We are never educated on our pelvic floor.
The only thing we hear about this part of our body is like
you have a vagina and it's like for sex, which is not just the
case. Way that Western medicine is
designed right now is that we have a doctor for a body part.
We have a bladder Dr. a colon a colon doctor, a, you know,
uterus Dr. But your pelvic floor muscles are affiliated with all
of those different organs and systems.
Often with pelvic floor issues, something's happening like leaks
with urine, even like deep back pain or deep hip pain.
That's just not relieved with stretching.
Any sexual dysfunction, pooping issues like Constipation,
fissures, hemorrhoids, you know, any of these things that are
kind of going on in the pelvic arena.
Your pelvic floor muscles are likely responsible, but we don't
think about muscles in this arena.
But muscles are either weak or they're too tense, right?
Just like every other muscle in your body.
It's the same thing for your pelvic floor.
You can have tension and it needs to be relaxed, or you can
have weakness and it needs to be strengthened.
And we are live Doctor Sarah Reardon, how are you today?
I'm doing great, Robert. Thanks for having me.
Hey, I'm excited to be chatting with you.
So I, every day we have a morning meeting with my
employees and I'm going through my list, my call list for the
day. I'm like at 2:00 I've got a
podcast with the Vagina Whisperer and that just kind of
like stopped them on their tracks.
They all kind of like raise their eyebrows and wanted to
know more. So I, I got to hand it to you,
you've got a pretty crafty tag line for your username.
I mean, that's definitely a conversation starter for sure.
You know, it is, and I wish I could take credit for it.
This was a name that my friends gave me almost 15 years ago when
I was first practicing. It's a pelvic floor physical
therapist and I ended up talking to their moms about their pelvic
floor issues. And now, you know, we've all had
babies and we're in perimenopause.
So I'm like their pocket vagina whisper.
But it's it is a very catchy name, but I think it's actually
kind of, you know, very on brand for me because I'm really
comfortable and outspoken talking about the pelvic floor,
talking about Volver and vaginal health and just, you know,
really bringing this into the spotlight because I think it's
an under addressed part of Women's Health.
Yeah, let's talk about that and we'll talk about all kinds of
things on this recording today. But when it comes to just
conversations in general, like I get frustrated, my listenership
gets frustrated with just a lot of the ignorance around health,
fitness, Wellness, nutrition, especially from Western medicine
doctors. Like they just don't have much
information out there. Like you have to kind of go and
dig forward on your own. Yes.
Why do you think there's just not much information, you know,
low hanging fruit around that topic?
Like why is that an uncertainty that people have to go to Google
to find out? You know, I think that we are
never educated on our pelvic floors.
You know, when we are young, we maybe we get potty training you
when you are a young woman, you maybe get a little bit of period
education, which is like maybe a book and reading the box, you
know, of tampons and how to use them, maybe sex Ed depending on
where you live and what school you go to.
But we're never educated about our pelvic floor.
And the only thing we hear about this part of our body is like,
you have a vagina and it's like for sex, which is not just the
case. And that we shouldn't talk about
it. It's taboo, it's dirty, it's
inappropriate, but we don't talk about the healthcare aspect of
it. So I think 1 of it is just kind
of societal norms that this is an off limits topic.
And the other part is, as you mentioned, the way that Western
medicine is designed right now is that we have a doctor for a
body part. We have a bladder Dr. a colon, a
colon doctor, a, you know, uterus Dr. But your pelvic floor
muscles are affiliated with all of those different organs and
systems, yet we don't have anyone looking at those until
they get to a pelvic floor therapist.
So it's just a really missed aspect of healthcare.
And I think that, you know, I've been been working hard, I've
been in this field for 18 years. And to really see the awareness
of Help for Health increase over the past five years with social
media and, you know, online platforms, it's, it's necessary
because it's long overdue that we start paying attention to
this part of our bodies. Totally agree, and out of
curiosity, like this is never a topic that is discussed in male
circles but I mean men have a pelvic floor too, it's just a
muscle group around that region so why is it never discussed
amongst guys? You know, you're absolutely
right. Males also have a pelvic floor.
All genders have a pelvic floor and a lot of men have pelvic
floor issues. I think one of the reasons is,
you know, we go to annual gynecological visits as women
starting at the age of 18. And men don't typically have
that. They may be check in with a
primary care doctor and then get referred to a urologist or
someone else if needed. But we kind of have that
additional layer of care for our reproductive organs.
And also women go through changes like periods and
pregnancy and childbirth and then menopause where those are
risk factors for developing pelvic floor issues.
And we maybe get a little bit more attention of those issues
arising. But for men, it's just like
there's no opportunity for discussion.
And you know, women talk, we talk about everything.
And so I think that that's just kind of a missed conversation
topic for men too, because again, I don't know if there's
a, you know, a disconnect with comfort level or with muscles or
with doctors, but it's, you know, very prevalent that men
have pelvic floor issues. They just don't get addressed
either. Yeah, it's interesting.
Yeah. I mean, the bodybuilding space,
it's like you got to be able to know how to flex and make use of
every single muscle region you got.
So like, to me it just kind of made sense.
But I guess kind of talking about pelvic floor within guys
circles is against bro code for societal standards.
I don't. Know and I'm kind of with you so
I mean I do think it's a little bit of brocode I'll go with it
because you said it you know, but I think that this part of
our bodies often hidden and what we see on the outside is very
visible. We don't see this part of our
bodies. It's, you know, literally
labeled private parts. But I think that it's easy to
kind of brush off these issues. They're often embarrassing.
I would say men can experience bladder issues like, you know,
difficulty emptying their urine stream, a slow stream, a weak
stream dribbling after pain. They can have rectal pain,
tailbone pain, you know, painful bowel movements.
But it's actually not until I think men start experiencing
sexual symptoms like erectile dysfunction, premature
ejaculation, difficulty maintaining erections.
