What You Don't (but Should) Know About the Pelvic Floor || with Dr. Sara Reardon, the Vagina Whisperer

We're diving into an essential, yet often overlooked, aspect of women's health: the pelvic floor. Joined by Dr. Sara Reardon, also known as the Vagina Whisperer, we discuss everything from the basics of pelvic floor health to practical tips on how to manage and improve its function throughout various stages of life.

We cover important issues like urinary leakage, painful intercourse, and pelvic organ prolapse, and share proactive ways to care for the pelvic floor, including using proper techniques. With insights on pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause, Dr. Reardon offers valuable advice and resources that could significantly improve your quality of life. Whether you're new to this topic or looking to deepen your understanding, this episode is a must-listen for any woman wanting to empower herself with knowledge about her body.

Sticky Habit Intensive enrollment now open!

About a few other things...

Sign up for the Go Getter Newsletter to get Progress Pointers in your inbox every Wednesday.

You can listen the episode below, or on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify, Youtube, Overcast, Stitcher, Pocketcasts, or search for “About Progress” wherever you get your podcasts.  If you like the show please share it, subscribe, and leave a review!!

This episode is brought to you by LMNT, get your free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/Progress; and by AirDoctor, use code MONICA at http://airdoctorpro.com/ for up to $300 off air purifiers.

SHOW NOTES
Sara's website, book, Instagram  
Book Launch Committee
Access exclusive supporter benefits
Sign up for the next Sticky Habit Intensive
Leave a rating and review for the podcast!
Lend your voice and experience + be featured on the show HERE
Join Monica on Facebook and Instagram
Songs Credit: Pleasant Pictures Music Club

TRANSCRIPT

Monica Packer: [00:00:00] Dr. Sara Reardon welcome to About Progress.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Thank you so much for having me.

Monica Packer: So this is a really fascinating niche topic, but also one that I know we all desperately need to hear . We're going to be talking about the pelvic floor today. I've never covered this topic and I just wanted to start by knowing your own story.

Why are you obsessed with the pelvic floor?

Dr. Sara Reardon: Well, first of all, thank you for having me on and I think it's really amazing that you are bringing light to this topic because it's a really hard topic for many of us to talk about. I think that typically issues with our pelvic floor health are intimate. They're private. They're often embarrassing. We don't even know who to talk to about them, and I'm just really excited to be able to kind of demystify this part of our area that just affects so many parts of our life.

And that's a little bit of the reason of how I got into it. You know, I was in graduate school a very long time ago, 2007, and. learning about the woman's body and how the pelvic [00:01:00] floor muscles affect peeing and pooping and pregnancy and sexual health and menstrual health. And I was just fascinated that muscles were involved in all of these really day to day functions and when they're not working well for you, that it can really impact your quality of life.

I think it's really easy for us to walk around with an ankle brace or a bandaged knee or, you know, shoulder pain. And those are really visible, easy things to kind of recognize that somebody's suffering with something and be compassionate towards them. But so many women and men, but I focus particularly on women, um, are experiencing these issues like urinary leakage, painful intercourse, um, cesarean scar pain, um, you know, menopausal changes, and they don't know where to get help.

And so I just really love that part of it. I haven't experienced pelvic floor issues. I think now more in perimenopause, I'm starting to see some, changes. Um, but I just love being able to help women understand their bodies more.

Monica Packer: Well, I'm so glad that [00:02:00] you have had this passion and have been so willing to talk about the tough topics because that's how I found you. It wasn't until after my third kid at 30, I started having kids quite young that I even heard the word pelvic floor from the first time for my physician.

And it was only because my uterus was falling out, which is how I then found you. And, and I was only then recommended to a pelvic floor therapist. And I did not enjoy that experience at all. So this is

why, yeah, yeah. And luckily I had another better experience later on, but I mean, there was so much I didn't know and there's still so much I'm learning. Why do you think women don't know much about the pelvic floor? Why is this such a mystery and even a taboo topic?

Dr. Sara Reardon: It's interesting. I just finished writing my book floored, and in the book, I kind of really dove into the history of how we view women's bodies and how we talk about them and how everything from childbirth to menopause. are kind of really just understudied.

