The Midlife Feast
The Midlife Feast
#125 - Does Your Vagina Need a Coach? with Kim Vopni
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In this episode, we tackle a topic that deserves a heck of a lot more attention than we’re giving it—our pelvic floor. Kim Vopni, the "Vagina Coach," and founder of the “Buff Muff Method” helps us understand what it means to care for your pelvic health through perimenopause and menopause. Kim shares valuable advice on managing common symptoms like painful sex and annoying leaks.
We dive into the genitourinary syndrome of menopause, hormonal changes, and whether those popular biofeedback devices really work. Plus, we both advocate for the benefits of pelvic floor physiotherapy as part of your health routine.
Kim's compassionate guidance offers a reminder that you don’t have to suffer alone or just “suck it up”. Tune in for insights and support, and let us know what you think!
To learn more about Kim and her work, check out her website at www.vaginacoach.com and follow her on IG at @vaginacoach
Links Mentioned:
Episode 88: What Everyone Needs to Know About Pelvic Health in Midlife with Erika Burger
Click here to hang out with me on YouTube!
Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free resources and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/links
Hi and welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast for women who are hungry for more in this season of life. I'm your host, dr Jenn Salib-Huber. I'm an intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor and I help women manage menopause without dieting and food rules. Come to my table, listen and learn from me trusted guest experts in women's health and interviews with women just like you. Each episode brings to the table juicy conversations designed to help you feast on midlife. And if you're looking for more information about menopause, nutrition and intuitive eating, check out the Midlife Feast Community, my monthly membership that combines my no-nonsense approach that you all love to nutrition with community, so that you can learn from me and others who can relate to the cheers and challenges of midlife.
Jenn Salib Huber:Hi everyone, welcome to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast. We are talking all things vaginas today, not just vaginas vulvas, pelvic floor. I'm talking to Kim Vopney, who is also known as the Vagina Coach, and Kim is a great source of information about how to not only take care of your pelvic floor but also how to manage some of the pelvic floor symptoms that we can encounter as we transition through perimenopause and menopause. You know we talk a lot about the genitourinary syndrome of menopause. We talk about what's happening what's happening to hormones, what's happening to tissues and we talk about some of the most common symptoms that you've asked me about. So we're talking about why it hurts to have sex in menopause. We're talking about why we leak and dribble and do those devices that are popping up on our Instagram, those biofeedback devices. Do they actually work? And you will hear that both Kim and I are huge fans of pelvic floor physiotherapy and we talk about it a lot and about how helpful it is and really reiterating that you know, having a pelvic floor physio as part of your healthcare team is just a good idea, but Kim offers an amazing amount of encouragement and advice and education about how to take care of your pelvic floor in menopause and how to manage some of the symptoms that come with a changing pelvic floor. Let me know what you think.
Jenn Salib Huber:Hi, kim, welcome to the Midlife Feast. Hello, thank you very. Hi Kim, welcome to the Midlife Feast.
Kim Vopni:Hello, thank you very much for having me.
Jenn Salib Huber:It is fun to speak to a fellow Canadian, even though we're literally on the other side of the world from each other, because you're in BC and I'm from Nova Scotia but living in the Netherlands. But it's always nice to connect to another Canadian, so thanks so much for joining me.
Kim Vopni:Yeah likewise. We were, you know, offline talking that you're in. I knew you were in Canada. I thought you were in Ontario, but my family lived in Nova Scotia for a little while.
Jenn Salib Huber:It's a beautiful part of the world. Oh, that's fun. That's a fun little connection, and I have lots of family in BC, mainly like Cranbrook area. So, yeah, actually no, I have an aunt that just moved back to Vancouver too. So there we go. All right, so tell us about you and the work that you do.
Kim Vopni:Yeah, this is always a favorite question because people are like how did you become a vagina coach? You don't grow up with thinking you want to have this title of vagina coach. But really I could say it started in sixth grade. I saw a childbirth video as part of our sex ed and that was really good birth control and I also planted the seed that I don't want to have babies ever. So that's where it started.