That's when I see them really coming into physical therapy to
get their issues addressed. So it's got to kind of start
affecting the sexual piece where they're like, OK, now I need to
get help. Gotcha gotcha.
So men typically just think with their penis and once that's
impacted then it becomes a priority.
I didn't say that, but I mean, maybe it's.
Probably the case. Probably the case.
What gets you into this field of study in the 1st place?
Like what? What made you interested in
diving down this path and and taking the one step further and
helping others? You know, I've always been an
active person. I went to physical therapy
school thinking I was going to be a sports PT.
But during grad school I had a professor who was gave us a few
weeks of lecture on what was called Women's Health.
It's now called pelvic health. And I think as a woman, I just
was really fascinated learning about my own body.
Like, oh, I didn't know that there are muscles that help us
pee or that, you know, tight muscles can cause painful sex or
straining with pooping is bad. There were just so many kind of
light bulbs going off that were like, oh, these are muscles, but
nobody talks about them. And then when I started working
with patients in the pelvic floor therapy space, I felt like
this is this is the therapy that's so important.
You're helping people, all genders, with really intimate,
embarrassing issues that affect their quality of life.
And they had no idea there was help for that.
You know, when you get an ACL tear or shoulder injury, like,
you know, you can go to rehab and go to therapy.
And it's hard, but it's kind of normal.
This type of therapy nobody even was aware of.
And so they were so grateful when they were able to have
enjoyable sex that wasn't painful or, you know, run again
after they had stopped because of leaking.
Just the rewards were so big for them that I was like, oh, this
is amazing. And I love helping other women
and people understand their bodies better too.
Gotcha, gotcha. So someone's listening, what are
some like super actionable takeaways?
Like what are some things they need to be on the lookout for of
like, OK, this is occurring in me personally so I may have a
problem or an issue here. What steps should I take to
correct course? Like what are some just
actionable, you know, low hanging fruit takeaways that
they can just take and run with? You know, I start the book
floored. It's called A Woman's Guide to
Pelvic Floor Health at every age and stage.
But it's really, I think for anyone with a pelvic floor,
which is everyone, because, you know, it goes over the basics of
like, what is our normal? Like, how often are you supposed
to pee? What's the proper way to poop?
What happens to our muscles when we have sex?
And so it's just the education. We never got to understand this
part of our body. And often with pelvic floor
issues, if you don't have to think about your pelvic floor,
then you're probably fine. But if something's happening
like leaks with your, you know, urine leaks with exercise or
coughing or sneezing or even like deep back pain or deep hip
pain that's just not relieved with stretching.
Any sexual dysfunction, whether it's painful sex, decrease
sensation with sex, inability to have orgasms, pooping issues
like Constipation, fissures, hemorrhoids, you know, any of
these things that are kind of going on in the pelvic arena,
your muscles play a role. And so even if you had an
infection and it's gone, but then you still have symptoms in
the area, your pelvic floor muscles are likely responsible.
So I always say the little hanging fruit is like, if you
feel like something's going on, something's going on, and you
should check in with a therapist to get your muscles evaluated
because you know, over 50% of people have pelvic floor issues
and they're just going unaddressed because they don't
know that there's help for them. What what are the like when it
comes to, it's going to be probably highly individualized,
but when it comes to issues with the public floor, is it
oftentimes more so an issue of, you know, underdeveloped muscles
there or not having the proper mind muscle connection?
Or is it something totally different 'cause like when I
think of that, it's like it's almost like breathing, like
breathing requires muscles, but you don't really have to think
about it just happens naturally. You are so right.
And actually your pelvic lower muscles contract and relax with
every breath that you take. So they're working all
throughout the day to keep in, you know, urine and bowel
movements until you have to go to help with breathing,
supporting your pelvic organs like your bladder, your uterus,
your bowels, your prostate. So it's working for you.
But again, it's not until you have a problem that you are
like, huh, something feels off or something's not right.
So I think that again, some of the specific issues I mentioned
like peeing and pooping problems, sexual problems,
pelvic organ prolapse and women. So I but we don't think about
muscles in this arena. But muscles are either weak or
they're to tense, right? Just like every other muscle in
your body. You can have weak core muscles
and then you strengthen them and it helps your back pain.
Or you can have tight neck muscles that are causing you
headaches and migraines and you relieve the tension and change
your posture and then it gets better.
It's the same thing for your pelvic floor.
You can have tension and it needs to be relaxed or you can
have weakness and it needs to be strengthened.
But I think the narrative for pelvic floor health has always
been strengthened. Like you have pain strengthened,
you have leakage strengthen, you know, but a lot of people have
that tension where they actually need to not do kegels and not
strengthen and they need to work on relaxation.
So it really depends on which pathway you need to walk down.
And I go over this in the book of like how to check yourself,
what are the symptoms you should have to help guide you down?
You need strengthening or you need relaxation.
Gotcha. Gotcha.
So when it comes to the strengthening, that's pretty
much like everybody kind of gravitates towards Kegels as
like the quintessential movement for strengthening, right?
Kegels and I also, like, you know, we've for decades been
sucking in our cores. Pull your belly button towards
your spine, you know, tighten everything up.
And a lot of the workouts we do are so tightening, tightening,
tightening, focused, but we're not balancing that with
relaxation. So even if it's not just kegels,
like everything we're doing is to like build muscle, but we're
not building relaxation, flexibility, coordination.
So it's a little bit of balance that I think we need to these
muscles. So yeah, obviously it's not just
kegels and it is kind of making sure that your muscles are at
rest, a nice relaxed state, and then you can contract them but
also relax them. And I think even if you think
about workouts that a lot of your community do, you know,
does or even yourself, it's that everything is tight.
Like we're lifting weights, we're shortening muscles, we're
pulling in our belly buttons, but we're never focused on that
letting go aspect, which I think is a mist component.