There hasn't been a lot of research. There aren't a lot of women researchers. And so one of it is research. [00:03:00] There's just a dearth of it is particularly for women. Um, I think the other thing is that, you know, this part of our body has either been not talked about because it's associated with just something like sex.

or birth when again, it's really involved in all of our day to day functions, everything from breathing to bowel movements. And when something does go wrong with this part of our body, we don't even know that muscles could be a role. And we also, it's embarrassing to talk about, you know, if I leak, when I laugh, I don't want to necessarily tell everybody about that.

Or if I'm having intimacy issues with, um, my partner, it's feels a little bit shameful or embarrassing, or if my uterus is falling out, it's like, you kind of just want to deal with it quietly versus tell all your friends, you

know, and so I think a lot of it just has to do with carrying shame around this part of our body.

However, I really want that narrative to shift because it's a body part. it's like an elbow or an ankle or a knee. [00:04:00] When we really think of it like anatomy and physiology and how it functions, we can really start just addressing the issues like, Oh, this is a muscular problem. Just like if I have back pain, I would do exercises and stretches.

And it's the same thing for your pelvic floor. Um, because these are just muscles and nerves and tissues. They're just, you know, hiding behind her underwear and pants.

Monica Packer: Yeah. So why not talk about it more? Especially if, as you said, it's not just these big issues, although those are very relevant, it's the day to day activities that can be very frustrating and chronic when it's not cared for and brought up in ways that you can feel safe and actually get healthy, helpful information for. So I actually wanted to just enlighten our audience a little bit because maybe they're new to this whole conversation and they don't even really know what the pelvic floor is. So And if we could start there, if you could give us a little bit of like a

definition and tell us more, but also I was curious, what are the top things you have found that women do not know [00:05:00] about their pelvic floor, but that they should know?

Dr. Sara Reardon: Absolutely. So these are two great questions and I'll start with the first one is your pelvic floor is a basket of muscles that sit at the base of your pelvis. So if you think about the skeleton that we all see in those, that bony pelvis at the very bottom of that is a basket of muscles that attach from the pubic bone in the front to the tailbone in the back and side to side and that basket supports your pelvic organs.

So your bladder, which holds urine, your uterus and ovaries, which during pregnancy, your uterus holds a growing baby. And then your rectum, which holds, you know, pool poop, they all rest inside of that basket. So this muscle is supporting those organs. They also have the openings for urination and bowel movement.

So they're keeping urine and stool in. And then when you sit down to relax, they're relaxing and allowing your your, um, bladder and bowels to empty. And they also have the vaginal opening. So the female pelvic floor has three openings, one for urine, the urethral opening, one for poop, the anal opening, and then the [00:06:00] vaginal opening for vaginal intercourse, menstruation and vaginal birth.

So, You know, it's these muscles are clearly important and we don't see them like I can bend my elbow and see my bicep flex. We don't really know what this muscle is doing and how it's functioning day in and day out. I think there's a little bit of lack of education. I think that the way our medical system is set up is that we have one doctor for the uterus and one doctor for the colon and one doctor for the bladder.

And Nobody's really addressing the muscles, and I think that's where pelvic floor therapists come in, is that we are muscle specialists. We just specialize in the muscles in the pelvic arena. And so when something's not working properly, or we even want to prevent issues, that's when people come to see us.

Um, but again, people are just learning that we even exist. And this specialty's been around for over 30 years. I've been practicing for almost 20 years. It's just now, I think, with social media and podcasting and You know, women starting to really feel more [00:07:00] hungry for information and being vocal about that is this specialty really getting, um, a little bit more attention,

Monica Packer: Yeah, I had never even heard of it until I needed it. But you know, when I shared recently about having to do pelvic floor therapy after the birth of my final child, um, I was like, All the DMs are asking me more about that, but most of them are asking about where I go because people are like,

who do you see?

And I'm like, well, I don't think she'll serve the entire United States, but, uh, here's her name and information. Like we're hungry for help here once we

actually know it exists. So if we're thinking about the problems that they may be facing or the things they don't even know they are facing,

we're starting to approach the perimonopausal period and the menopausal period as well. And you're, you've said that's even bringing things up for you as a specialist. It's like, Oh, huh. Interesting. So what should they know?

Dr. Sara Reardon: So I think the first thing is that this muscle, this pelvic floor muscle is working for you all throughout the day. It's constantly [00:08:00] working. So it works, um, it contracts and relax when you breathe, when you get out of bed, when you move, when you sit, it's a postural muscle that is working all throughout the day.

