Painful Sex? Here’s How Pelvic Floor PT Can Help!
Do you experience pain with sex? Whether it’s pain during penetration, clitoral stimulation, or discomfort with a partner or solo, painful sex (also called dyspareunia) is more common than you might think (1 in 5 people with vaginas report pain with sex at some point in their lives), especially during the postpartum or perimenopause stages…but that doesn’t make it normal. Painful intercourse can feel frustrating, isolating, and even impact your relationships or sense of self. The good news? There are ways to feel better. Pelvic floor physical therapy can help reduce pain and improve comfort using gentle, personalized techniques, like targeted stretches, dilator training, or trigger point release with a Therawand. You deserve to feel safe, confident, and comfortable during sex. Let’s help you get there. Try these steps…
1. Diaphragmatic Breathing
Take a slow breath in through your nose, allowing your abdomen and ribs to expand out to the sides, and visualize “opening” your pelvic floor or lengthening those muscles in the hammock at the bottom of your pelvis. Exhale slowly through your mouth, allowing your belly to fall. Let the air out of your upper lungs; relax your ribs, your belly, and your pelvic floor. This type of breathing should be relaxed and gentle, not forced.
2. Pelvic drop
Place your hand over the cleft of your buttock or your perineum, resting your index finger near the anus. Gently push as if expelling gas. Feel that area bulge outward. This is relaxation. Practice reproducing this sensation without your finger in place.
NOTE: Pay attention to the feeling that you experience the next few times that you urinate and try and notice the sensation that you feel when the stream of urine begins to flow. Your pelvic floor muscles relax to allow this to happen. That is the feeling to want to recall and reproduce for the pelvic drop! This can take practice, so be patient with yourself.
3. Deep squat
Bring your feet wide apart and squat down so your buttocks is close to your heels. Rest your upper body on the edge of the couch or seat of a chair. Feel your pelvic floor muscles relax into this stretch.
4. Child’s Pose
Spread your knees wide apart and keep your feet together, sit your buttocks back to your heals and rest your head on a pillow or on the floor or mat. Reach your arms from one side to the other while breathing deeply and relaxing your pelvic floor.
5. Adductor Stretch
Lie on your back and bring the soles of your feet together, letting your knees fall out to the side. You may need to prop pillows under each knee. Rest in this position for a minute or two.
If sex has been uncomfortable, you don’t have to just live with it. A personalized treatment plan with a pelvic floor physical therapist can make all the difference, and we’d love to help! If you’re located north of Boston, our clinic is in Melrose, MA. Click here to schedule an appointment.
*If you don’t in Massachusetts, visit pelvicrehab.com to find a specialist near you.
Looking for some products to aid in your pelvic floor health? You can use code ALEXANDRA1 for a discount at Intimate Rose.
Currently pregnant? Check out our free digital download or purchase our full postpartum course at The Healthy Pelvis Project.