Kim Vopni:I had this kind of fear but also fascination about pregnancy and birth and I asked my mom questions. She was an OR nurse, she was very open with anatomy conversations and I watched her suffer. So she had chronic back pain. She eventually stopped running because she had an incontinence. She had surgery for incontinence. She had a hysterectomy for heavy bleeding, and so I sort of saw this evolution in my mom that I knew I didn't want to experience myself. So I just thought I just won't have babies and that will solve the problem. And I meet my husband. I decide I do want to start a family. So I'm my husband. I decide I do want to start a family. So I'm then now determined to have a different story than my mom. So how can I prevent this? So I thought, okay, I'll just have a cesarean section.
Kim Vopni:And through the process of understanding more about pregnancy and all the things that happen, I was also. I had witnessed my sister in law give birth and she used midwives. She was in a different birth position than I'd ever seen. And then the following year, when I was pregnant, I was asking my midwives what else can I do? And they said perineal massage. And they said I've heard of this thing called the Epino. So I researched this. It's a biofeedback device from Germany Helps women connect with their pelvic floor and prepare for childbirth. So me being a fitness person, the concept of stretch and strength made sense to me. So I purchased this, had a great experience and thought why doesn't everybody in the world use one of these? So I thought, well, I'll, can I be a distributor in Canada? And that's kind of how it started, and I didn't necessarily intend for it to be a business. I thought I would just sell it on the side to friends and that type of thing.
Kim Vopni:And, um, so initially I was working with pregnant women and I wanted them to understand the pelvic floor prior to birth and also I was trying to sell the EpiNo product that I had and I created a program called Prepare to Push and that was who I was, and I was known as the fitness doula at the time and then I started to see that postpartum recovery was not talked about, so I wanted to address that. So I formed a second business called Belly's Inc with two other women One was a pelvic health physiotherapist and another trainer like myself, and that was another aspect of what we were trying to get the information out to the world. Then the three of us business partners start to go through perimenopause, which we had never heard the term perimenopause before. And then there's this whole host of other pelvic floor symptoms we need to talk about. So we said you know, this is not just do your Kegels in pregnancy or do this recovery protocol after you've had a baby, because this can happen to people who've even never been pregnant before, and this is really a lifelong journey we have with our pelvic floor and we just don't get proper education about it.
Kim Vopni:So in um I think it was like 2015, maybe I forget exactly when I was invited to speak to the, there was an organization called mompreneur, now called revolution. Her and I spoke with their national conference and all the speakers were some sort of a business coach. And I was talking about how optimizing your pelvic health can make you a better mompreneur. And when I got up on stage I kind of cracked a joke and said you know, now you have a vagina coach. Instead of a strategy or a marketing coach, you have a vagina coach for your business. And it was a joke. But then it was like that is the rebrand that I need, because I'm not really a doula per se anymore. I don't work with that population as much. And then here I am now, so I help women through all stages of life mainly perimenopause and postmenopause optimize their pelvic floor health.
Jenn Salib Huber:Awesome. And oh my gosh, do we need to talk about pelvic health and perimenopause and menopause so much more? Because you know there's all these layers of obstacles, or you know that we kind of go through in perimenopause. You know there's all these layers of obstacles, or you know that we kind of go through in perimenopause, you know, first is recognizing that we're in it and then you know there's so much shame around having symptoms and aging, but the shame around having pelvic floor symptoms is still very much a thing. Nobody you know nobody's cracking jokes about bladder leakage like they are hot flashes, right. And so there's so much.
Jenn Salib Huber:Oh my gosh, I'm really broken now, when this isn't working anymore, I now feel really broken, and so I love that you're talking about it, I love that you're helping to provide solutions for it. And let's dive a little bit into what's happening. So we go through perimenopause, we have these highs and lows of estrogen and progesterone and, like you say, this happens to people regardless of whether they've had children or not, although I'm I mean, I'm not wrong in saying that having been pregnant and having birth children regardless if it's C-section or vaginal can contribute to symptoms. Correct, right, yes, definitely an increased risk?
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, exactly, and so you know I didn't have vaginal births. I had two C-sections but I definitely had pelvic floor issues. So you know you don't have to have the vaginal birth piece to have that experience. So what's happening to our pelvic floor? Why does it also go into menopause?
