Let’s talk about our vaginas.
For something that plays such an important role in a woman’s health, sexual health, and overall well-being, we really are not taught enough about it.
I know that from experience.
I spent years working in sex therapy, and I cannot tell you the number of women I educated about their own bodies. Women of all ages would come into my office without understanding basic female anatomy, what was happening within their pelvic floor, why sex might hurt, what could influence arousal or orgasm, or how their bodies could change after childbirth and as they aged. So many women also believed bladder leaks were simply something they had to live with after having children or as they got older, rather than understanding why leaking can happen and the different ways we can work with the pelvic floor, pressure system, surrounding tissue, and fascia to help decrease or stop those leaks.
These are things women deserve to understand about their bodies, because when you understand what is happening, you can begin learning what you can actually do to create change.
What surprised me even more was how many young women had very little understanding of their own anatomy.
We teach girls about periods and pregnancy. We talk about preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Somewhere in all of that, we have an incredible opportunity to actually teach women about the bodies they will live in for their entire lives.
What does a healthy vagina look and feel like? What is the difference between the vagina and the vulva? What happens within the pelvic floor during sex? Why can sex hurt? What influences lubrication, arousal, and orgasm? Why might you suddenly pee when you sneeze after having a baby? What happens to the tissue after pregnancy and childbirth? What changes during perimenopause and menopause? What happens to vaginal tissue as estrogen changes? Why can libido change? Most importantly, what can we actually do to support our bodies through all of it?
These conversations matter.
Now, after years of working in sex therapy and everything I have learned and developed through Fascia Medicine™, I want to take that conversation even further.
Fascia brings an incredibly important layer into our understanding of women’s vaginal, sexual, and pelvic health.
Fascia and Pelvic Floor Health: Your Pelvic Floor Is More Than Muscle
We talk about pelvic floor muscles. We talk about Kegels. We talk about hormones, estrogen, vaginal health, and libido. Fascia brings another important layer into this conversation because it is woven throughout the entire pelvic region.
The female pelvis is an interconnected system of muscles, fascia and other connective tissues, nerves, blood vessels, and organs that work together. Fascia helps support and connect the bladder, urethra, vagina, uterus, rectum, and pelvic floor, while helping transmit and manage forces throughout the pelvis.
This becomes especially important when we talk about something as common as bladder leaks, also called urinary incontinence. Leaking urine when you cough, sneeze, laugh, run, jump, or exercise is known as stress urinary incontinence.
Continence depends on coordinated muscular and connective-tissue support, pressure management, and the ability of the pelvic floor to contract and release appropriately. Looking at the fascia allows us to consider tissue mobility, restriction, tension, scars, pressure, and how effectively the tissues of the pelvis are working together.
That is why I want women to think beyond whether their pelvic floor simply needs to be stronger. Strength is one part of pelvic health. The ability of the pelvic floor and surrounding tissues to move, coordinate, contract, and release matters too.
Fascia, Vaginal Health and Sexual Function
That same interconnected tissue is part of vaginal and sexual health.
The vagina exists within a fascial and connective-tissue environment alongside the pelvic floor, nerves, blood vessels, and other structures involved in sensation, arousal, and sexual function.
Sexual function itself involves multiple systems. Hormones, circulation, nerve signaling, pelvic floor function, tissue health, emotional health, stress, and nervous-system regulation can all influence how a woman experiences desire, arousal, lubrication, sensation, orgasm, comfort, and connection during sex.
This is one of the reasons I believe women’s sexual health deserves a whole-body perspective.
Pregnancy and childbirth also create changes within these tissues. C-sections, episiotomies, and tearing create scar tissue as the body heals. These experiences can change the way a woman feels within her body and the way the tissues of the abdomen and pelvis move and function.
Perimenopause and menopause bring another stage of change. As estrogen changes, vaginal and vulvar tissues can experience changes in moisture, elasticity, comfort, and function. Women may experience vaginal dryness, painful sex, urinary symptoms, and changes in sexual function. Many vaginal, vulvar, and urinary symptoms associated with menopause fall under the clinical term genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM).
Aging, injury, chronic tension, scars, hormonal changes, and changes in pelvic floor function can all influence how this entire region moves, functions, and feels.
When we understand the fascia, we can begin seeing the relationship between bladder control, pelvic floor function, vaginal health, tissue mobility, painful sex, sensation, orgasm, and sexual experience through a much more connected lens.
Each concern can have multiple contributing factors, and fascia gives us another important part of the anatomy to assess, understand, and work with.
Behind Every Clinical Term Is a Woman Experiencing It
It is the woman who crosses her legs before she sneezes because she knows she might leak.
The woman who stopped jumping on the trampoline with her kids.
The woman who has quietly started avoiding sex because it hurts or because her body does not respond the way it once did.
The woman who loves her partner and cannot understand where her desire went.
The woman who had a baby and knows her body feels different, even years later.
The woman entering perimenopause who suddenly feels like someone changed the rules to a body she has lived in her entire life.