Is there like just from like a structural positioning, you
know, sentiment? Is there like certain positions
that we find ourselves in all day long that are just
horrendous for pelvic floor health and relaxation?
And some that are better than others?
Like when when I think of myself just sitting in an office chair
for a large percentage of the day, working on a computer, like
my shoulders and traps get really tight.
So like, that's obviously not conducive to relaxing vent.
Is there like an equivalent for pelvic floor muscle?
Yeah, I always say sitting is the new smoking, you know, just
like what it does to your neck and shoulders, it does the same
thing to your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor needs movement
and needs mobility and needs changes.
People always say like, what's the best posture for my pelvic
form? Like the next one that you're in
because you don't want to stand all day, but you also don't want
to sit all day. So I think, you know, moving
positions, getting up and moving every 30 minutes is really
important. If you are a person who finds
yourself clenching your butt a lot, you know, literally like a
tight ass. You know, we'll find people when
they're stressed or they're in Zoom meetings or they're sitting
in traffic, they're tightening their tush and that tightens
their pelvic floor. Another one is crossing your
legs. A lot of individuals kind of
wrap their legs up like pretzels or roll their thighs inward and
their feet are out and that turns on your pelvic floor,
which again, these aren't terrible, but they can overtime
lead to more tension and more over activity in the muscles.
So and I always say, like you could do stretches and breathing
until the cows come home, but if you're sitting at a desk with
your butt clenched all day, your pelvic floor is going to stay
overly tight and tense and you need to change that posture.
Gotcha, that makes sense. Are you familiar with the the so
right so as stretcher like is that conducive to relaxing the
pelvic floor muscle? Yeah.
Is that the one the device where it kind of like goes, you can
adjust it, but it goes like on the inside of your hip bones and
kind of digs deep into your SO as?
Yeah, it's like AU and you just basically put weight on that U
going into the other side of the pelvis.
It's kind of painful, but it feels on the feels great.
Yeah, I am familiar with it. I actually use it after playing
tennis with a friend one day and I think it's great.
It's one of those things that I, it's hard to get to that muscle.
So releasing that muscle can be really nice.
You know, 36 muscles attached to your pelvis and you're so as
muscles are part of that, your hip flexors.
So I think it's really important to look at all of those outside
muscles, your so as muscles, your rectus abdominal muscles,
your adductors, your glutes, you know, your low back muscles.
Again, what we're looking for is balance.
So if you have really short hip flexors like your so as you
probably have really short hamstrings, so you get kind of
these wonky imbalances in the pelvis that also lead to pelvic
floor tension and imbalances. So I love working on the so as
like that. I really think about it like
peeling layers of an onion, like you've got to work the outside
first, the so as the glutes, the adductors release tension,
balance those muscles and that will actually kind of help
release some of the internal muscles as well.
Yeah, 100%. It's interesting.
My, my wife, she's like due any day now with her second son.
So we're, you know, we're going to the midwife every single
week. We're doing everything as
naturally as possible. We do all these like exercises
daily, all these stretches, like all this stuff, like she's deep,
deep in the week. I love it, I love it.
Yeah, so we're we're on we're on that page, that chapter.
But, you know, in not wanting to, you know, use anything like
an epidural and nothing. It's people that take the
epidural route. But like from a natural birth
standpoint, you know, if you're taking an epidural, you're
obviously losing a lot of the mind muscle connection towards
everything going on down there to be able to effectively and
safely push out a baby and listen and feel for what the
baby's trying to tell you as it's moving through the birth
canal. But I feel like in listening to
all these conversations with the duelers and the midwives and all
that, Crystal, my wife's are telling me how the podcast that
we've listened to, it's like the more you can have that mind
muscle connection, especially with something like your pelvic
floor muscle, the the increased likelihood of you having a
healthy, safe birth, which is obviously the priority at that
chapter in life. So yeah, I feel like this is
just stuff that people take for granted until it's like do or
die time. But it should be time of the
period, time of the pinnacle of the priority list.
You are so right. And that was actually one of the
reasons I started my Instagram account, The Vagina Whisperer.
As I was pregnant with my second son.
I had already had an unmedicated birth.
I had done pelvic floor therapy during my birth, I mean during
my pregnancy and had actually an incredible birth.
I had no tearing. I didn't use pain management and
and it wasn't that I was like, oh, I'm this strong here.
I was like, no, I was in pain and I was begging for those
drugs, but it was too late. But what I realized was that
with proper preparation and support, that you have a chance
at a better outcome versus I feel like if you just kind of
follow the protocol that's given to you, there's, you know, it's
always looking out for the safety of baby and mom.
But what I see after those experiences is women and moms
who often feel like they weren't in control, traumatized from
birth, haven't gone through really difficult and long
laborers, and then sometimes ending up with a cesarean
section or pelvic floor damage and trauma that they were like,
could I have done something different?
And so we were always kind of looking backwards instead of
saying, like, what can we do differently moving forwards?
Let's think about the people who are having births that are less
traumatic, have less pelvic floor damage.
Like, what are they doing that's leading to better outcomes?
And that's really where I started the Vagina Whisperer.
And I'm much, you know, I'm very open.
Whatever type of birth you have, like I will support you 100%
before and after. My goal is to really empower
women and whatever options that they want to choose.
But I, I don't think that during birth, we often feel like we
have options. You know, unless you're like
your wife who's doing a lot of preparation or myself who kind
of knew a lot and was like, OK, how am I best going to implement
the people and the procedures that can give me the best
outcome? So I think that you're, I'm kind
of in the camp of less is more when it comes to birth and not a
lot of physicians agree with me on that, but it does lead to
some better pelvic floor outcomes.
But we're just not in a society, a medical system that is looking
at everything. Sometimes the aftermath, it's
really just kind of very medical interventions to optimize
safety, which is again is important.
But I do think that it's we kind of need to move a little bit
more towards the middle versus like over medicalizing birth.
