What does the term “pelvic floor” mean?

The “pelvic floor” is a term used to describe the muscles, ligaments and connective tissue that provide support for a woman’s internal organs in the region known as the pelvis (including the bowel, bladder, uterus, vagina, and rectum). More than just keeping the organs in place, the pelvic floor helps ensure that these organs function properly.

For its part, the vagina acts as a support system to the uterus, urethra and bladder. The vagina is a fibromuscular tube or “fascia” covered with vaginal skin called mucosa. The fascia is responsible for the integrity and vaginal wall strength. This fascia is to muscles and ligaments of the pelvis.

To visualize this support structure, envision the fascia as a floor. The floor is covered with carpet, which is skin for this analogy. This skin gives no real assistance in support, it simply acts a covering.

Just like a floor, the fascia is a solid piece of material supporting anything that sits or stands upon it. The floor must be anchored to another structure to add greater strength and stability. In a home, the floor is attached to the walls and foundation. Similarly the vagina is connected to ligaments and muscles for support Vaginal childbirth impacts and weakens supports structures just as an earthquake shakes the integrity of walls in a house.

After childbirth the vagina is stretched and does not return to its original size and shape. This condition, called vaginal relaxation, frequently leads to decreased feelings of friction and loss of sexual satisfaction. Generally, the more vaginal deliveries, the worse the condition. Our blog readers know that this causes many women to experience decreased sensation and sexual satisfaction during intercourse.

Time for a grown-up lecture

Alright ladies, I know how many of your have cutesy names for your anatomy. I don’t know if it’s modest or shy or even juvenile, but our society has non-technical terms for the female anatomy. The cutesy names may serve a purpose when toilet training children, but they can let women down in adulthood. Understanding the female anatomy increases in importance when health conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse, incontinence and vaginal relaxation occur.

Our ABAGyn member gynecologists, urologists and urogynecologists report that the majority of women have an incomplete understanding of their anatomy.

Aba doesn’t want to over lecture, even Oprah is guilty of saying “vajay-jay” on air. Here at ABAGyn our goal is to help educate women and their surgeons about aesthetic gynecology. Over the next few posts, Aba will give a solid overview of the female anatomy and proper terminology.

“What about my labia?”

Our last post prompted a fair number of you to ask why Aba left out labia (lips at the opening of your vagina) in the discussion of medical conditions treated by vaginal rejuvenation. First, it’s important to know that many physicians incorrectly refer to labial procedures as vaginal rejuvenation. This can be very confusing. The labia are part of the external genital properly called the vulva.

Women experience enlargement, irregular shape, and/or discoloration of the labia following vaginal childbirth. However, aging and loss of youthful hormone levels may also contribute to these conditions. Some women will not have these risk factors but rather have a genetic tendency toward enlarged, malshaped, or discolored labia.

Aba is not in the habit of referring readers to other web sites, but we found an ABAGyn member surgeon with outstanding labia deformity diagrams. If you are interested in seeing some abnormalities in greater detail, click this link.

What does Aesthetic Gynecology mean?

Let’s get this blog off to an informative start. You may have arrived here in search of some basic information like what exactly is aesthetic gynecology. Aesthetic gynecology is a sub-specialty of gynecology focusing on aesthetic surgical procedures for the labia and vagina.

This term is becoming more common. It’s used in the name of our board. It combines aesthetic or visual concerns with the medical side of gynecology. The short answer is that most of the time aesthetic gynecology is used when talking about the vaginal and labial rejuvenation.

Many times women start out asking their surgeon about vaginal rejuvenation. But when they describe what they want, they are actually referring to labial rejuvenation. Women notice changes in the appearance of their labia following childbirth or as a result of aging. These changes are something we don’t have to accept as part of aging any more. As women, we’re always striving to look and feel our best. Women who’ve had labial rejuvenation talk about feeling more confident during intimacy.

When it comes to vaginal rejuvenation, a procedure often associated with aesthetic gynecology, the medical side plays a larger role. This is a procedure designed to treat vaginal relaxation, a condition our board defines the loss of tone in the supporting structures of vagina. Women nearing menopause tend to find the symptoms of vaginal relaxation more noticeable.

Introducing Ask Aba

At ABAGyn, our mission is to promote the highest quality aesthetic gynecology through education, dissemination of professional information, and the establishment of professional standards. Along with encouraging education, we also want serve as a resource to the public about the field of aesthetic gynecology.

Creating this blog is one of the many ways, we hope to inform women interested in the latest advances in our field. “Ask Aba” will allow anyone, not just women, to post or email questions to us. We’ll also be giving out new information on procedures and resources through our blog too.

We can’t wait to hear from you.

If you don’t want to post directly to the blog, feel free to email Aba@abagyn.com with your private questions. We will answer the questions here on the blog, but keep your questions anonymous.