Holidays wreaking havoc on your pelvic floor symptoms?

While the holidays are meant to be a time to give thanks, come together with your friends and family, and celebrate the start of a new year, the increased pelvic floor symptoms may have you wanting it to all be over with. Here are three common causes of increased pelvic pain, tension, and bowel and bladder complaints over the holidays and some strategies for coping.

Stress

Holiday stressors can come in many forms, but no matter what the particular source is, the effect is more sympathetic activation. The sympathetic nervous system rules the ‘fight or flight’ response so it will increase muscle tension, increase urgency for bowel and bladder, and activate chronic pain pathways.

Taking a few moments to do some deep breathing is a good way to increase parasympathetic, the ‘rest and digest’ pathway, and decrease pelvic floor tension. The blog post here outlines some good exercises to try.

Schedule disruptions

Bodies love a schedule, and this is especially true of the bowels. Holidays often mean changes in sleep/wake schedule, meal times and usual exercise time, and all of this can lead to constipation. This can also impact prolapse, urinary urgency or retention, and pelvic pain.

To avoid this, try to maintain as many of your usual health promoting behaviors as you can. While meals may be at slightly different times, eat approximately the same volume that you normally would, get some movement in, and maintain your usual hydration and fiber intake to keep things comfortable.

Alcohol

Many holiday gatherings feature a bit of liquid cheer, and while this can certainly be enjoyable, alcohol is also quite the bladder irritant. Even for those without interstitial cystitis/painful bladder syndrome, this irritation can lead to urinary urgency, frequency, increased leaking, and pain. Additionally, alcohol is also dehydrating which can impact symptoms further.

As is always the advice, enjoy alcohol in moderation. But further, to avoid triggering pelvic floor symptoms, take care to stay hydrated throughout the merriment; drinking plain water frequently to dilute the irritants. You also may find that avoiding bubbles or high levels of acidity while imbibing may help decrease symptoms as those are additional bladder irritants.

Hopefully these tips will help keep your holiday season merry and bright! For help tailored to your specific concerns, consult with a pelvic floor therapist.

Written by Rebecca Slape, PT, DPT