Yeah, it's a shoot. We could have a whole
conversation on this. Topic and it's a, it's a touchy
topic too. It's a touchy 1.
So, but I'm, I, I agree with y'all.
I, I just think more than anything, I want women to feel
informed and that they have the ability to make choices.
And then birth is going to go where it's going to go versus
feeling like everything's being done to them and they're just a
passenger in the process. Yeah, 100%.
I feel like, I mean, and this is kind of what I was alluding to
in the very beginning of like there's just not much
information out there and people are ignorant because unless
they're naturally minded, I mean, I feel very blessed
because I went down the nutrition rabbit hole early on.
When you start going down 1 rabbit hole, it just leads to
the next. But when it comes to like birth,
like unless you know somebody that has had a home birth or
done things naturally, or you heard it on a podcast, you
started diving down that trajectory.
Like it's just not even discussed, not even talked
about. When you just find out that
you're pregnant, you go to your, you know, primary care and you
just go through the motions because that's not on their lips
at all. But there's so much that women
can do proactively leading up to the birth to set themselves up
for success, minimize risk of tearing, you know, have a a
faster, more efficient recovery postpartum.
Yeah, again, it's just totally not even part of the
conversation, which is very unfortunate.
Same thing with birth control too.
Like birth control is there's just so many things that are not
spoken of, which is unfortunate. Yeah, You know, I think with
birth itself, it's there's so much you can do during
pregnancy, you know, and I think again, it's one of those
narratives. It's like, oh, if you're peeing
your pants during pregnancy, that's normal, just deal with it
after. Oh, back pain during pregnancy
is normal. Deal with it after.
Oh, you don't need to prepare your for birth.
Like, we'll tell you what to do, but there's so much that you can
do during pregnancy. And see, one of the most, you
know, common things we see at my clinic here in New Orleans is we
do birth preparation like we teach people.
How do you do perineal massage? How do you push properly?
You need to relax your pelvic floor during that last
trimester. You don't need all this tension
in there because for birth, you really need your muscles to get
out of the way. Your uterus is pushing the baby
out. Your pelvic floor muscles need
to move to the side. But if you don't know how to
relax your hips and your pelvis and your pelvic floor and push,
then when you're in birth, like, and you've got doctors and
lights and, you know, medicine, it's just you've never been
trained. It's like we're asking women to
run a marathon, but we didn't teach them how to run a mile.
And I think that they deserve this education.
I always felt like, well, why didn't I just pick this path?
And I'm like lucky and can take care of my vagina.
You know, I'm like, everybody should be able to have access to
this. And that's where the book comes
in is that like, I really think that women and their medical
providers can benefit from at least knowing from a pelvic
floor perspective what's optimal.
And then again, you know, birth and all these things.
It takes the course it takes, but at least like what's what's
supported in the evidence in the clinical practices that can at
least give them better chances of pelvic floor outcomes.
Totally. Are you targeting more so like
the the consumers of the book, like people that have the pelvic
floor, just the everyday people? Are you trying to target like
the providers that need this information so that they can
implement it for their patients? No, you know, the book is very
much written for the the just everyday person.
I mean, it's like there's a chapter called the Scoop on
poop. Like it's not super medical, you
know, but it's very much backed in evidence.
I mean, there's a ton. I really dove into the research
because I want to be able to say, like everything that's in
there is is backed by evidence and science, which is important
to me. I think that there's a fire hose
of information coming at people right now and it's important
that it comes from, you know, to me, a credentialed individual.
And it's not just based on, you know, one person's experience,
but really clinical experience and science.
But I also think that medical providers get such little
education on pelvic floor health and assessments that they're
going to benefit from reading this book.
I mean, they have pelvic floors. We see OBGYN's in my clinic who
are practitioners, but also pregnant and giving birth.
And so everyone benefits from from this education that Ioffer
in the book. 100% So for women, what are like the the monumental
chapters in their life or phases, so to speak, where this
information becomes paramount. You kind of alluded to them
earlier, you know, pregnancy apart from just the day-to-day
obvious implications, but just like the the monumental phases,
so to speak. You know, it's interesting
because I actually started this book, the first chapters on
periods and I could have written a book again just on pregnancy
and birth and just on perimenopause and menopause.
But you know, when we start first experiencing pelvic floor
changes, it's during our first menstrual cycle when every month
our hormones are changing and that actually influences your
pelvic floor. So you're going to have over 400
and something periods and every month.
I mean that your body's changing, so you know, when
you're start menstruating and you're learning how to use
tampons or, you know, menstrual hygiene products, and then when
you become sexually active, if you don't know that sex
shouldn't be painful. I mean, some people don't even
know that, you know, the urethra in the vagina are two different
openings, you know, So I think that's the real basics.
People need to kind of understand for their bodies that
orgasms are actually pelvic floor contractions.
So when you become sexually active, you know our body
changes and you need to know what to look out for.
Again, we talked about pregnancy and birth and postpartum.
I have chapters on each of those because so much can be done and
also so much information needs to be given during those
periods. I think we're just not given.
And then again, I go into perimenopause and menopause.
When we go through another huge hormonal shift which effects our
pelvic floor, it can often lead to weakness, dryness, painful
sex, things like that. So at every stage of a woman's
life, our bodies are changing, and every stage your pelvic
floor requires something different.
Unfortunately, I think it's not until we start having problems
that were like, wait, what's going on?
And we could have prevented or even just been aware of these
issues earlier and, you know, have some information about how
to treat them. Totally this.
This. I'm assuming it's probably
within your wheelhouse because you're talking to people that
are perimenopausal, menopausal. But in my sphere, I've just
gotten a ton of questions around, you know, hormonal
replacement therapy for women in that chapter.
You know, when when you're talking with women and they're
going through these changes, like do you have an opinion on
that one way or the other? Because you're tackling like the
the Musk that your side of it from a pelvic floor standpoint,
but you're fielding all these questions around HRT as well,
I'm assuming? You're right.
