Preventing Chronic Pelvic, Genital, & Sexual Pain

PAINFUL SEX PREVENTION ​

Prevention is a noun. An action. Something we have to do. While the triggers or reasons for persistent painful sex and chronic pelvic pain disorders can be complex, interconnected, and varied let's start with what we do know. 

Tight and clenched stomach, buttocks, legs and chest-breathing, carried over into everyday tasks and daily living,  can be harmful to the pelvic floor. And a tight, tense, and too "turned-on" pelvic floor will eventually lose its proper function.

Many sporting activities require these tight body positions in order to perform them well.  Dance, running, gymnastics, track, soccer, martial arts, and others place heavy emphasis on core strength, tight body positions and breathing from the chest instead of the abdomen. 

Along with overly clenching techniques associated with training for many of these sports, there have been more injuries to young women over the past number of years with increasingly competitive young female athletes. Injuries to ankles, knees, hips, tailbones, and straddle type vulvar traumas all have contributed to chronic pelvic and sexual pain, as well.

The book entitled: “Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women’s Sports” by Michael Sokolove points out the consequences of cumulative injuries in young women, not necessarily solely from the lack of appropriate training over the course of their pre and post pubertal years, but also by the exuberance and passion and competitiveness that so many girls exhibit during the course of their athletic years. He points out that so much has been learned in the fields of sports medicine and training that could be preventative for injury, but that commonly, many factors prevent the implementation of good practices by the coaches, trainers, and even the parents of these young women. 

These cautions are certainly not meant to endorse quitting sports all together. Instead, we are asking you to be aware that you need to let clenched body positions go when you walk out of practice or performance. If you are a family member or friend of a young female athlete who may have the early symptoms of pelvic pain, try to talk to them about the consequences of holding clenched body positions even though this is quite counter-cultural right now, because it seems everyone is out there trying to actually “strengthen their core”.

If you are injured or feel pain, don’t allow yourself or a family member or friend to “push through the pain” to keep performing. If you would like to learn about our prevention and education initiatives or would like to donate to the program please visit The Foundation for the Prevention of Chronic Pelvic Pain at thefpcpp.org (Now teamed up with Bridge for Pelvic Pain). 

---

Watch the CHapter on Prevention: