“Laughing so hard you pee isn’t so funny anymore, ehh?”

The laws of physics prove that pressure will always go towards the path of least resistance. If you are experiencing stress urinary incontinence (or involuntary loss of urine with coughing, laughing, yelling jumping, sneezing, etc), it could be that your pelvic floor is this “path of least resistance” unfortunately.

You can experience stress urinary incontinence even if you have never been pregnant. Typically, though, women will start to experience these symptoms during or after pregnancy. During pregnancy, especially in the third trimester, it becomes harder to control your bladder as your baby grows and puts more weight on the pelvic floor and pushes against your bladder wall. If you develop stress urinary incontinence during pregnancy, you are more likely to struggle with bladder issues postpartum as well. Nipping them in the bud as soon as possible is best, but it’s never too late to help! I’ve seen women from 18 to 94 experiencing leakage. It only gets harder to treat with time so seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist early on is optimal.

“What if I can prevent the leakage by crossing my legs,” you may ask? That’s great you are avoiding embarrassment and mess that comes with leaking, but it still could be a sign your pelvic floor muscles are not functioning optimally. You need mobility, endurance, coordination and strength in your pelvic floor muscles. I assess all 4 of these things during internal vaginal assessments. You needing to cross or squeeze your legs means you are engaging muscles called the “adductors” which help to bring the thighs inward. These muscles share a close attachment site with the levator ani muscles, aka the pelvic floor muscles. Often these “nosy neighbor muscles” like to work together since they are cuddled up so close on our pelvic bones. Because of this, you might over engage your pelvic floor muscles if your adductors are weak or on the contrary over engage the adductors when the pelvic floor muscles are weak.