To the younger woman who has questions about her vagina, her anatomy, sex, orgasm, or pelvic health and has never had a place where she felt comfortable enough to ask them.
I saw these women for years while working in sex therapy.
I educated women about their bodies, their anatomy, sexual response, and the changes they were experiencing. I also saw how powerful it was when a woman finally understood what was happening in her own body.
There is something incredibly validating about having language for something you have been experiencing privately and realizing there are things you can learn and ways you can participate in your own health.
That feeling matters to me.
I want women to feel comfortable talking about their vaginas. I want us talking about bladder leaks, sex, orgasms, libido, dryness, pain, childbirth, scars, perimenopause, and menopause without embarrassment.
I want a woman to understand what is changing in her body and feel empowered by what she can do with that information.
Now I want to bring the fascia into that conversation.
This Is Why I Created Revive Your Yoni™
When a woman tells me she leaks when she coughs, sex feels different since having a baby, she has pain with penetration, her orgasms have changed, her libido feels different, her vagina is changing through perimenopause, or she simply wants to feel stronger and more connected to this part of her body, I want her to understand the tissue too.
More importantly, I want to teach her how to work with it.
That is why I created Revive Your Yoni™.
Revive Your Yoni is an actionable fascia and pelvic-health program designed to take this education into the body.
We are going to learn the anatomy, understand the changes happening throughout the different stages of a woman’s life, and then actually work with the fascia and pelvic region to create change.
We will work with fascia-focused techniques to support bladder control, pelvic and vaginal health, tissue mobility, and sexual function. We will explore pelvic floor contraction and release, bladder leaks, vaginal and vulvar health, painful sex, sensation, arousal, orgasm, libido, vaginal dryness, scar tissue, C-sections, episiotomies and tearing, pregnancy and postpartum changes, perimenopause, menopause, aging, nervous-system regulation, trauma, and the relationship a woman has with this intimate part of herself.
Education is powerful, and having something you can actually do with that education changes the experience completely.
I Want Women to Feel the Change in Their Own Bodies
I want women to know their bodies.
I want women to understand their bodies.
I want women to have tools that allow them to actively participate in changing how their bodies feel and function; to laugh, cough, sneeze, run, or jump with greater confidence in their bladder control; to understand how to release tension and create greater mobility through the pelvis; to work with scar tissue after childbirth or surgery; to support the changing vaginal and pelvic tissues through perimenopause and menopause; and to experience greater comfort, sensation, and connection during sex.
I want women to understand how to work with their pelvic floor beyond simply strengthening it, including how to contract, release, coordinate, and connect with this area of their body.
I want them to recognize what restriction and tension can feel like, learn how to work with their fascia, and experience the changes that can happen as the tissue begins to move differently.
I want a woman to be able to feel the difference in her own body: more mobility, greater awareness, less tension, improved bladder control, more comfort, greater connection to sensation, and a sexual experience that feels connected to her body again.
This is about learning how to work with your body and being able to feel what changes when you do.
Revive Your Yoni™ Is Coming This November
Revive Your Yoni™ will be released this November exclusively inside the Premium Membership of The Self-Healing Community.
This will be a space where we can have the conversations women deserve to have, understand the anatomy and science behind what we are experiencing, learn how fascia relates to our pelvic, vaginal, and sexual health, and then put that knowledge into practice.
My goal is for women to leave this program knowing their bodies differently. To understand what they are feeling, to understand what may be changing, to know where and how to work with their tissue, to feel more connected to their pelvis, their vagina, and their sexuality.
To have actionable tools they can continue using as their bodies change through every stage of being a woman.
That is Revive Your Yoni™.
Frequently Asked Questions About Fascia and Women’s Pelvic Health
Can fascia affect the pelvic floor?
Fascia is part of the anatomy of the pelvis and works in relationship with the pelvic floor muscles, pelvic organs, nerves, blood vessels, and surrounding connective tissues. Understanding tissue mobility, tension, restriction, scars, and pressure gives us another way to look at how the pelvic region is functioning as a whole.
Why do I pee when I sneeze, cough, laugh, or jump?
Leaking urine during coughing, sneezing, laughing, running, or jumping is commonly called stress urinary incontinence. Bladder control depends on coordinated pelvic floor function, connective-tissue support, and pressure management. This is why bladder leaks deserve a broader conversation than simply telling every woman to do more Kegels.
What happens to vaginal and pelvic health during perimenopause and menopause?
Hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause can affect the vagina, vulva, urinary tract, sexual function, and surrounding tissues. Women may notice vaginal dryness, discomfort during sex, changes in sensation or desire, urinary urgency, bladder symptoms, and other changes. Understanding these changes gives women the opportunity to seek appropriate care and learn ways to support their bodies through this stage of life.
A Note About Your Health
Every woman’s body and medical history are different. Bladder leakage, persistent pelvic pain, bleeding after sex, significant pain during intercourse, recurrent urinary symptoms, unusual vaginal discharge or odor, or new pelvic pressure should be discussed with an appropriate healthcare professional. Fascia-focused self-care can be one part of supporting pelvic health alongside individualized medical or pelvic-health care when needed.
