pelvic floor 101: 5 main functions
Your pelvic floor does five main jobs, from bladder and bowel control to supporting your organs and core. What each function is and why it matters.
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The pelvic floor is a group of skeletal muscles that live on the bottom of your pelvis. They act as a sling or a hammock, suspended from either side of your pelvis and tailbone. While anatomy is slightly different in males versus females, we all have a pelvic floor and generally the job of the pelvic floor is the same in every person! Here is a wonderful image depicting the pelvic floor in people who have vaginas.
The pelvic floor has 5 main functions or jobs that it is responsible for. You can watch a video here with a more in depth explanation of it. Understanding the roles of the pelvic floor gives us a better idea of when it needs some help!
Sphincteric control
The pelvic floor acts as valves to open and close the holes. Holes include our urethra, our anus and our vaginal opening. A healthy pelvic floor should be able to open allowing things to exit when we want and to close, keeping things like urine, gas or fecal matter in when we want. Issues with this function include urinary incontinence or fecal incontinence, constipation, urinary hesitancy, decreased flow rate, vaginal flatulence (queefing) fecal smearing and urinary retention.
Support for your pelvic organs
Our pelvic floor acts as a hammock or sling, helping support the organs that live in our pelvis. These organs include our bladder, uterus/cervix, rectum and our small intestines. When we have a malfunction with this job we can see things like pelvic organ prolapse, heaviness, inability to retain a tampon, and leakage.
Stability for your pelvis and spine
It also supports our pelvic bones and our lumbar spine, providing stability to our pelvic and backs. Its attachments to our bones play into a bigger picture when it comes to posture and support. Chronic back pain, hip pain, SI joint dysfunction, pubic symphysis pain and tailbone pain are all common complaints when this job is not being done correctly.
Sexual health
Our pelvic floors are a part of the bigger team that allow for both men and women to become aroused, achieve an erection and have an orgasm. In females, the pelvic floor houses the clitorus. A strong and mobile pelvic floor provides adequate lubrication for intercourse and supports the clitoris for arousal and orgasms. The pelvic floor should be mobile to allow for things to penetrate (vaginal or rectally) without pain as well! When we have issues in our pelvic floor, it can manifest itself in pain with intercourse, pain with ejaculation or orgasm, inability to orgasm, persistent arousal, erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation.
Pressure management, the sump pump
The pelvic floor works with our deeper core to provide stability and postural support to our abdomens. It works hand in hand all day to balance pressure in our body. When we have issues with this job we see things like hernias, diastasis recti, hemorrhoids, bloating in our bellies, poor core strength, and declining posture.
When we experience any of the issues above, that generally means our pelvic floor is in need of some love and care. (and believe it or not, it's rarely kegels that are the answer!)
This article is for general education and isn't medical advice. For guidance on your own symptoms, talk with your doctor or a physical therapist.
Dr. Brooke Miller
Physical Therapist / Owner
Owner and physical therapist specializing in orthopedic and pelvic health physical therapy.