexual life. Yes, the right pelvic floor exercise can help you have better sex and orgasms . So, what are you waiting for?

Not being able to control your flatulence

Uncontrollable flatulence or passing wind is often caused by weak pelvic floor muscles. The main factor in case of weak pelvic floor and flatus incontinence can be age. Many people often ignore early signs of weak pelvic floor and with time our muscles just cannot handle it and the problem increase.

Not being able to control your flatulence, also known as flatus incontinence, is a problem that can be both troublesome and embarrassing. But it should not be! Many women struggling with flatus incontinence hides the problem without even telling their doctor about it. And here they make a mistake. Flatus incontinence is like any other condition, it can and must be treated.

How to Measure Pelvic Floor Strength

To measure your pelvic floor strength, when sitting on the toilet, you should try and stop the flow of urine and feel which muscles are responsible for it. Only do this very seldom as it can cause a bladder infection.

In addition, women can do a finger test and insert a couple of fingers into the vagina and then squeeze the pelvic floor muscles (you can imagine you are stopping the flow of urine and holding in wind).

I know at the beginning it can be hard to find and measure the strength of the muscles. But it is important to be self-aware. If you improve the strength of the pelvic floor muscles, you can avoid a lot of effects that weak pelvic floor can cause.

To help you make sure you are doing everything correctly, you should check our 4 Week Pelvic Floor Muscles Workout Programme and The Secret Whispers Kegel Weights which will teach you where your correct pelvic floor muscles are. Taking away all the guesswork. They are £39.99, comes with full instructions, exercise plan and full customer support and a support group. Oh...and they last for LIFE!!!

Start working on your weak pelvic floor now and see a difference in a few weeks. The wonderful thing about Kegel weights and pelvic floor exercises is you can do them whenever and wherever you are, and you will be sure you are doing the exercise properly.