And I think it's, you know, it's a really, I think big topic
right now. The thing around HRT is there is
so much more evidence coming out that they are safe for people.
And, you know, they're not off limits for anyone who has had a
history of breast cancer or even has a, you know, or as high
risk. But I will say I think we have
to meet people where they are. So I am a proponent of them if
it's appropriate for people, you know, using estrogen,
progesterone, testosterone, a combination of these things if
needed. But if someone's not comfortable
with it, I don't think that we should try to convince them that
they're fine. You know, if they want to use an
alternative route or a non hormonal option or I'll just
deal with the side effects of perimenopause and menopause
without hormones. I think that that there's that,
right? And we have to kind of give them
some other options to navigate some of the symptoms, like using
a vaginal moisturizer or doing pelvic floor strengthening if
they don't want to use hormones. So I think, you know, hormone
therapy is a little bit more nuanced than nobody should be on
it and everybody should be on it.
I still think we need kind of very individualized care in this
arena. One thing I am a huge fan of is
topical estrogen on the vulva and vagina because it's very
local. It can help plump up and thicken
those vulvar and vaginal tissues, strengthen the pelvic
floor, help with lubrication. And it's not systemic.
It doesn't kind of go systemically.
It kind of is very local to those tissues.
So I am a huge fan of that if someone's comfortable with it.
But when I think it comes to kind of more, you know, systemic
hormones, I really think it's it's individualized and I think
it's great if someone wants to do it.
I actually think people are under prescribed it often.
They're still like, oh, menopause, do as little as
possible as long as possible. And I'm not in that camp.
But I think that if someone's not comfortable with it, we need
to be able to give them other options too.
Yeah, it's always just like balancing acting scenes because
just as we're talking about earlier, less is often more.
We want to kind of return to this naturalistic approach
towards, you know, giving birth and having as little
intervention as possible, as little Western medicine
implications as possible. But then like with some things
as science coming out and we're learning more, it's like, OK,
maybe it makes sense to ramp that up in this regard.
Yeah. So it's just, it's always, it's
always a balancing act, the dance that we're playing.
You know, you're, you're so right.
And I think it's a dance and I think it's a little bit of
options. You know, I think it's again,
one of those things where it's up to us as medical providers to
say, hey, these are the options. These are the the benefits,
These are the side effects. What do you feel like is best
for you? This is what I would recommend,
but I also have to listen to where you are, you know, in full
transparency. I mean, I'm 42, I'm in
perimenopause and I've been having horrendous perimenopausal
symptoms like heavy periods and mom rage and, you know, anxiety,
like all of these things. And I was like, I'm not taking
any hormones, I'm going supernatural.
I did all the things, took my supplements and then I was like,
OK, this is not cutting it. And after two months of trying
progesterone, which I put off for six months, I was like, I
feel like myself again, you know?
And so it was one of those things where I made the
decision, I was given the options, could have made the
decision. I was like, OK, I again, I had
to do my own research as to like, what are the side effects?
How often should I take them? I still had to kind of do my due
diligence. But I do feel grateful that I am
in the space where I feel like I can inform myself.
I can advocate for what I need, but also be open to exploring
different things if I'm not getting the results that I'm
looking for. Yeah, 100%.
You got to be objective and you got to be honest for yourself.
Like if you know what your results should be, what you
want, what you're looking for, and you're not getting them,
yeah, then be objective about that reality and troubleshoot.
I mean, it's really what it boils down to.
Yeah, or you say I'm just going to deal with this and this is
just how it is. But I don't think it's fair for
someone to tell me like, oh, you're just going to have to
deal with this. I'm like, no, what are my
options? And let's make a decision
together as a team. 100% and and your book just released this
past Tuesday, is that right? It did it released on June 10th.
So I was in New York and I was, you know, it was really exciting
to be able to talk on national news about the pelvic floor.
They said they had never had a pelvic floor therapist on their
show, which is pretty incredible.
And it just it's been an amazing week where so many people are
coming out and saying like, I'm so glad you wrote this.
I already started reading it. I'm, you know, teaching my
daughter about using tampons. I'm teaching my mom about
prolapse and menopause. And just, you know, really
seeing how we can share this information with the women in
our lives, with our medical providers to just help us better
understand our bodies and, you know, be on the lookout.
I'm kind of proactively care for it.
It's like I always see, it's like dental care.
It's like, you know, we see a dentist once or twice a year.
We get tune UPS, we get everything looked at because we
can see our teeth, but nobody sees this part of her body.
So it's really amazing to be able to educate women and have
them feel empowered about their own bodies instead of in the
dark. Yeah, no, I'm, I'm 100% on board
with that message. I mean, I feel like people just
are completely around what their body should feel like in the 1st
place. Like in the nutrition realm.
Like people don't even know what feeling good feels like because
they don't ever feel good to begin with.
They don't know how to move their body.
They don't understand proper bio mechanics.
But once you learn that, once you become acclimated to it,
it's like this whole new world opens up to you.
And I would assume the same thing is true with women,
especially in the public floor space.
It's like once you understand these things, once you're
equipped with that knowledge, it's like you can change things
for the better and, you know, charge forward today and not
worry about it. You know, I hope so.
I. Can't tell you how many people
message me and they say every time I pee, I think of you,
Sarah, you know. OK, well, then I must be giving
you good advice because they were like, I've been peeing all
wrong. And I'm like, well, all right,
then. I'm glad you read Chapter 4.
You know, So it's it's one of those things where like, we
don't know what we don't know. And I just firmly believe that
no one is teaching us about our bodies.
And often, even when we do have the courage to speak up about
something we're experiencing, we're still gaslit and
dismissed. And yet these symptoms affect so
many aspects of our lives, from our ability to exercise, work,
have intimate relationships, birth babies, get pregnant, I
mean, just so many things. And I'm like, I want to live an
act of fulfilling life. And I deserve that.