Kim Vopni:Yes, yeah, that's a good term actually the pelvic floor going into menopause. So the pelvic floor is a group of muscles that has a huge blood supply, nerve supply, ligaments, tendons, just like everything else in the body. From a skeletal muscle perspective, we have skeletal muscle in the pelvic floor and no one really knows about that. We aren't given education in anatomy Even me I've been in. I've been certified as a personal trainer for years. I've taken so many continuing education courses all about anatomy and insertion and origin of muscles and function and la, la, la, and never has the pelvic floor ever been mentioned. And I can argue it's one of the most central muscle groups we should know about because it is what helps us transfer load. It provides core stability We've all heard of core exercise and the pelvic floor is a foundation of the core. So that's what the pelvic floor is. It helps maintain our continents, so it manages the openings of the urethra, the vagina, the anus, helps us keep things in when we don't want it to come out. But also in the case of, say, pregnancy, childbirth, we want something to come out. In the case of, say, pregnancy, childbirth, we want something to come out. So it's kind of a decision-making muscle group and it also supports our organs bladder, uterus, rectum, intestines, even can get involved urethra. It helps, as I said, spinal stability, core stability, because it attaches to the base of our spine and our pelvis. It acts like a sump pump with our diaphragm, so as we take a breath in, the pelvic floor is lengthening. As we exhale, the pelvic floor contracts and lifts and it sort of has this synergy or dance throughout the day. That helps with moving things. It helps with blood flow and circulation and moving lymph through the body, like a sump pump kind of thing, and it also plays a role in our sexual response.
Kim Vopni:So these muscles are involved in so many aspects of our life and yet we are given no education about it. And it's not typically until something is not working as it should that we start to learn about how important it is. And even when I was working with pregnant women, I was coming in with this lens of prevention. And then, as I transitioned into postpartum recovery, we meant in Belly's Inc we manufactured a postpartum wrap. We wanted first time moms to purchase it, but in both cases the most popular customer was the second, third, fourth time. After they have an issue to fix, they're now motivated, more motivated to do something.
Kim Vopni:So with the pelvic floor, you know, going to menopause, we there's a lot of things that are happening as we go through life. So we menstruate, we have hormonal fluctuations and we have menstrual cycles, our uterus is bigger, we have bloating, like all sorts of things that can come in, not necessarily disrupt but will influence the function of that group of muscles. Many people do become pregnant or give birth at some point in their life vaginal cesarean that definitely has a role. Age-related muscle loss, bone density changes, the heavy lifting occupations, potentially lifting strategies in exercise all of these things that we don't necessarily even associate per se because, again, we don't really know about the pelvic floor. And then, of course, as we approach and move beyond menopause, we have the incredible change with regards to particularly estrogen, but progesterone and testosterone as well, that can also influence the tissues within and kind of the support structures within the pelvis.
Jenn Salib Huber:That's a great summary. And so, when all this happens, there's a host of symptoms that can happen. Let's talk about maybe starting with incontinence or leaking bladder leaking, dribbling more than dribbling. This happens because the tissues are, you know, like the tissues everywhere else are starting to lose some tone, some elasticity. They don't everywhere else. Are starting to lose some tone, some elasticity. They don't contract and relax as well as they used to, and so sometimes it's harder for them to hold things in, and when they relax they kind of just let go. And there's always been this myth or I guess not myth, but you know the recommendation is well, just do your Kegels right. That's been the standard line. Can we talk about Kegels Good, bad ugly? Avoid them, do them.
Kim Vopni:What should we do? So evidence will tell us. Evidence does tell us that Kegels are. They are evidence-based. They work when they are done correctly and when they are done consistently. The challenge is, nobody has ever taught us properly how to do a Kegel. We might've got a brochure, but not everybody can take that and interpret it correctly in their body. So we also have evidence to show that the majority of people are doing Kegels incorrectly. So it's I am a fan of Kegels when they are done correctly, when they are done consistently, and my bias is when they are coordinated with movement. And this is now. There is some evidence now to support my bias.
