Mobilis Direct – Sports Injury and Home Healthcare products direct

Menopause

Many women go through life unaware of the ticking time bomb that will happen to all us…the menopause.

The stresses and strains we put our bodies through gradually weaken the pelvic floor muscles, and often go unnoticed until we experience the menopause.

The urethra and back passage have special receptors that need oestrogen to function properly, and during the menopause, oestrogen levels drop dramatically. This adds to other strains that have been put on the pelvic floor, such as pregnancy and childbirth.

Oestrogen is responsible for maintaining a healthy vagina and urethra, and stimulates blood flow to the pelvic region to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, so when there is less oestrogen in the body, the pelvic floor loses its strength.

A lack of oestrogen also affects the lining of the vagina and urethra by thinning it out, and because each has a similar design and construction, they react the same way to the lack of oestrogen.

Atrophic vaginitis causes dryness, itching and pain with red patches on the skin around the labia and inside the vagina, which can bleed when irritated further.

This causes the vaginal opening to narrow, and the walls to bleed easily and react to artificial lubricants by stinging and burning. This also leads to a loss of sexual lubrication and makes intercourse painful.

Surgical menopause, when a woman has had to have her ovaries or uterus removed, can be just as difficult to cope with and unless hormone replacement is started, she will go through all the above symptoms of the menopause.

The menopause cannot be prevented, so we must all have an understanding of how to improve the strength of our pelvic floor muscles. Doing pelvic floor exercises is a great way to prevent developing problems and they can even be done while at work or watching TV, while one of the best ways is while you're on the toilet.

Using Aquaflex cones are one of the most effective ways to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles. The weighted cones are recommended by healthcare professionals and by using them for just a short time each day, you could see some changes.