But I'm grateful I have this information, but I want everyone
to have access to that. Well, we got to have someone
brave. Enough like yourself to put it
out. You're not getting any pushback
from others, are you? Like, they're not, they're not,
you know, negative towards the content you're putting out.
I wouldn't say negative. I think that sometimes from
broader media sites, they don't feel comfortable using the word
vagina. Like I've definitely been turned
down from news segments. We're like, we think this is
really important, but we don't really want to say your
Instagram handle or we don't want to say vagina.
And I'm like, OK, we're we're not there yet, but you know,
we're talking about pelvic floors publicly.
Like this is progress. Like any way that we can move
the needle I think is positive. But I do think that it's still
an uncomfortable topic for people, which that's fine.
I'll meet them where they are. But the more conversations we
can have, I think the more, you know, we're able to help a lot
of people, all genders, men and women who who need this type of
therapy and they just don't even know what exists.
Yeah, when? You were in New York for your
interview. What?
What news channel was that for? It was for NBC.
So they, it was NBC national news and I was on 2 segments and
there are Daily News and it was awesome.
I mean, the women were amazing. One of them was a postpartum mom
and one and two of them, one of them was an older woman who had
had several kids. Another one had fibroids.
So you know, they felt like, hey, we want this information.
I feel like I need to know this and I want other people to know
it. But again, I think until you've
kind of been in those situations, you don't see the
need or the value. My goal is that we're
proactively educating people about this.
Not always kind of feeling like we're having to do it
afterwards, but I, you know, it's, it's huge progress.
I mean, I, I think everybody's been really receptive and I try
to bring a little bit of levity to it, you know, it's do you
wear your vagina? Costume on set?
Yeah, I've gotten several. Vagina costumes now.
And the only reason I did is because I don't like to travel
with it because I'm like, if this thing gets messed up, like
that's my whole brand, you know, and that company is doesn't make
them anymore. But, you know, I think it's
really fun to be able to do this and, and to to bring levity to
it and make people hopefully feel comfortable about something
that can be really uncomfortable for some.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like. Just like open communication and
dialogue is is of paramount importance.
But whatever the topic is and that's why relationships make it
or break it, you know, just be able to communicate. 1 and I
feel like this is the same thing.
It's like there's obviously a need for this information.
There's issues that could be addressed, but they'll never be
brought to the light of day if we don't feel comfortable
talking about it. And we all have a public floor.
I mean, this is all equipment that we're all familiar with to
some extent. Like, why is it this taboo thing
in the 1st place that makes no sense to me.
It's not. It's not realistic.
Yeah. I mean, I think.
That's like societal norms in the narratives, you know?
And I think about if we know better, then we can teach the
next generation better. I think that our parents just
didn't have this. They were kind of head subscribe
to the narrative of like, this is just what happens when you
have babies. This is just what happens when
you get older. You know, you go when you buy
your diapers and your liners and you just deal with pain and
discomfort. But I think our generation, we
are so information hungry and health forward and curious that
we're like, wait, why are we dealing with this one?
Is there another way? And so my hope is that we can,
you know, really change this for the next generation.
I mean, I, I have two sons and I think that they probably know
more about a woman's body than most women know about their own
bodies. Like they know what tampons are
and they know what periods are and, you know, they know, like
I've got vulva and pelvic floor models just hanging around my
house because of my job. But it's kind of normal to them.
And I think that I hope that they feel just comfortable and,
you know, informed about their bodies and other the other
genders bodies as well. So it's not so weird or gross or
anything like of like, oh, that's a period that's gross.
I'm like, no, it's just a period.
Like it just that's it. And so I'm really hoping that
we're able to change that for the next generation as well.
I think that's that's. Definitely from a parenting
standpoint, that makes a lot of sense.
Like I'm probably biased because I know my upbringing, but my
dad's a a biologist, so like science and biology is just the
norm. That was just what we discussed
around the dinner table, you know, so like, things that I
take for granted and people find disgusting or strange talk about
like it's just black and white, you know, science to me.
And I feel like when you have that approach, like, it just, it
removes the stigma because it's just reality.
And when there's no stigma, it makes for easy conversation,
right? And, you know, I think it's some
of us like to your point, like I even I now be honest, like some
of these conversations are still hard for me and that's my own
undoing. Like they're like, you know
what, when they're like, what is sex?
And I'm like thinking about it And then I teach it to them.
I'm like, oh, this is from a totally just like
heteronormative perspective. Like they don't, we don't talk
about any like homosexuality or because it's like that's not in
our home, but it's very much out in the world, you know?
So it's some of it is like I'm still learning my own biases and
my own upbringing, my own kind of tunnel vision where I'm like,
oh, OK, this is like, I'm still figuring this out too.
I'm just like every other parent kind of fumbling with like, oh,
how do I answer this question? But I think it's the intention
is to do better to give them more than what we had.
And not that our parents did a bad job by any means, They just
didn't know any different. Yeah, totally.
How? How old are your two sons?
They're 8 and 10. 8:00 and 10:00.
Nice. What what what does 8 and 10
look like? Because I'm going to have my
oldest son just turned 3 and the other ones do any day now.
SO2 Boys. Yeah, two boys and I.
Was one of two boys, my brother, I've got younger brother so I
know the boy dynamic from self experience.
But like, yeah, Crystal, my wife, I mean she comes from a
lot of girls so I don't know I don't know what 8 and 10 is
going to be like. Is that easier than three in
infant or it's easier and. In some ways more difficult than
the others. You know, I would say I came
from, I have, I'm one of four, so I have two sisters and a
brother. So I came from a very girl
centric world as well. And so having two boys is a
totally different space. And I'm used to like the
fighting and the wrestling and the like balls off the wall.
Like they're both super sporty kids and we do soccer and
baseball and we're pretty active household.