Kim Vopni:But the other thing that I sort of I use the term core breath and we started to when we formed Belly's Inc. And we were talking about postpartum recovery and bringing in the pelvic floor. We wanted to highlight that the pelvic floor is part of the core. We also wanted to highlight that it does work in synergy with our breath, with the diaphragm. So the term core breath is what I use to describe a Kegel, but most people know that term, so I still use the term Kegel as well.
Kim Vopni:Okay, and it's important to. It's not just about a squeeze. People think of a Kegel as well, and it's important to. It's not just about a squeeze. People think of a Kegel as just they're just going to squeeze and they're going to hold and hold, and hold and hold. And people think if I'm leaking, therefore I must be quote, unquote weak, so I need to squeeze harder. And sometimes people actually have. They are already squeezing, they just don't necessarily know it.
Kim Vopni:So people who have been leaking, people who are afraid of not making it to the bathroom in time, people who may have vulnerability feelings if their organs are starting to shift out of their position, they may unintentionally, like, unconsciously, be guarding and have more tension in the pelvic floor than what would be considered optimal. So if they take this belief of I need to squeeze more and they don't know how to do a Kegel properly, then they could potentially be creating more issues or creating more tension and then therefore thinking Kegels don't work and what we need to do is we need a balance between effort and ease. So we need to release that tension.
Kim Vopni:Understand what is it that's contributing to it. Is it the way that I sit, the way that I stand? Am I, do I have trauma? Am I guarding? Do I have scar tissue, Like so many things, can contribute to the development of that tension. So we need to unravel those layers, do some exercise posture work, breath work to start to lengthen the muscles. But if somebody has a tight pelvic floor they're often told don't do Kegels. And I don't 100% like I don't preach that.
Kim Vopni:I say not initially, but a tight muscle is a weak muscle and we still need to strengthen it we just need to make sure we put the muscles in their optimal resting length state first, where we have power accessible for us, pay attention to our postures and then start to layer that into whole body movement. So some research is showing that when compared, when Kegels are done coordinated with movement there was compared to Kegels alone there was quicker results, and this was an even in an elderly population then. So people doing Kegels prior to resistance training or as part of resistance training, it was more effective than Kegels alone.
Jenn Salib Huber:I've never heard of this with movement, so can you tell me more about that? What does it mean with movement? Like you said, resistance training, so while they're lifting weights, doing their Kegels?
Kim Vopni:Yeah. So once you have connected with your pelvic floor and understand so inhales are where the pelvic floor is lengthening, so that's releasing the tension, and then exhale is where the activation happens and it's not just a squeeze, there is a kind of a squeeze, but there's also a lift. So we need this action, we need to have this connection, this mind-body connection, first. Then we would layer it into something like a pelvic tilt or a bridge exercise, so something simple, maybe laying down on your back, so you would exhale, activate your pelvic floor. Then you would tilt back into a pelvic tilt or you would lift your bum up into a bridge, inhale and release as you lower back down.
Kim Vopni:Then we bring ourselves a little bit more upright. We might sit on a chair and be upright and then lift a leg up while we're sitting on the chair to challenge a little bit of I like to do on a stability ball, so we get some balance work in there. Then we go into things like squats or lunges or pushups or bicep curls or any any exercise where you sort of you're exhaling and you're exerting a force. When we activate the pelvic floor, first it helps retrain the reaction time at the pelvic floor and then, because it's also experiencing the load of sets and reps and this resistance, this weight that I'm holding onto just like any other muscle group. That's how we build strength. So we need to apply fitness principles to the pelvic floor.
Jenn Salib Huber:That's fascinating. That's really great. Thank you for sharing that research, because that's new to me, so I'm sure it's not well known yet, but sounds like it should be. What about biofeedback devices? So I know you mentioned this at the beginning that you've used them. There's a lot of you know we've all seen the ads of all these devices and you know it seems like the kind of thing that that should work, but I don't have any personal experience with them. Can you tell us a little bit about what are they? Do they work? You know, how do people use them? Yeah, tell us more.
Kim Vopni:Mm, hmm, so my, my, my first recommendation is if you have the money to spend on a device, I always recommend that you put that money first to a pelvic floor physical therapist appointment, because it is, I think, the most underused women's health resource that we have.