So when it's not working for you is when we start to see some challenges. So that can lead to things like urinary leakage, pelvic organ prolapse, which is when that. that basket of muscles isn't supporting your organs as well and your organs start to kind of droop down into the vaginal canal and it creates pressure or heaviness in the vagina.

If you are constipated and you can't relax to have a bowel movement or you have leakage of stool, and then even things like painful intercourse where your muscles may be tight or tense and you know, intercourse with initial insertion or deeper insertion can be painful and even cesarean scars. I mean, I think that we think of C sections can kind of quote unquote spare your vagina, but your pregnancy itself changes the pelvic floor.

And a c section, you know, um, cuts into different layers, [00:09:00] seven layers of muscle and tissue in the abdomen. And the abdomen is so closely connected to the pelvic floor. So we see a lot of women post c section who have incomplete bladder emptying, um, frequent urination, painful sex, constipation. So it's just really so connected.

So I think the first thing is that it's working for you all throughout the day. When it's not working, you can see different things pop up in all of these different symptoms from peeing, pooping, sex, um, birth. The other thing is there are proactive ways that you can care for it. When we start teaching young women, or even young people, young children, about how to pee on the toilet, or we're potty training them, I want them to learn the proper way to pee and the proper way to poop.

Because if you have constipation or any kind of bladder issues at a young age, you are predisposed to developing pelvic floor dysfunction later. So, for instance, with urination, I tell people, don't power pee. And that is just like the holy grail of how you need to pee. So often I think as [00:10:00] women, um, particularly high achieving, highly focused, um, busy people, we want to pee as fast as possible.

Or if you have little kids and their fingers are stuck underneath the door waiting for you. Um, but when you pee, you should really be sitting down. Don't hover over the toilet. And you should take some big deep breaths and those big deep breaths just help relax your pelvic floor and your bladder is actually a muscle that pushes the urine out for

you.

So you don't need to push when you pee, you just need to relax. So I tell people take some big deep breaths, have your feet on the floor, lean forward onto your elbows and just breathe and your bladder will push the urine out for you. You don't have to pee. push. If you power pee, it actually puts more pressure on your pelvic floor and can lead to weakness of the muscles, urinary leakage, and prolapse.

The other thing is to avoid straining when you poop. Um, outside of, you know, giving birth, one of the biggest risk factors for pelvic floor dysfunction is straining during

bowel movements. because you're [00:11:00] sitting and there's a lot of pressure down and you're straining your pelvic floor muscles and again putting it at risk for weakness.

So I tell people keep your poops really soft with hydration, fruits and vegetables and fibers, and you can even take a magnesium supplement at night time to help soften your stool. to use a squatty potty or a little stool under your feet. And that puts you in more of a squatting position that relaxes the anal sphincter to help with bowel movements and to not hold your breath when you're pooping.

So to exhale like you're blowing out a bunch of candles. And this is actually how I teach my kids to have bowel movements. I don't want them straining, you know, childhood constipation is so common. And so many women I see are like, Oh, I've been constipated since I was a kid. I'm like, okay, so that means you've been straining since you were a

kid.

And that's a risk factor for pelvic floor weakness. So getting the peeing and pooping under control are really some of the basic things we can do. And then when it comes to pregnancy and postpartum and even menopause, really proactively working on your pelvic floor, I think is really important because [00:12:00] those are transitional periods that physically change your pelvic floor where it needs to be.

Um, getting more attention.

Monica Packer: So we've got some proactive care with learning how to pee and poo and who, I mean, who knew that that was something that we would struggle with as adult women, but yeah, yes. And that was, that was another thing I learned from you like, Oh, I shouldn't have her. Cause like, I am a classic don't want to touch a toilet seat if it's outside

of my house, but I learned that from you and it's changed. That's changed that part of my life too.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Every time people pee, they're like, Sara, I think of you and I'm like, I guess that's a good thing, you know?

Monica Packer: I guess that's one of the benefits of your job, right? Um, so let's, let's lean a little bit more into the women who are starting to age or further along in the aging process. What changes can they expect specifically with their pelvic floor?