And honestly, like I love that because I'm really active and I
feel like it keeps me like healthy.
And you know, I focus on like I want to be able to run down the
soccer field with them. I want to be able to like go up
and down and do puzzles and, you know, play soccer and baseball.
So I, I love that active part, but it's, it's a lot of
activity. You know, it's not quiet, but
they share a room. You know, we, they don't need to
like we have enough bedrooms, but we make them share a room
because I think it's important that they kind of have some
connection. They play together amazingly.
They also fight a lot. But it's fun.
I mean, they're fun and funny and they're great kids and, you
know, I don't know any different, but I have a very
blessed life and I'm really happy with, you know, you get
what you get, boys and girls, when you get what you get.
But I I, I love it. I love being a boy mom.
I I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Yeah, no, I'm excited. Did y'all go like the the
homeschool rent or y'all put them in school?
What y'all do there? They're in school, so we.
Have you know, I've always worked full time.
My husband works full time. So we're definitely a two parent
working household. And I, I was one of those moms
that when my son was three months old and it was time for
me to go back to work, I was like, oh, I'm ready.
Like I am not meant to be home with my kids.
You know, I'm a better mom when I'm away working.
But you know what, now I have a job and I have a ton of
flexibility. So I bring them to school, I
pick them up, we do practices. So I, I feel like I get the best
of both worlds. They they are in school and we
both work, but I have a lot of flexibility where I can be with
them and spend time with them, which, you know, my mom just
didn't have that ability back in the day.
You know, we were the last kids and aftercare till 6:00.
And so I, I do feel really lucky that we've been able to carve
that out for ourselves. Yeah, no, that's awesome, I
think. I think as long as you get to
spend time with them in whatever way you chop it up, whether
it's, you know, throughout the day or after, after the school
hours or having that flexibility, as long as you
spend time with them and it's quality time, you're present
with them. Like that's the best thing any
parent can do. Yeah, I mean I could work.
On the being present part, because I'm always there like
you're on your phone. I'm like, I know buddy, I'm
sorry, you know, So I, I think we can all work on that a little
bit, but I will tell you I, I feel completely confident.
I get plenty of time with them myself, like I'm with them a
lot, but it's good. I mean.
They grow fast and it's fun and I want to be around them.
And they're at an age where like, you know, this past
Mother's Day, I would say in the past, I've been like, oh, I just
want to break. I just want to, you know, get
away from my kids. And this was like, no, I want to
spend the whole day with my kids.
I want to swim, I want to play tennis, I want to go on walks.
Like it's just they're at that age where I want to be around
them. So it's a it's a good spot.
Yeah. No, that's super.
Exciting. It's awesome, but what else does
get you excited going? For me, I know the book just
getting published is a huge, huge deal, so Congrats there.
But like, what else does get you revved up from an
entrepreneurial personal family, Just whatever standpoint, what's
got you excited? Yeah, thanks for asking.
So, you know, I don't know why I decided to do this the same time
I was launching a book, but I'm building an app.
So I, I currently have pelvic floor workout programs that are
just kind of desktop version. But in January of this year, we
decided to transition all of them to an app.
So it'll be kind of much more user friendly, scalable,
accessible. My hope is that really pelvic
floor education and exercise becomes almost what we'd call
mainstream. So when you're pregnant, you're
like, oh, start these workouts. Here's your weekly pelvic floor
tips. You're preparing for birth.
This is how you push. This is, you know, how you
stretch, you're recovering from birth.
Here's how to do C-section massage.
You know, here's you know, how to take your first poop after
giving birth. Like, you know, you're into
menopause. Here's your perimenopause pelvic
floor workout. So really kind of, you know, we
have workouts for everything and even in, you know, postpartum
and perimenopause were like strength trained, strength
trained, but we're not thinking about our pelvic floor, how to
integrate pelvic floor health into our day and into our
workout. So I'm building an app that
should be out this fall. And then, you know, other than
that, I'm just really looking for things to kind of slow down
a bit. It's been 2 years of writing and
promoting the book and traveling for the book.
So I'm, I'm really taking three months after the book finishes
launching this month to just like hang out with my family.
We've got a couple trips planned and, you know, just kind of be
around as a mom where I haven't been able to do that as much as
I had historically and just give myself a much needed break.
That's awesome. Yeah.
And you've. Earned it for sure.
Is this your first book? Yeah, first book it.
Might be my last, who knows, you know what I'm saying?
I still it's kind of like when you have a kid and you're like,
Oh my gosh, who would do this again?
And then a year later you're like, oh, I could do that again,
you know. So yes, first book, still
reeling from it. And it's, you know, it's pretty
awesome. The way it came to fruition was
it was a follower on social media who was an editor at
Harper Collins and she reached out to me and said, have you
ever thought about writing a book?
I think that, you know, women need this information.
And so it started from there. And, you know, here we are two
years later with it's on the shelf.
So it's it's been an incredible journey.
Yeah, no, it's it's awesome. I mean, I, I feel lucky I wrote
my book. It was during the pandemic.
So like I was forced to just be locked in.
It was like a perfect time to write.
But man, like for me, I, I couldn't get anything done until
I just committed to OK, no matter what, come hell or high
water, I'm putting 500 words on a page every single day.
Like I had to have that, you know, that, that pinnacle.
I was like, I have to get this accomplished.
Because if you read a book, I mean, it's easy to just like put
it on the back burner, put on the back anything in life.
And with a book, it's just you got to chip away in some form or
fashion every single day. At least I did.
No, you're exactly right. And mine was kind of week by
week. It was like, OK, this week I
have to write half a chapter. The next week you have to write.
It was so it was very much deadline based.
And it was, I mean, I pushed the envelope and I was like, oh,
I've got 12 months. Oh, I've got nine months.
