The Pelvic Floor and Sex - Episode 12
In this episode, I discuss the physical changes that happen at the pelvic floor during sexual activity.
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Dr. Kari: Welcome to the Morone Pelvic Health Podcast. Hi, I'm your host, Dr. Carrie Roberts.
Dr. Kari: On this show we will be discussing a variety of things regarding your pelvic health.
Dr. Kari: These conversations will be a mix of education, personal experiences, and a blend of tips you can apply to have a healthier pelvis. The goal of this show is to normalize conversations around pelvic health and help women stop suffering in silence.
Dr. Kari: The pelvic floor has lots of things that it does. A few episodes back, I went through the five things, or the five s's that the pelvic floor does. One of the S's that it does is sex, and I just wanted to talk through that process for what it does and how the pelvic floor plays a part in sex. So for women, our sex organs are on the inside of our bodies. So the pelvic floor actually has some openings so that something can penetrate and get to the sex organ, primarily the vagina. Whereas for a man, the sex organ is on the outside. So the penis and the testes live on the outside of the pelvic floor. So there's no opening in the front for a man. Now the pelvic organs are in the front. And what happens during sex? There's a couple of things that it does for a woman, since something I'll just say that has to penetrate and go inside of her body, with the exception of clitoral stimulus, which is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking more penis and vagina type of conversation. So since something has to enter into her body, enter into her vagina through an opening, it makes sense that that opening has to have some sort of give, right? It has to be able to stretch and be able to accept whatever you're using to penetrate. And that's one thing it stretches. For a man, like I said, the sex organs are on the outside, so it doesn't have to stretch. Everything else is pretty much going to be similar. For a man's pelvic floor and a woman's pelvic floor, the next thing that it does is the friction, the back and forth stimulates the sex organs, not only the penis and the vagina, but also around it. So for the woman, the clitoris, the labia, all of those things, there's lots of nerve endings down there and that friction back and forth increases sensation. Most times that feels good, that's pleasurable, that's something that people want to do. So sensation is another aspect of that pelvic floor region. The next thing is it increases blood flow. So when you are aroused sexually, the blood flow increases to your pelvic floor area. So those muscles get primed with lots of blood flow for them to do their job. But then also the increased blood flow allows for a penis to go from a flaccid state to an erect or hard state. So the penis, as it increases blood flow, will get larger. And the same token, for a woman in the vagina. The vagina has lots of folds in it. It kind of can accordion down, for lack of a better term. Well, when the blood flow increases with the vagina, just how the blood flow makes a penis get hard and get longer or larger in length, the vaginal walls get a little bit more firm, those folds kind of fill out a little bit and the vaginal wall can kind of grow also. So you've got the penis kind of extending forward with the increased blood flow and then the vagina is kind of extending back in to make room for that erect penis to enter. The next thing that it does is it contracts. So those pelvic floor muscles are working. We've got three layers of pelvic floor muscles, the superficial layer, those are working to help with sensation and lubrication for the woman, also to help with firmness and stability. And then when you have an orgasm or you reach climax, that pumping motion or the throbbing motion, that's, that pelvic floor really giving you lots of contractions through that process. So the pelvic floor is integral with being able to complete sexual activity, but also to enjoy sexual activity. So just as a review, it stretches to allow for penetration into the vagina. It contracts with that pumping motion when you're close to climax and also climaxing and orgasm, whatever you want to call it, it increases blood flow. So that increased blood flow to the pelvic floor helps a flaccid penis get erect and helps a vagina also get longer to allow for penetration and also helps with sensation. So those sex organs, both internal sex organs and external sex organs are stimulated and that is a pleasurable sensation which contributes to sex. So I just wanted to explain that process. Hopefully that was possibly a question that you can learn a thing or two about what happens physiologically with our pelvic floor as we are active with sexual activities. So thanks and I'll be back next week with another episode. Thank you for listening to this episode.
Dr. Kari: Of The Moron Pelvic Health Podcast. Please do me a favor and leave a review so that more people can find this content and make sure you like and subscribe yourself so you never miss another episode.