Dr. Sara Reardon: So I think to your point, I mean, so many of us are having kids a little bit later in life and we are maybe breastfeeding or lactating afterwards or not. [00:13:00] But we're going through these hormonal fluctuations just from pregnancy, postpartum and lactation. And then all of a sudden we get into this transitional period of perimenopause, which can be five to 10 years before

menopause. So the average age of menopause in the United States is 51. So if we start thinking about five to 10 years before that in our early forties, sometimes even our late thirties, we're already starting to experience perimenopause symptoms. For me specifically as a pelvic floor specialist, they look like vaginal dryness.

decreased lubrication with intercourse, frequent urination, frequent urinary tract infections, constipation, painful intercourse, and decreased pelvic organ support putting you at risk for pelvic organ prolapse. A lot of that and all of it actually has to do with the hormonal changes that we undergo. As we are getting into perimenopause, our estrogen levels and progesterone levels and testosterone levels are changing.

all take a nosedive. And so every month we're going through [00:14:00] this roller coaster of, you know, changes in estrogen and progesterone that are just kind of fluctuating really significantly. And we get all of kind of these really funky symptoms, but they're related to our hormones and they affect our pelvic floor in our vagina.

So One of the things I really like to educate people on is, you know, if you're having vaginal dryness to use a vulva moisturizer, um, these are non hormonal based, um, like lotions and serums for the vulva and vagina. And they, it's just like putting a moisturizer on your face, right? We do that every day to prevent dryness.

That's the same thing for the vulva and vagina. One of my favorite products is by a brand called medicine mama. It's an, you know, all natural, organic, clean oil based balm. And I mean, I can put it on my face and I can put it on my vulva. So it's just really, but it's moisturizing. You don't want to be using petroleum or Vaseline or aqua for anything like that on the area.

Also nothing scented, um, or tingly, you know, just really [00:15:00] kind of clean products. I'm like this, if you can't put it on your face, don't put it on your

vulva. The second thing is working with a medical provider and using topical estrogen. Um, this is something that you can start. you know, as early as you'd like.

If you start feeling some symptoms of dryness or, you know, urinary symptoms or painful sex, when you have low estrogen, the tissues in the vulva and vagina get really thin and dry, and they're easily torn. So that may cause pain with sex. It may cause bleeding during sex or afterwards. It can cause weaker orgasms, all of these things, less sensation during intercourse.

So. topical estrogen is just an estrogen cream that you use inside the vulva and vagina. Um, typically it's, you know, every day for two weeks and then you go to 2 to 3 times a week after that. It's very local, so it doesn't kind of get into your whole, system or bloodstream, which, you know, some people have a lot of fear about the changes in hormones.

Um, but it just plumps up those tissues and it's just like gives [00:16:00] you that hormonal boost that you're not getting because your estrogen is declining. And then the last thing is to proactively strengthen your pelvic floor. We lose 2 percent of our muscle mass every year after we hit menopause. So you want to be building up your muscle mass in advance so that you have a full cup of muscle strength when you hit that, that menopausal period.

Um, and menopause is defined as 12 months from the day of your last menstrual cycle. So if you have no menstrual cycles for one year, you are officially in menopause. So after that, we're losing collagen and, um, you know, muscle tone and strength throughout our whole bodies, but including our pelvic floor.

So you need to, I mean, 35 to 40, start proactively strengthening your pelvic floor. If you don't have tension, you know, work on strengthening so that you can build up that muscle mass. And have a nice reserve as you're entering a stage where that muscle mass is going to gradually decline.

Monica Packer: Is it too late for the women who are in their fifties, sixties and [00:17:00] above?

Dr. Sara Reardon: Never. I always say it's never too late. I, there was a day in my clinic where I saw a young woman who was, you know, 27 experiencing painful intercourse in vulvar pain who walked out of my clinic. clinic door. And then I had a 72 year old postmenopausal woman coming in for, you know, frequent urination and painful sex.

And I was like, this is the beauty of this

work is that every season of life you can benefit from pelvic floor therapy. It is never too late. And I think so many women in their fifties and sixties feel like It is because they're like, I've just had this and I need to deal with it. And I'm like, you don't, you don't have to deal with it.

There is a therapy that is proven to be effective to help you. And if it's not just exercise or stretching and strengthening, we can help you find other clinicians who help with diet or nutrition or hormone supplementation to help give you the best benefit. I mean, if we're living till 80. And we're starting to experience perimenopause at 40.

