First published in DONNA Magazine/ Medicine, Germany, 10/18
Judith LAschner, 40, suffered from urinary incontinence for over 20 years – Until she discovered a special form of pelvic floor yoga
I felt it for the first time when I was 16. I was a competitive trampoline athlete. After three or four vigorous hops up, I noticed it was dripping. Not overly, but my panties were slightly soaked after training. A bit confused, I talked about it with the other girls, one of my teammates had the same problem, but most of them didn't even know what I was talking about.
I was pregnant for the first time when I was 22, and my second child was born a year later. After that, I felt like someone had turned on the tap. While I only noticed my urinary incontinence after the first pregnancy during physical exertion or a strong cough, I was already losing urine while walking normally and even while standing. And that in spite of postnatal training courses with midwives, which I had completed according to regulations after every pregnancy, and regular pelvic floor training at home. Or at least what I thought it was back then.
At some point normal panty liners or pads were no longer enough, I got myself incontinence panties at the pharmacy – at the age of 23! I was so embarrassed that I pretended to buy them for my grandmother. Due to the permanent moisture in the intimate zone, I actually had to struggle with yeast infections all the time, which of course meant that my sex life with my husband tended towards zero. Today, I know that even my years of severe back pain were a result of my untrained pelvic floor muscles. I also developed strange rituals to protect myself from involuntary urine leakage. When sneezing, for example, I always crossed both legs firmly. From the outside it must have looked very strange.
Finally looking for help
After my third pregnancy, I finally confided in my gynecologist and only got the insensitive answer: “That's the price for three children.” For him, the diagnosis was clear: I had a uterine prolapse (sagging) and was prohibited to do any kind of impact exercise such as jogging, aerobics or jumping rope. And that to me! I've always been very athletic and loved to really work out. So from now on I would Nordic walk like a grandma through the park and skip all the hops during aerobics training. I felt very old and “defective”.
Conventional pelvic floor training had made it worse
While researching the Internet, I came across Coco Berlin half a year ago, a passionate belly dance teacher who has created a completely new type of pelvic floor training with “Pussy Yoga” and has also written a book about it. Through Coco, I quickly realized that for years I had not only trained my pelvic floor incorrectly, but even completely counterproductive. For example, I had learned that one should train the muscle that is used to consciously interrupt the urine stream in the toilet. Or inserted weights into the vagina, which are then supposed to be held in place by means of contractions. Coco explained to me that all of these exercises can result in the first layer of the pelvic floor being tense, but the actually important pelvic floor muscles of the other two layers sagging all the more.
The Pussy Yoga Effect
With “Pussy Yoga” the pelvic floor is trained holistically and dynamically in all its dimensions. The amazing thing: after just a month and a half of training, I was able to do aerobics again without it dripping. And after three months I dared to shuffle dance, a dynamic dance style to fast music where you actually always have one foot in the air. The incontinence briefs are now in the closet, I no longer need them. But Pussy Yoga has done more for me: I move more smoothly, have better posture, feel more feminine, more sensual and also have much better sex. My chronic back pain is gone too.
Incidentally, that also impressed my husband, who had a herniated disc a year ago and was still not pain-free. He's also now training his pelvic floor, because men have that too.
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