The Chicken or the Egg?

Hi Kathy,

It’s good to hear from you and you’ve picked up on the very important connections we’ve been exploring in our Whole Woman Teacher Training program.

Briefly, the female hip joint is subtly, but profoundly, different than the male. While these are not a strict dichotomy, they are significant differences along a male-female continuum. The male hip tends to be angled differently than the female and is not as deeply set into the pelvis.

The female lumbar curve is genetically more pronounced than the male (we have 3 wedged lumbar vertebrae instead of 2). It is the lumbar curve that seats the torso over the hip joints. When the torso is not completely seated, the femoral head becomes slightly uncovered from the acetabulum. This causes the head to loosen in the joint and literally bang against the acetabular rim, resulting in osteoarthritis of the hip. Women are far more prone to hip arthritis than men. Scientific studies show (although they have been ignored) that women with decreased lumbar curvature have higher rates of hip arthritis.

It is Whole Woman posture that properly seats the body over the hips. If you are “trying” to curve your lower back instead of raising your chest (shoulders down!) you will greatly strain the SI joints. Pulling your thighs back or placing most of your weight on your heels results in the same negative effect. A proper lumbar curve makes a wide arc throughout the lumbar area, not a sway in the low back. You can only get this from lifting your chest while keeping shoulders down and upper back flat and broad. Pull up throughout the back of your neck to avoid overextending your thoracic spine.

A retroverted uterus is not a static condition. We read a case study during last week’s class where retroflexion (the uterus flipped backwards and stuck against the sacrum) was caused by extreme vomiting. The uterus should be held into position with natural posture, but retroverts in response to tight clothing, “suck and tuck” posture, soft furniture, toilets, etc. No one ever mentions “missionary position” sexual intercourse, which must often retrovert the uterus. Almost all of us have been told at one time or another that we have a “tipped” uterus. The uterus is quite mobile and these diagnoses should not be taken as a permanent condition. They become more permanent when the uterus inches backward and the vaginal walls sag.

You don’t mention your age. You may be experiencing endometriosis or adenomyosis. Treatment for both involves lots of calm and quiet during days of menstruation.

You may have flatter glutes by nature. The important thing is keeping all the glutes (major, medius, minimus) strong with WW posture and exercise. Medius and minimus surround the hip joint and are usually weak in Western women, leading to the swaying walk we associate with femininity. When the hip joint is properly aligned, the knee caps point straight ahead and the feet are not pronated.

If you ask me, the Chicken (lumbar curve) comes first, and the Egg (hips, knees, feet) follow.

I believe all these conditions are reversible.

Best wishes,

Christine

Hi Kathy

I have the same history as you, except for the stretched bladder, and I only had one episiotomy.

I am fine now.

I think the prolapse is the canary in the mine for all the others. POP is a syndrome with many common factors and many common symptoms, which conventional medicine treats as diseases in themselves. Which is a disease and which is a symptom?

If you have a young tree in a plant pot and it falls on its side as tiny sapling it will continue to grow upwards. Stand it up again 12 months later and it will end up with a trunk that has a bend at the bottom like a woman's spine. If you try and straighten that bend at the bottom the trunk will twist around and make a second bend further up. I parallel this with your mild scoliosis. Allow your spine its natural shape and it won't need to bend further up to compensate, and many of your symptoms may resolve over the next few years.

A naturopath once told me that all our body's cells regenerate in three months so we do not have the same body that we had three months ago. The body literally morphs over a long period of time, either towards health or towards disease.

I would like to add to Christine's comments that the gluteal muscles need to be strong, but they also need to be *relaxed* in WW posture. The gluteus maximus (buttocks) is one of the most massive in the body and these are the main muscles involved in tucking the butt. With a normally flat butt you and I need to be aware of keeping them relaxed. Squats and plies are wonderful exercises for using these muscles for their intended function, which is as hip straighteners (extensors), and as stabilisers when bending (flexing) the hip, not for tucking the butt. Give them more proper work and they will be more obedient at other times.

I used to get a lot of SI pain, but only occasionally these days. WW posture has solved a lot of problems for me.

BTW, I also have a coccyx which hooks inwards. I don't have it like that on my old pre-babies x-rays. I think it was the butt tucking I did after each pregnancy to get back into 'good' posture that molded my coccyx into flexion while it was still loose postpartum.

Louise