That's half of our life that we need to navigate. And I want those to be the best years of [00:18:00] my

life. I don't want them to feel like I just have to suffer with pelvic floor issues.

Monica Packer: again, I mean, if we're going back to what you brought on the very beginning, how it's a day to day functioning issue, just imagining myself in my later years being frustrated day in, day out by

those kinds of things. That's very motivating to help me prioritize being more proactive with it. Now, um, can you tell us how to. Properly. Now, this is where I'm like, wait, is it Kegels or Kegels?

Dr. Sara Reardon: Either one's

Monica Packer: Cause I've heard it both ways and I'm like, I've always said Kegels. Is that just me? And

Dr. Sara Reardon: I say Kegel's too.

Monica Packer: Cause I said Skittles growing up instead of Skittles. So I always worry if I'm saying that

Dr. Sara Reardon: I say ambulance instead of Kegel's. I don't even know how to the other word. So

you're fine. You're in

Monica Packer: don't know. Okay. We're, we're, yeah, we're doing good. Okay. Can you tell us how to properly do Kegels then? Because I think that's something that a lot of us don't really know how to do.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Absolutely. So to go back to something you asked a little bit earlier about some things that we don't know about the pelvic floor is that we often think of the pelvic floor being [00:19:00] weak. And we've talked a lot about this in our conversation today, but your pelvic floor, is a group of muscles, and those muscles can be weak and need strengthening, but they can also be too tense or tight and actually need relaxation.

So the narrative of when we were growing up in our teens and 20s was like, do your kegels to help with peeing and sex and you know, everything. But that's actually not true. It's kind of like saying, Oh, if you have back pain, just do a bunch of crunches. You have to get a little bit down to the root of what the issue is.

So if you have pelvic floor tension, which is typically associated with things like painful intercourse, like with entry or deeper insertion, Um, painful bowel movements or constipation, um, straining to empty your bladder or to have bowel movements. Typically, those are tension related issues, and you wanna work more on relaxation.

That could be yoga and stretching and massage. If it's a weakness issue, which is typically associated with pelvic organ [00:20:00] prolapse or urinary leakage, or fecal leakage or aging, those, that is when you'd wanna implement a Kegel contraction. So a Kegel is simply a pelvic floor contraction. It's a squeeze and lift of this basket of muscles.

So it closes the urinary and anal sphincters. It closes the vaginal opening and it lifts up those organs. It's not a tightening of your tush. It's not a curling of your toes. You know, I've had patients who are like squeezing their toes and I'm like, that's not going to help your leakage.

But it's just a gentle contraction and the way that I cue people to do that is to kind of sit up nice and tall.

You want really good posture and think about sipping up a thick smoothie with your vagina, which is totally weird, but it totally works. So it gets you away from that tightening and thinking about a squeeze and lift. So your urinary and anal sphincters, the front and back are squeezing and lifting, sucking up a thick smoothie.

Another way that people can practice is that if you're urinating and you want to stop your stream, [00:21:00] that's a Kegel contraction. Now I don't want you practicing Kegels while you're peeing all the time, but just one time try to stop your stream and that's a

Monica Packer: Yeah,

Dr. Sara Reardon: Or if you have to pass gas and you're trying to hold it in, that's a Kegel.

So it's the front and the back squeeze and lift. And the other thing to know about Kegels is it's not just a squeeze and you sit in your chair, sit at a stoplight and just do your squeezes all day. You want to incorporate this muscle contraction into activities that you need it. So lifting up your kids or working out at the gym or, you know, squatting to bend over bag of groceries or something.

You have to train the muscle to do what you needed to do throughout the day. So use it in standing, use it in sitting, use it during your workouts, do quick contractions, do five to 10 second holds. So working in different positions and for different amounts of time is really going to benefit you the most when you think about pelvic floor strengthening.

Monica Packer: the thing that surprised me the most with my successful [00:22:00] bout with pelvic floor therapy was learning how to relax.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Yes.

Monica Packer: know. I didn't know that was a

Dr. Sara Reardon: None of us do.

Monica Packer: Yeah. And, and she also helped me do that while I was doing a squat. Like, you know, so when I'm bending, I'm trying to more relax the muscles and then do that squeeze and lift. And it's still like, I have to think about it, you know, to try to do it, but it has been really helpful in so many ways. Um, and with that, I would like to know your recommendations on where they can start and what they're trying to aim for eventually in terms of like, how often should they be doing this?