Oh shit, I've got six months. You know, it's always like, OK,
rent an office. I gave up drinking, I gave up
traveling. I rented an office and I spent
every, you know, two or three days a week and one day on the
weekend just there. And so I didn't miss some time
with my kids during the weekends.
And I actually sold my business. I mean, I had a clinic, a brick
and mortar physical therapy clinic.
And I sold it before I, I signed the contract to write the book
because I said I know I can't do all of these.
I can't have a digital platform, an in person clinic, be a mom
and a wife, take care of myself and write a book.
And I was like, something's got to give.
So I sold my clinic and I work for them now, but I don't run
that business. But it was a it was a huge
decision, but I definitely feel like it helped me carve out the
time to to create this. Yeah, plus.
It's given you, I would assume a lot more, I don't know,
flexibility. You're not you're not stuck on
working on the business as much. You're able to just like do the
things that you want to do and kind of really double down on
your strengths more so than just like the administrative
component of it that I mean I love.
Patient care. So I'm really fortunate that I'm
I'm still able to do that. But I think, you know, when I
think about impact, it was like, I love my, you know, working at
the clinic in New Orleans, but how are we going to make change?
How do I want to impact people? And, you know, being able to
reach people digitally virtually is really much more impactful
right now. And so I think that that's where
I, you know, said, I want to go forward with this app and
hopefully get hospitals and doctors and practices and
midwives and to really start implementing this because I
think it's kind of a missing piece in our healthcare model.
So that's really my goal right now, again, is to just kind of
get this out there and, and have it be more mainstream. 100% you
have a. Podcast I don't.
You should totally start a. Podcast, like I know you got a
million things going right now already, so I'm just adding more
to it. But like from a business
standpoint, from a branding standpoint, like I feel like
from a, like podcasting is the best medium to get the message
out there at scale. And like it just opens the doors
for so many, so many connections.
And like, nobody says no to a podcast.
I don't know if like podcasting is definitely the most bang for
the proverbial buck from like a marketing and growth and
informational content standpoint.
That's so interesting because. I feel like so many people have
podcasts right now. I'm like, is the podcast world
saturated? You know, so I have no idea.
It's funny. I mean a lot of.
People think that it makes sense why you would think that, but
like when you look at the stats, like the vast majority of all
the podcasts on iTunes have less than two episodes.
Like more than 50% of all the podcasts have less than two
episodes. There's no staying power and
people. Start a podcast and they.
Just drop off and like me. I started mine in 2016 and I've
got like almost 800 episodes now.
But you know, it's kind of an audited like you, you just got
to be consistent with like anything else.
But if you did the book, you've obviously got the ability to be
consistent. And I feel like this information
would be well received in audio format.
I mean, I feel like the title of a podcast that was a vagina
whisperer would certainly get some downloads too.
So like it would work well for you.
I think we just put. Vagina on everything.
Well, like certainly it'll get hit, you know, so, you know,
I've thought about it and I the, the interesting thing about my
career path is it's been not reactive, but it's really kind
of in response to what people are asking for.
Like the book, it was not like, oh, I want to be an author.
It was like somebody came up to me.
I was like, huh, let me think about this.
And you kind of start feeling pulled in certain directions.
So maybe that will be the next direction.
You know, I feel, I feel excited about the app.
I mean, it's beautiful. We've done we've been working on
it for six months now and I'm just super thrilled for the way
that it'll be just really formatted for people and just a
better user experience. We've had over 10,000, you know,
users members over the past, you know, three years since we
started it. So I think that that's kind of
where I want to lean into and then we'll see.
Maybe it's podcasting, maybe it's another book now.
I'll still be on social media dancing in evolve a costume
that's not going anywhere. So we'll see what's next though.
Nice. And where do?
People go to get the app, the app's not available yet, right?
No. So right now it's just a.
Desktop version, which is very accessible, but I, I think the
app will make it much more mobile friendly.
So my website is the Vagina whisperer.com.
I've got a ton of blog posts on there that are free, a bunch of
free guides, but that's where you can check out the workouts.
And I think people are always like, what is a pelvic floor
workout? And it's really helping you kind
of connect with this part of your body and then bringing that
into exercises, whether it's squats and bridges and lunges
and, you know, weighted workouts.
So it's teaching you how to use this muscle.
And then also we have a whole relaxation program if you have
painful sex or pelvic floor tension.
And now I'm bringing other fitness instructors, like I've
got a woman who just like hit workouts and bar workouts.
I've got a yoga instructor coming on.
So kind of really adding almost like the Peloton for your pelvic
floor, like just really building out the content, but it's all
very pelvic floor and core friendly and safe.
Nice, nice super. Awesome, super awesome.
And for the book, that's called Floored, and people should go to
the website for that. Or is it going to be like on
Barnes and Noble? Yeah, you can find it anywhere.
You buy books, it's called Floored, A Woman's Guide to
Pelvic Floor Health at every agent stage.
It's hot pink with a grapefruit on the front, so you won't miss
it. And it's available on my website
againthevaginawhisper.com or you can get it anywhere you buy
books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble Bookshop if you want to support
an indie bookstore. So it's, we've gotten some great
reviews so far and I'm just really, really, I'm really
excited about, I really think it's something that, you know,
not everybody's ready to take that leap to go to see a
therapist in person or some people can't even access one
because of, you know, financial or, you know, geographical
reason. So it's just really a great
place, I think, for people to start getting informed and to be
able to start doing things at home that can help with their
pelvic floor symptoms. Awesome.
Well. I'm in full support of it.
I feel like the more information, the better, you
know, just kind of removing some of these negative stigmas, taboo
topics and just like reaching better health and striving for
it and their basis is key. And having people leading the
charge like yourself, you know, addressing these topics that
need to be discussed is awesome. So hats off to you for sure.
Thanks so much for having me. You bet.
My pleasure. Doctor Sarah Reardon, really
appreciate it. I will put out your link on the
the show notes make it easy for people to find you.
Thank you. Take care.