Women often hear about the perineum for the first time after giving birth. Still too little known today, it is a fundamental set of muscles that should not be neglected. Health professionals recommend maintaining and strengthen your perineum throughout your life!
What is the perineum and what does it do?
Where is the perineum located?
The perineum is a remarkably little-known part of the body. Also known as the pelvic floor, the perineum is a set of deep body muscles located below the waistline of the abdomen. It extends from the pubis to the coccyx.
Note that the perineum is not exclusively for women - men have one too!
What is the purpose of this set of muscles?
Often compared to a small hammock, the perineum has three main roles:
- It supports genital organs such as the bladder, vagina and rectum.
- It regulates urinary and anal continence.
- It is involved in sexual response
When the perineum weakens or becomes slack, it can have a number of consequences: urinary incontinence, organ descent, lack of sensation during intercourse... That's why it's important to pay close attention to your perineum throughout your life.
Why do we need to re-educate our perineum?
What factors can damage the perineum?
Pregnant women are particularly at risk of developing perineal weakness. The weight of the baby and uterus increases during pregnancy, putting increasing pressure on the pelvis and pelvic floor.
In addition to pregnancy, many other factors can also impact perineal tone, such as :
- vaginal delivery ;
- age and aging of tissues
- sporting activities
- excess weight ;
- smoking...
For all these reasons, it's just as important to regularly tone the perineum as any other muscle in the body.
How do you re-educate your pelvic floor?
Perineal re-education sessions can help you improve your perineal tone. Performed by a health professional (physiotherapist or midwife), these sessions help you to become aware of your pelvic muscles, locate them and learn how to contract them correctly.
Re-education of the perineum also helps treat symptoms associated with urinary incontinence and perineal weakness. The good news is that these re-education sessions can be carried out at any time in life - there's no age limit for starting to re-educate your perineum!
Good to know: In France, during pregnancy, 10 sessions with a healthcare professional are reimbursed at 100% by the Assurance Maladie during the post-natal period.
The different methods of perineal re-education
Manual re-education
Widely practiced by midwives, manual reeducation is a method that uses the fingers to apply pressure and friction to the perineum.
The vaginal touch enables the woman to become truly aware of the different perineal zones, and to highlight any painful areas.
This method is often combined with visualization exercises, which help women acquire a very fine perception of their perineum.
Electrostimulation rehabilitation
Another method of perineal rehabilitation used by professionals is electrostimulation. This technique uses an electric current to stimulate the pelvic floor muscles. Reflex contractions are used to work the perineum.
Perineal electrostimulation is particularly useful at the start of rehabilitation, for women who don't know how to contract their perineum. It enables them to learn to localize their perineum with the help of electrical impulses.
Biofeedback rehabilitation
Biofeedback is widely used, especially by physiotherapists specializing in pelviperineology. It is one of the most effective techniques for strengthening the perineum, as it is based on voluntary contractions. Here, it is the patient who works and decides to contract her perineum.
In practice, a vaginal probe detects the contractions made by the patient. It then sends this signal to a screen where the woman can visualize her effort in real time. The big advantage is that the woman can then adapt and correct her movement according to the instructions given. There's a real learning curve for muscular contraction.
In all cases, whatever the rehabilitation method used, your health professional will recommend that you continue to practice regular exercises to tone your perineum at home. But today, one of the main problems is that women don't always continue to exercise at home. They forget, aren't motivated, find the exercises boring...
Perineum re-education at home with the Emy probe
To address this problem and help women continue to strengthen their perineum at home, Fizimed has developed the Emy connected perineum re-education probe.
How does the Emy probe work?
The Emy medical device uses biofeedback technology to allow users to see their perineal contractions in real time, directly on an application on their smartphone. This fun solution enables you to continue your rehabilitation at home, using mini-games based on medical protocols. Lift off a rocket, catch coins, harvest carrots... all thanks to the strength of your perineum.
It's easy to use: the app takes care of everything, and all you have to do is let yourself be guided. Re-educating your perineum has never been so easy or so much fun! Another plus of the Emy solution is that these interactive exercises are scalable. They adapt to your tone of the day and your previous training results, so you're always making progress. You can really monitor your progress. Ideal for staying motivated over the long term and maintaining a toned, functional perineum!
The effectiveness of the Emy probe has been clinically proven. After just 3 weeks of regular exercise, the first results in terms of muscle tone can be seen. Patients who use Emy also experience a significant improvement in their quality of life and, above all, a reduction in the frequency and severity of symptoms linked to urinary incontinence. So if you're looking for an effective solution for your perineal rehabilitation, go for it!
And just for our readers, take advantage of a 20€ discount on the Emy probe with the code MAMAHANGS.
The Emy application - Perineum exercises
In the Emy application app, in addition to games for exercising the perineum, you'll find a wealth of advice and medical content on women's intimacy (videos, podcasts, articles, quizzes, etc.).
Sports and yoga programs adapted for the perineum and designed by experts will also enable you to get some physical exercise, while protecting your pelvic floor!