How many days a week?

Dr. Sara Reardon: So I think to your point, um, it's, you can contract the muscle, which is a Kegel, but you can also relax the muscle. And like any other muscle to strengthen our bicep, we don't like walk around with our elbow bent thinking I'm going to tighten my bicep and it's going to get strong. You contract it and you relax it completely.

And so many of us walk around or sit during the day and we carry tension in our bodies. And I, Personally, I carry tension in my neck and shoulders and I [00:23:00] get headaches and all of these things. Some people carry tension in their pelvic region, in their glutes and their thighs. And you'll find it, like if you're stressed out in traffic, you're squeezing your butt

cheeks. Or if you're in a meeting, your legs are crossed and you're kind of tightening them. So that tension just overflows to our pelvic floor, which can lead to pelvic floor tension. So when it comes to What to do or how to do it. Um, you kind of need to figure out which pathway you're on, and I go over this in my book and I even have a quiz on my website about, you know, tell me your symptoms, tell me what you're experiencing, and I'll kind of lead you down a pathway as to what most likely you're experiencing.

So. If you're experiencing tension, you want to one, change your posture and not squeeze your tush in your thighs all day. Start breathing. We find that when we carry tension, we don't breathe with our bellies. We breathe with our chest and that keeps everything really locked up down there.

So we go over how to do diaphragmatic breathing. And then we just do some stretching exercises. We will do those after workouts. We'll do them daily during workouts. I tell people [00:24:00] when they're brushing their teeth to kind of get into a deep squat to relax their pelvic floor or after they do a Pilates or a bar workout to do a child's pose or happy baby to kind of relax their pelvic floor.

So thinking about easy ways to incorporate stretching. And then also we do a lot of massage. So internally to the vagina, like through the vagina into the pelvic floor muscles, we release those muscles sometimes once or twice a week. If you see a therapist, they'll teach you how to do it in their clinic, and then you can practice it at home.

I also have videos on how to do this on my online platform. And then you're going to just do this once or twice a week until your symptoms start to improve, and then you can do it less frequently. The same thing with strengthening. Typically, because these are muscles, you, you know, you do your standard protocol of three times a week, you can do more, but the focus is not just on strengthening.

It's also on relaxation afterwards. So it's about balancing the muscles,

Monica Packer: Yeah. You're already highlighting some things like, oops. Okay. Kind of work on that and that and that. So I, [00:25:00] I, I'm, it's so refreshing to hear how much of this is something you want to just incorporate into

our daily life, which I think gives me less overwhelm and more like, just, okay, I can just start. I can just start by when I'm lifting, you know, a bag of groceries that I'm trying to also squeeze and lift, or when I'm

done working out, I'm going to Did the child's pose and try to relax.

And, you know, those things do add up over time. And speaking of which I would love to hear about a case study of sorts, whether it's someone you worked with or someone who's done the work through your platform, and they've made some significant changes to their daily functioning, or maybe even a bigger problem that was related to their pelvic floor by doing these small, but steady things that you've taught us how to do today.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Yeah, I love that. I mean, there's so many. I think that, um, in my clinic, I've been practicing for 17 years and it's, um, it's You know, when people say like, how did you get into this? If you can have problems and it's really the patients, I mean,

it's the women that I work with who it [00:26:00] does take a lot of courage to come into somebody's office who you've never met to have them work through the vagina on the pelvic floor and Say like, Hey, trust me, like this

is what's going on.

And if I can't help you, I'm going to help you find someone that can. And just, I mean, there's everything from, I remember a young postpartum woman who came in and she had, she was 11 months postpartum. She'd been having painful sex and she had been having it for 11 months. And her doctor kept telling her like, just give it more time.

Just give it more time. Use some lubricant. It's just anxiety. And at 11 months, she's like, this is ridiculous. It's almost a year. I've had sex three times since having given birth, and it's so painful. And we worked on her scar tissue at her perineum from birth. We worked on muscle tension. And within three visits, she was having pain free intercourse.

And she was just like, I can't believe that this solution was here for me. And I waited so long to get it. And I said, it's not your fault. Physical therapy for your public force should be [00:27:00] integrated at every life season, but particularly after giving birth, because we know that your body goes through a transformation.

