Vaginal gas is also known as vaginal flatulence and this is a common condition
amongst women particularly younger women. Now unfortunately there's
a myth that Kegel exercises are the best and only remedy for stopping vaginal gas
when in actual fact there are a number of treatments available to women and some of
which are really readily available and you can access straight away.
Hi, my name is Michelle and today I'm going through three ways of stopping
vaginal gas. Now the first way is a really accessible, simple remedy, second way,
is when shown to be the most effective in the scientific research, and third, I'm going
to go through two physiotherapy treatments for vaginal gas, or for stopping vaginal gas as well.
So what is vaginal gas? I think we need to have an understanding of what this is to know which
is the most appropriate treatment and perhaps this was one reason why Kegel exercises haven't always
been the most effective treatment for all women. If we think about the anatomy of the vagina,
the front and back walls of the vagina normally sit together like that. However in some women,
they sit slightly apart and there's normally some air within the vagina. During exercise or during
physical intimacy, air can be forced inside, inside that space, and it can become trapped
so that when you move, or with activity, or with intimacy, it's forcefully expelled and when it
moves out, the front and back walls vibrate, and it's the vibration that causes that sound,
the vibration of the vaginal walls, or perhaps the entrance. So, I think you can see it's to do
with the shape but also to do with the stiffness of the vagina. So, some women will have floppy,
floppier walls of their vagina and there's a particular treatment that can help that,
or for other women, this might be just their normal Anatomy that actually just causes vaginal
air trapping, or there's another condition too that I'll go through in just a moment.
So, the very first treatment that I'd like to talk about as recommended in the literature is simply
the use of a tampon. Now, you can visualize the tampon is that going to occupy some space in the
vagina. My thinking is it might occupy that space perhaps prevent air entry during exercise and it
might also to create a little bit of stretch on the vaginal walls. So for some women, this might
be a useful remedy to try and I'd love to hear from you below in the comments if you found this
is an effective remedy for you. Obviously, this can't be used during physical intimacy
but it's something that might be worth trying for exercise and activity to stop vaginal gas.
The second treatment that I'd like to talk about is one that has been found to be the
most effective in the scientific or the recent scientific literature for stopping vaginal gas.
Now this is the use of a support pessary. Take a look here, a support pessary is a device that's
actually positioned high up inside the vagina, and it's often used for women with pelvic organ
prolapse conditions and it creates a stretch on the walls of the vagina so it stiffens those
walls, lifts it's used to lift the pelvic organs up as well. It'll support the top of the vagina.
So that by in doing so that stretch that it creates onto the vaginal walls can actually
make those walls stiffer, less floppy, and then obviously less prone to vibrating when the air
exits the vagina. So, a pessary device, our pessary devices come in all shapes,
and different sizes, and different designs as well. Some can be used for example the ring
pessary that I just showed you during intimacy and this is a device that is usually fitted by a
pelvic floor physiotherapist or a gynecologist. So this is something that you might like to
discuss with your doctor or with your pelvic floor physiotherapist as a treatment option particularly
if you're suffering from perhaps prolapse or you know that you've had large babies, delivered large
babies and the walls of the vagina feel floppy that might be contributing to your condition.
Now, the third and final thing that I'd like to go through is physiotherapy
treatment and there's two options here, the first is Kegel exercises and Kegel
exercises have had mixed reports in the scientific literature about their
potential benefit for stopping gas. Some scientific literature or some scientific
research has found for them to be beneficial and others haven't. So there's mixed reviews
and I think it's partly because it's we've used that as a one treatment fits all when
that's not necessarily the case. Kegel exercises will actually strengthen more around the opening
or the entrance of the vagina and just inside strengthening those pelvic floor muscles. So,
this can be a useful technique for stopping vaginal gas perhaps by stopping air entry for some
particular women with weak pelvic floor muscles and really most women have nothing to lose by
actually going ahead with Kegel exercises and this might be something that you approach to pelvic
floor physiotherapist about, or you can refer to my video above on how to do kegel exercises.
The second physiotherapy option that I want to mention is an important one because I think it's
not really recognized or will recognize that tight pelvic floor muscles can also contribute
to vaginal gas, and this is commonly experienced in younger women and some women have not even had
childbirth. So, what happens with that condition is the pelvic floor muscles are very tight,
and the opening of the pelvic floor the vagina might be very tight, and so then you can see
how air can get trapped during activities or during intimacy. So, pelvic floor physiotherapy
treatment for tight or spasm pelvic floor muscles involves pelvic floor relaxation, and also other
techniques that we as physiotherapists use to help perhaps stretch the tight pelvic floor
muscles or help encourage them to relax. So that might also be an option and if you're not sure
if you see a pelvic floor physiotherapist they will be able to assess whether your
pelvic floor muscles are tight, or lax in which case that can determine the particular
type of physiotherapy treatment that might be more appropriate for managing vaginal gas.
So I think you can see from all of these that there are a number of possible remedies
for vaginal gas not just Kegel exercises although we won't rule those out altogether
and particularly the use of a tampon which might be readily available to you at the moment. So,
you could try these remedies and it's not, this is not a condition that you necessarily
need to treat unless it's bothersome for you and it also might be a condition that you
like to speak with your doctor about too if it's particularly bothersome as well.
So if this information has been helpful for you today, I'd really be grateful as always
if you could give it a like down below because then that encourages YouTube to
recommend this information to other women who are suffering vaginal gas and might benefit
from the information as well. As always I thank you for your time and for watching today always
appreciate your comments below. Look forward to seeing you in the next video. Goodbye for now.