What are pelvic floor exercises ? (What are Kegel exercises ?)
A:
Kegel exercises are exercises that you do using your pelvic floor muscles. Like any exercises, with repetition of the pelvic floor exercises you can strengthen the exercised muscles. It's also important (as with other types of exercises) not to overdo it. Straining your pelvic floor muscles can actually weaken them.
Your pelvic floor muscles support your pelvic organs (the bladder, bowel and uterus). These muscles can weaken over time from such things as weight gain, aging, pregnancy, childbirth, and repeated straining (like from smoker's cough, weightlifting, or constipation). Once these pelvic floor muscles weaken and stretch they no longer provide proper support for your pelvic organs. And the pelvic organs can begin to descend (or "prolapse") and put pressure on each other.
Many people have some degree of pelvic organ prolapse without experiencing any symptoms. As your prolapsed condition progresses, you may begin to notice symptoms like uncomfortable pressures in your pelvic area, urine leakage (incontinence), frequent and strong urges to urinate, severe incontinence, difficulty voiding the bowels or bladder, and/or bleeding. Once the prolapsed condition becomes severe, a woman may begin to experience her pelvic organs bulging into and protruding through the vagina.
Proper use of Kegel exercises can delay or prevent pelvic organ prolapse. The pelvic floor exercises can help you to control mild incontinence symptoms. But once a pelvic organ prolapse has become severe, it's too late for Kegel exercises to do you any real good. So it's important to begin these pelvic floor exercises before you notice any symptoms of a prolapsed condition or when you first begin to notice the mildest symptoms (like slight incontinence).
And of course, when you notice symptoms of any condition, you should consult your physician. The symptoms may relate to an entirely different condition, or you may have a more severe pelvic organ prolapse than you believe. Early detection and treatment of just about any condition seems to help. You can find a startup guide to Kegel exercises at this website.
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