You don't have surgery and just go home. If you have a knee replacement, you get rehab before, during, in the hospital and after. And that's really how pelvic floor therapy should be for a pregnant and postpartum mom. Um, through the, my exercise platform in general. Um, I have a, someone I'm working with now and she is doing the program.

She, um, I saw her in New Orleans for her first pregnancy and then she moved away, but she's doing my online platform now during her pregnancy and it's, you know, doing her three workouts a week. And she was experiencing stress incontinence, which is leakage during pregnancy. And she's just getting really discouraged.

She's got a very physical job. And she was doing the workouts like once a week. And I was like, okay, you need to do them three times a week.

You need to watch the videos on how to contract your pelvic floor before a cough or a sneeze, how to strengthen your pelvic floor. And, you know, she literally emailed me like two weeks later.

She's [00:28:00] like, it's already better. Just like using the strategies of how to engage your pelvic floor with a cough and upping her strengthening workouts. And It was awesome. And I'm like, that's really why I created the platform to your point of so many people asking you, how do I find someone is we're all over the United States, all over the country, but there's only a handful of us.

There's not a lot. We think about 40, 000 women giving birth

and there's 3000 therapists to see them, you know,

but I wanted people to be able to access. something from home when you have young kids. It's really hard to make an appointment with someone if you are working or if you have, you know, you're not insured or even you do have insurance, it's costly.

And so how can we get this education and these exercises into the hands of people? That's really convenient and accessible. And that was really the motivating factor to create the platform.

Monica Packer: Well, tell us the name of the platform. Cause while we're here, I'm sure there's going to be many people who are like, I live out somewhere where

Dr. Sara Reardon: I know.

Monica Packer: or therapist, or even on a, you know, far more serious note, someone may have [00:29:00] dealt with a lot of trauma that

way. And it just feels safer to do it at home, you know, with support though.

And that education. So tell us the name and where they can go to get it.

Dr. Sara Reardon: So, um, my name is, you know, online is the Vagina Whisperer. Um, so you can find [email protected]. And then the, the membership itself is called the V hive and it's, you know, has everything from pregnancy postpartum to strengthening for prolapse and diastasis recti for painful sex. We're coming out with a menopause series,

um, early 2025. So just really to help women through every season of life. And it kind of spoon feeds you like, Hey, these are the three extra. three workouts to do. They're only 10 minutes. And again, I made this because it was like, what can I do? I was a busy mom with a five year old and a seven year old. And I was like, I don't have 45 minutes to do this.

I have 10. So and it teaches you just very basic exercises. But how do you incorporate that pelvic floor and core contraction? How do you progress it to get [00:30:00] to doing more activity like running or jumping or going back to Pilates? And so I And just helping you connect with a part of your body that I think most often weren't educated on how to connect with.

We don't even know. We don't know what it looks like. We don't know how to feel it. We don't know how to work it. Um, you're not alone in that. You know, we've had over 10, 000 people come through the platform in the past two and a half years.

And that's just awesome that that many people can get this, this education, um, from the comfort of home.

Monica Packer: That is phenomenal. I just want to give you some

Dr. Sara Reardon: Thank you.

Monica Packer: there. That is so cool. So cool. And as someone who has benefited from it too, I just have to say like, it's helped me avoid a hysterectomy and a full reconstruction surgery at 30 years old was what I was

Dr. Sara Reardon: Yeah. And have two more kids. You know, I think that's one of the things is pelvic floor issues highly impact our life. And I will have moms come through who were like, I don't want to give birth again, or I don't want to have sex again, or take my uterus out because I can't handle it anymore. Or I feel like less of a woman because I [00:31:00] can't have sex because it's painful.

And I think that. When you hear these, these experiences is that I don't want having a vagina to be something that we feel like is something that makes us suffer. I want us to feel like we're educated on how to care for it. That, I mean, I love being a woman. I'm like, I don't want to be a man. So, but how can we help support women through every season of life?

And just, um, I think just demystify this and really empower them. I think when we know more, we can do better. And that was, um, It's really one of the things of helping people feel empowered in their health care versus feeling like they just have to deal with things and suffer. So I'm so happy to hear that this was so helpful for you.