Jenn Salib Huber:I believe, just like we see the dentist.
Kim Vopni:Yep, just like we see the dentist once a year for our teeth and we go even if we don't have a toothache we should be practicing that same philosophy with our pelvic floor. Go see the experts. They can evaluate the muscles, the organ position, scar tissue, blood, like all the things. The external appearance of the tissue. We're going to talk about when, as we're getting closer to menopause. We'll talk about that after. But so that's what I would recommend. First, before any device, see, put your money to a pelvic floor physiotherapist appointment If you have geographical access to that. If you don't, biofeedback devices can come in and play a role. So there's geographical, there's financial, but again, sometimes those devices are about the same price as a physio appointment. There's also some people who just maybe for trauma in their background, there may be reasons why, maybe they're not comfortable having an internal evaluation Totally understandable and so perhaps a biofeedback device would feel safer for them. And what the biofeedback essentially does is it because the pelvic floor is a group of muscles we can't see and I use all sorts of visualization and imagery cues to help people connect with this part of the body because we can't, like I can stand in front of a mirror and I can flex my bicep and see it. I can't. Even if I put a mirror in between my legs, I might be able to see a minute bit of difference, but I don't actually see the muscles. So biofeedback typically is it would be a probe of some sort, usually a probe that would be inserted into the vagina and it would be attached to some sort of that allows us to see something. So in the case of the EpiNo that I used to be the distributor for, it was, it looked like a blood pressure gauge and there was a balloon and it was attached to a tube and so when you contracted and relaxed your pelvic floor, you could see the measurements or the gauge moving. Things like we've all seen the Perifit or the LV on Instagram and Facebook, and these are more like the biofeedback kind, of like Pelvic Floor Exercise 2.0, which brings in gamification and apps. So when you have the device inserted, there's a sort of a string, almost that is outside the body that has the Bluetooth that connects to the app on your phone and when you do your contract and relax cycles against this probe, you are using it and visualize like you can see what's happening on the app and you have like a bird that's trying to miss the clouds in the sky, or you see, you're a bunny trying to jump over mushrooms or something like that. So it brings an element of fun and can be motivating for some people to have a little bit of interaction with their body, and also a game.
Kim Vopni:But the user meaning us using this device we still need to be able to use the muscles properly to make those devices work properly. And the only one, the LV device, and it has technology that is supposed to be able to distinguish between an actual contract and lift versus somebody who is actually bearing down. So other motion can come in and give us the illusion, with biofeedback, that the muscles are working when in fact they may not be. So I think they play a cool role. They're never what I would recommend as the first light of defense, unless you just absolutely cannot access a physical therapist. And I'm going to add in there just one other thing that will come up in this. You know from a device conversation. There's the M-Cella chairs that are popping up everywhere, the Kegel chairs, and it's a big round. People call it the Kegel throne. It's a big round chair you sit on fully clothed. Oh, really, they're not in.
Kim Vopni:Maybe they're not in Europe yet, or I think they are, but they're popping up everywhere in Canada and North America and the technology is a little bit different. But it's basically that the marketing is it will do 11 to 13,000 Kegels for you in a 20 minute session. You don't, you just have to sit there fully clothed. So that sounds like awesome. I I don't have to do the work Perfect, I will let this machine do it for me. And it's a really expensive outsource and I think that it absolutely plays a role for people that may have nerve damage or spinal cord injuries, mobility challenges, maybe they've tried absolutely everything and they still have a little bit they can't quite get over. Sure, it can come in and play a role. But people with incontinence right now, who have been struggling for years, who think Kegels don't work because they've never been evaluated properly, are spending thousands of dollars on these devices or these therapies and they don't really actually work and they're not a miracle cure. You ultimately still need to do the work.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, I haven't used the biofeedback device. I've had two pelvic floor physiotherapists one in Canada We'll link to Erica's episode below she was on last season and one here in Europe. And yeah, it is. They're all up in your business.
