A Little Loose, Three Children Later

Three children have left her with a lack of tightness, while her husband is taking longer to ejaculate. There has also been an increase in vaginal air escaping during sex.

Case #: 412

Concern：

Kegal exercises don't work for me. I've had three children, and I think my husband feels little pleasure during sex, especially since it takes him a while to ejaculate.

Discussion：

Giving birth to three children has changed the shape of your vagina. It is normal for the vagina to change shape, according to the different demands being placed on it. Studies show that after birth, the width of the vagina, known as the genital hiatus, increases slightly.

Shapes and Sizes

The tissues inside the vagina are made up of many tiny folds, known as rugae. These rugae allowed your vagina to change shape, from holding in a tampon to pushing out a baby. According to Christine O’Connor, MD, and director of adolescent gynecology “the vagina doesn’t stay one particular size, but changes to accommodate whatever is going in at that time.”

No matter what size your vagina is, you should still be able to achieve sexual satisfaction.

Strength Training

Kegel exercises are regarded as a great way to develop muscle tone in the vagina and increase sexual pleasure. While you say that Kegel exercises don’t work for you, Christopher Tarnay, MD, and director of the Division of Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery at the UCLA Medical Center, comments that many women are just unfamiliar with how to do the exercises properly.

Tarney believes it’s quite common for women to be unsure how to get the message from their brains to their muscles, or even which muscles are the ones they’re supposed to be contracting.

You might consider researching a physical therapist to assist you in correctly performing Kegel exercises. To make sure that you’re using the correct muscles, try inserting a clean finger into the vagina and squeezing with the vaginal walls on that finger. If you’re doing it right, the vagina should contract around your finger. Try holding those muscles tight for increasing intervals and make sure not to use any other muscles in the area, such as your core or butt muscles.

Revitalization Therapy

It’s natural for the vagina to change, but it’s important to consider the health of the entire vagina after birth, as there is much bruising, swelling and tearing to the birth canal and labia. While Kegel exercises are helpful in retraining muscles, you might also consider rejuvenating your vagina with herbs.

Midwives have used specific herbs after childbirth for millennia to help mothers heal quickly, painlessly, and to restore the tissue quality of the vagina that might have been injured during birth.