Monica Packer: absolutely. I want to, you know, speaking of education, talk about your book, Florid. So cool. That's coming out soon. Um, tell us about the experience in writing this and how it, how it was different than doing your program and teaching

online and, you know, you've done this for years. [00:32:00] So what's been different about it for you?

Dr. Sara Reardon: You know, I have to say that book writing was just such a difficult and challenging process, but at the end of it all, I was so proud of what it created. It, it felt a little bit like being pregnant and then finally birthing a child. It took me about nine months. Um, and someone actually approached me with a concept.

It wasn't like I thought I had this Big idea, like I wanna write a book. You know, there was a follower just like yourself who said, Hey, I work for a publishing company. , I experienced pelvic floor issues and I want more women to have this education, and we wanna support you doing it. And so it just worked out really beautifully.

And you sit down and you look at a computer screen and a blank sheet and you're like, where do I even

start? I think a lot of it is one, I kind of drew on a lot of my experience with patients. So things that people had experienced that you can resonate with, like it wasn't just me like dialing through the research and giving you a bunch of tips.

It was like, Hey, these are [00:33:00] real people who experienced these things and this is the benefit that they had. Um, and it starts from the very basics of what is your pelvic floor? How does it work? proactive tips to help care for it. And then I really walk through every season of life of during, you know, when you have your period, what are the things that you need to know so that, you know, my sister who has a daughter who's going to be going through puberty one day, like how can she educate her daughter about her pelvic floor?

What are the proper things to know about periods and menstruation and how her pelvic floor is affected? And then it goes into sexual health. Like what, What's happening with her pelvic floor during sex? What are signals that there's an issue? And then bladder health, bowel health, and then pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, menopause, and then into pain.

So I really, it's an overview of all of this. I, of course, went over my word count. Because they were like, you're, you're giving out too much information. I'm like, I can't stop. But it felt awesome to just take everything that was in my head and through my experience and put it down for people and be like, this is going to live on.

It's not going to [00:34:00] be on an Instagram platform

or, um, you know, in a blog post, it was.

Monica Packer: That

are hard to search, by the way.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Hard to search, right. It's just a guide, and that it will be a guide that I hope is really helpful for women at any season of life.

Monica Packer: If I can learn so much from you in this conversation after already having learned from you for years, I cannot wait to get my hands on this book. And one of the other reasons why you just highlighted for me is for my daughter.

Dr. Sara Reardon: Yeah.

Monica Packer: know, I feel embarrassed. I didn't even think about that and teaching

her

Dr. Sara Reardon: don't feel embarrassed. It's, I mean, I think when you said earlier, like, why don't we talk about pelvic floor? I'm like, oh my gosh, I talk about it all the time. Like, there's like vulvas laying around my house. I like teach my kids how to poop the right way. It's, it's so common conversation for me, but I'm one of few.

And I think that I really hope that one day I'm one of many. And I think that, you It just really goes along with empowering people. I was at soccer practice for my kiddo the other day and another mom from our school came up to me [00:35:00] and she said, you posted this video about how to insert a tampon and I'm just not comfortable talking to my daughter about it.

So I showed her the

video and it's so helpful. And I was like, this is what I

love. Just having conversations about our bodies should, empower us,

should inform us so that it's not so mystical or shameful. And I was like, I love it. That's exactly what I do what I do.

Monica Packer: Wow. That's giving me the feel good feelings like on your behalf. So cool. We will make sure we link to The Vagina Whisperer wherever you are, as well as your program and the book, but let's end with our final question. And we've covered so much today. I am just so amazed by your generosity and, and sitting with

us and sharing so much. What is one way they can get started on what they learned today?

Dr. Sara Reardon: I think, honestly, take away the simple tips about how to pee and

poop. We do it every day. We do it multiple times a day. Teach your kids. Um, and those, that simple, those [00:36:00] simple strategies can take you a very long way. Even if you do have to have therapy or do go through my program. If you don't change some of those daily lifestyle habits, then it's a little bit like you're swimming upstream.

So just take those really simple tips and just start implementing them. And again, you'll think of me every time you pee, but I'm okay with that. Um, but I think that again, when we know more, we can do better. And then we can teach, you know, the next generation how to do better as well.

Monica Packer: Wow. Well, Sara, I have loved this in many, many ways, and I appreciate you and your time and your work so much. So thank you for being on about progress. I'm

Dr. Sara Reardon: Thanks for having me.