Jenn Salib Huber:As I always tell people, I always try to warn people like this is, this is a, this is an entry exam and there is there's going to be some very up, close and personal moments, but they really are able to feel things that you don't even know are there. When I had my first physical therapy session with Erica and she'd say, oh, this muscle's really tight, and it was like I was being like a charley horse and she just touched it with her finger and I had no idea that I had that kind of tension in my pelvic floor. But getting the feedback from okay, this is what it feels like when it's tense, and this is what it feels like when it's relaxed, and she would lead me through okay, we're going to do the deep breathing exercises and you're going to feel the tension against my finger reduce over the course of these breathing and it was amazing. So if a biofeedback device can offer that to people who can access it, that's amazing. I think that's great because you really do need. You do need the feedback, ideally from a person who can really show you, make that connection for you. But I think to answer you know, the question is are they helpful? It sounds like they can be Absolutely yeah. The question is are they helpful? It sounds like they can be Absolutely yeah, that's awesome, okay.
Jenn Salib Huber:So I want to ask a question that came up in my community around painful sex, which is probably the, you know, one of the symptoms that women in menopause people in menopause experience and talk about a lot. There's a lot of great conversations happening around vaginal estrogen therapy and how important that is, and, of course, lubrications and moisturizing. What can pelvic floor therapy? As a vagina coach, how do you coach people to have less painful sex?
Kim Vopni:Yeah, super common, especially, as you said, in this time of life, this transition, and we need to again understand why is it painful? Because there can be different reasons why somebody is experiencing pain and it can be different, like it could be pain from the anticipation, so not nothing even touching people can think it's going to be painful and experience pain.
Kim Vopni:There can be pain from touch externally, experience pain. There can be pain from touch externally and this is like thinking about the vestibulodynia as a term, so the vestibule meaning the opening of the vagina, so pain at that part of the anatomy. There can be vulvodynia pain in and around the vulva. There can be pain with insertion. Vaginismus or dyspareunia is a term that is used for painful sex. But we kind of again have to understand what's the reason for the pain. Is it pain with kind of just at the insertion? Is it pain deeper inside? Is it pain because the tissues are thin and dry and lacking estrogen? Is it fear, like the muscles aren't relaxing, like scar tissue? There's so many things that can contribute to the pain. So we need to understand why and that's again why I'm so bullish about seeing a pelvic floor physical therapist once a year, because they can at least even if we only did one session for that person to be able to give us some insight into like you found this one part of the pelvic floor. There's multiple muscles in there. There's one part that was really tight for you. Maybe they see that if you've given birth vaginally and you've had some tearing or you've had an episiotomy, scar tissue can be a contributor to pain, and it doesn't have to be right immediately after the incision has happened. It can develop over time. So so, finding the root cause and if it's tightness, if it's tight muscles that's contributing, then we have breath work, posture release exercises that's a big part of what I share in my work, so people can learn how to release tension, even things like pelvic wands. So these are kind of like S-shaped silicone devices that people can use to do work that would be similar to what a pelvic floor therapist would do with their fingers, where they can insert this wand and kind of insert the wand into the vagina and as they, you know, press around, they can find maybe trigger points or tender points or maybe even the scar tissue itself, and they can help mobilize that and release some of the tension. So that's one piece of it. Then we have, for some it's the anticipation, so working with things like dilators, so that dilators are essentially a series of they're kind of like cone shaped devices of increasing size and people developing the confidence that they can allow something to be inserted that would not create pain and that can be done with a therapist or at home as well.
Kim Vopni:Then there's the tissue support piece. So if it's low estrogen we can look at vaginal estrogen. We can look at moisturizers, lubricant, always for sexual activity, with or without a partner. So vaginal DHEA is another one that's super common. So how can we come in and address the muscular piece and also the non-muscular, like the tissue component, to help allow more, even like the capacity for pleasure? Because if we are tense for whatever reason and sometimes we've had painful sex from maybe a low estrogen state, and then we start to develop tension because we have the apprehension of it being painful, so we could maybe have a combination there. But once we can address that and allow the tissues to redevelop their suppleness and their juiciness and release the tension, we get better blood flow, better circulation, and all of that can in turn be helpful as well.
