Perineum health: 4 tips for keeping it healthy

Prevention is better than cure. If you haven’t already done so, you should apply this adage to the well-being of your perineum.

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To prevent damage to your perineum, such as urine leakage, organ descent or difficulty urinating, you need a strong pelvic floor. Don’t know how? Follow these tips to look after the health of your perineum.

1. Carry loads with care

First of all, protect your pelvic floor as soon as you lift a heavy object (your child, dumbbells or any other load). The aim is to limit the pressure on the muscles of the perineum and trunk as much as possible.

Here’s the correct way to lift weights:

• Don’t carry any load that is beyond your capabilities.
• Bend your knees before picking up the object, to use the strength in your legs and take the strain off your torso.
• Bring the load as close as possible to your body, to your centre of gravity.
• Before lifting, lock in your deep abdominal muscles and activate your pelvic muscles.
• Carry the weight vertically, without rounding your back.

Soin santé périnée take care perineum Charges Loads Kodd magazine medias

2. Maintain a healthy weight

Similarly, it’s important to maintain a healthy weight.

In addition to the medical risks (cardiovascular disease, joint pain, heart failure, diabetes, etc.), obesity can severely weaken the perineum. And even at this early stage, excess weight is already a factor in pelvic weakness.

What’s more, if gastrointestinal symptoms are also present, the risk of constipation and/or diarrhoea increases. These are two other factors that are harmful to the perineal area.

To avoid putting excessive pressure on the pelvic floor, bladder and sphincters, make sure you maintain an adequate weight.

3. Adopt good posture

The weight on the perineum is a real issue! This third tip also aims to reduce the pressure you put on it every day.

This time, it’s about improving your posture. The position of your torso will have a major impact on the way you use your pelvic floor.

And not just when you’re carrying loads. In all your everyday activities, even when you’re sitting at your computer or at the wheel of your car.

To put it simply, if you stand up straight with your abdominal muscles sufficiently sheathed, you reduce pelvic pressure. In this way, you create a synergy between the perineum and the deep abs, distributing the load more evenly between all these muscles.

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4. Strengthen your pelvic floor muscles

Finally, these good practices should ideally be accompanied by targeted exercises to strengthen the perineum. Although the perineum works naturally in everyday activities, muscle-strengthening sessions are very welcome.

If you have no particular pelvic problems, do Kegel exercises at home using a perineal probe.

The idea is as follows:

• Put the device in your vagina and connect it to its mobile app.
• Then, contract and relax your pelvic muscles on the probe. During the process, it will then capture your internal movements and display real-time feedback on your phone.
• Finally, the probe will give you instructions on how to adapt the exercises to your pelvic condition.

By combining these gestures in your daily life, your perineum will stay healthy for longer. Taking care of it as early as possible is a real investment in the long term. It’s never too early – or too late – to start!