Please list some exercise you recommend.

Body: 

Hi,

I’m sooo glad you guys exist. From what I see, you’re the only group on the internet so far which speaks about non-segerical means regarding prolasps. I planned to go into my history/bio when I had spare time at work with the NICE keyboard & not this micro-laptop keypad w/ is really hard/annoying to type w/ if you have any nails.

But to just give you a really big rave & shout out, I want to thank you for helping me pee over the phone. Being an American artist/writer who’s a self-employed promoter w/ a PT “day job” I get no health ins. or benefits.

Somehow always being paranoid with the food & drug industry (I quite an avid conspiracy theorist) & seeing many folks taking loads of drugs yet never being cured of their ailment, I always looked forward to alternate means. I mean, I couldn’t even take my antibiotic 3 x’s a day for 2 weeks, let alone stuck on some drug for life that won’t cure anything, just maintain it & make it impossible to quit w/out major health consequences.

All of this coupled w/ the fact that in 2000 I first noticed what I thought was a tampon stuck in me in Japan & the Japanese dr. simply said this was normal in women w/ many kids & try & lose weight. And then in 2002 I noticed what I thougt was a discharge. I went to my then Kieser Permanitine Gyn and they told me to do Kelvin exercised. All of this was very foreign to me. They gave me a ultra sound to confirm fibroids. I asked what was a solution. She introduced me to a pessery and offered the MOST BARBARIC SOLUTION – a hysterectomy!

Excuse me?!?! I;ve never had kids, I’m habitually lonely w/ no man & thus no sex (despite me always being in heat) & in this day and age where you can clone people, send folks to the moon, & come up w/ breakthrough techonoly daily, the most you can offer me is this?!?! I’m not sure if she was being rude, snide, or just stupid, but I was COMPLETELY INSULTED (like I was with the STUPID ?nurse from HU health ctr. Who told me I should enjoy constantly being horney when I asked what can I get for being in heat) and haven’t been back since. I thought she was just being a jerk but from what I read in these posts and on most internet sites, taking your female is the normal procedure. This baffles me.

It’s funny when I read the symptoms, I used to have lower back ache 10+ years ago when I was only 24 & I’d drive w/ a can of corn for a back support – that actually worked REALLY well and it felt GREAT!! My dad would really worry talking about spinal cord injury in case of some accident. I now understand but few things came to that comfort level as a small can in the small of my back.

Sorry for my long-windedness, here’s my ?

In the Q&A you mention jogging may not be the best do to it’s jarring nature and Pilate’s and yoga are for the male body and some Indian dance is more for women. You also mentioned traditional sit-ups were hard on your pelvic. What do you think of belly dancing since it does work your stomach muscles? What about dancing? Please you list several types of exercise you recommend, not to mention exercise would increase energy, help heart disease, arthritis, and many other conditions.

Hi Ms. Cutie,

Very glad to have been able to help…yours was the first Whole Woman Crises Hotline call. :-) A lesson for the rest of you: Large fibroids + uterine prolapse + full bowel + full bladder = urinary obstruction. I had Ms. Cutie squat slightly off the pot, lean forward, and pull up as much flesh as she could grab right above her pubic bone. She called back a few minutes later much relieved.

I think traditional dance would be great for you. As far as exercise goes…I just answered that as best I could in the bodywork forum…see Marie’s post about abdominal exercises. I’ve created a workout program built upon the concept of natural female posture, but it’s just not something I can write out here. Before too much longer I’ll have a video of my most current work.

Here’s the core of what you need to understand: our natural posture is protective of our pelvic organ support system. However, because of civilized life we no longer sit, stand, and move in the ways our greatest grandmothers did, nor are we remotely as physically active.

The major pathology associated with loss of our natural design is spinal flexion. This is where the tailbone is tucked under, the lumbar curve flattened, and the stomach worn up under the breasts. In turn the pelvic organs, which normally reside right behind the curve of the lower belly, are drawn down and back to fall against the vaginal walls.

I’ve spent the last two days in the medical center library and was rewarded by finding a gem of an article from 2002 that confirms what I’ve been saying about the female pelvic organ support system.

The pelvic organs are allowed to keep their positions close to the lower belly when we stand because of a lifted tailbone, a pronounced lumbar curve, and a narrowed pelvic diaphragm in bipedal posture. The kite-shaped pelvic “floor”, or diaphragm, is pulled together across the middle by traction of the ischial spines to which the pelvic floor muscles are attached. When we stand with our spine in the right shape, the pelvic floor is pulled higher from pubic bone to sacrum, but also narrowed across the middle. This is a major factor in keeping the organs positioned toward the front of the body.

So…a large study was carried out in 2001 by the departments of anthropology, obgyn, and biomechanical engineering at the University of Michigan. First of all, a little background information: it has long been observed by pelvic surgeons that prolapse is largely a white woman’s disease. All races are affected to some degree, but white women by far the most and studies bear this out.

For this study, dozens of female pelvises – half European American and half African American (I know that’s not a very clear distinction in America, but they did the best they could) – were precisely measured and guess what??? The African American pelvic “floors” were significantly narrower across the middle.

These pelvises were part of a large collection from a natural history museum. The study states the age of the bones when they died, but says nothing about when in history the people lived. I think that is one of the most relevant factors.

Now, it may be that European American women’s pelvic floors are larger because of strictly genetic reasons, but I have my doubts about that. I think it’s a much safer bet that the African American women were closer to their natural posture than the others, especially if they lived in the late 19th or early 20th centuries. Nowdays we are all losing our natural ways of sitting, standing, and moving.

So, Ms. Cutie…the best I can tell you is to think deeply about what you can do in your own environment to help bring your body back to its natural shape. I’ve already described the posture to you and now only you can implement it. Think about the ways in which your greatest grandmothers sat, stood, walked and danced and those clues will help you know what to do.

We owe it to the women who stood up, who continued to bear large-headed offspring, yet developed the genetics to keep everything perfectly balanced and in place while running alongside their men, to make sure such a grand design is inherited by our greatest granddaughters.

:-) Christine