Pelvic floor

Looks like

A hammock of muscle slung from the pubic bone to the tailbone, with openings for the outlets.

What it does

Holds the organs up and keeps urine, wind and stool in until you choose.

Keeping it well

Pelvic-floor exercises daily, avoid constant straining, treat a cough. Leaking is common and treatable, not something to accept.

Its parts

• Levator ani
• Perineal body
• Anal sphincters
• Perineal muscles
• Coccygeus

Related conditions

• Anal fissure & fistula
• Bone metastases and spinal cord compression
• Botulism
• Chronic constipation
• Faecal incontinence
• Fibromyalgia
• Frailty & falls in older age
• Heat exhaustion & heatstroke
• Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
• Muscular dystrophy
• Pelvic organ prolapse
• Perineal tear in childbirth
• Polymyalgia rheumatica
• Prostatitis & pelvic pain
• Rectal prolapse
• Rhabdomyolysis
• Sarcoma
• Sarcopenia
• Tetanus
• Vulvodynia and vaginismus