Jenn Salib Huber:So what I'm hearing from you is that it's not a quick fix, that you know we all want it to be like a pill or a cream and it's just, you know, off to the races, but that there are lots of solutions to explore and not to give up if one doesn't work, because that's kind of what I often hear from people is they'll say, oh well, I tried XYZ and it didn't work, so what do I do now? And I love that you really described kind of what's happening. What are you know, some of the steps that can happen when one thing doesn't work and then you get frustrated or you get scared or you have anticipatory anxiety. Understandably that you know there are these different solutions. So thank you so much for aligning those.
Kim Vopni:Sometimes it feels oh sorry, I was just going to say one more thing that sometimes, sometimes I feel like I'm almost giving people a big, long to-do list when they already have a huge to-do list. But I kind of want to reframe it to say this is an opportunity and an options list and you have all of these here and when you're ready to pursue one or all of them, they're there. Or maybe you choose not to do any of them, but at least know that there are options not, but at least know that there are options, not necessarily just to do's.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, that's a great way to look at it too. So one other question that came up was you know if, if somebody does you know the work that you suggest or teach or whatever pelvic floor work they're doing and they, they have you know success or relief and they're feeling good Is this something that they have to keep doing? Is it you know? Is it something that you can fix and be done with, or is this an ongoing part of your, your healthcare? Now, what? What do you? What are your thoughts on that?
Kim Vopni:So, coming back to the dentist, if I go to the dentist and I've been brushing and flossing and I go and maybe they find that I have no cavities, then that's great, that's what I hope for, and then that doesn't mean that I stop brushing or flossing. Or let's say, I go to the dentist and they find that I do have a cavity and they fix the cavity. That still doesn't mean that I stop brushing or stop flossing. Stop brushing or stop flossing. So so, absolutely this is part of our life and really I'm hopeful at some point in my lifetime that this seed is planted much earlier in life. So when we are teaching youth and teens about sexual health, bodies, menstrual cycles, all the things that we bring the pelvic floor to that conversation and we help them understand that this really important group of muscles and both male and female have a pelvic floor, females, we, because of menstrual cycles, because of pregnancy and childbirth, because of menopause, we face and because we have a vagina and because we have a uterus like we face we're, we're at greater risk than our male counterparts. So, bringing that to light earlier in our lives and planting the seed about pelvic floor physical therapy so that it is now informed. People are informed to be able to make these choices and not feel like they need that.
Kim Vopni:It's embarrassing, that it's taboo, that it's just part of being a woman. You know all the messages we hear from media or maybe even pass down through generations. I truly hope that it just becomes part of our life and women appreciate the need, just like we learn. You know, I remember the dentist coming to my. I was in elementary school and they come and we chew these pink pills and it showed the plaque on our teeth and it was very compelling and we know that we should brush our teeth at least twice a day. No, I think that's a great answer.
Jenn Salib Huber:I was pretty sure that's what you were going to say, but I think that's a great answer. So, before we wrap up and I ask you my favorite question that I ask everyone, I would love to know, though what's like the one thing that you wish you could just broadcast to the world about pelvic health, like what's the one thing that you just want everyone to know I?
Kim Vopni:my answer to that is usually I was pelvic floor physical therapy, which we've talked about a little bit already. Um, I mean, that is usually what I say. I think that if you were to do one thing, that is the most important in my opinion, but I guess I want to. I want people to understand that this, the power of this group of muscles, and how it, how influential it is to so many aspects of your life, how it's not just go home and do your Kegels, it is a whole. There is a whole other category Like we need.
Kim Vopni:We didn't talk about nutrition and hydration and sleep and all the other things. It's, it's we. We need to apply many of the same principles that we do to other parts of our body, and then also that it's never too late to intervene. So if you are 50, 60, 70, 80, I have 93 year old in my community it's never too late to come in and make change. The body is always adapting to the, the inputs that we're giving it. So if we give it some new inputs, it's going to adapt and it's just a matter of if those are good inputs or bad inputs.
Jenn Salib Huber:I love that. Thank you so much, kim, for coming and sharing your, your experience, your wisdom. So I'd love to hear what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife?
Kim Vopni:Education.
Jenn Salib Huber:I love it. I'm here for it. I agree, I think we need to talk about all the things all the time, in all the ways. So thank you for sharing your expertise with us, and I know that this will be really helpful. So thanks, and we will make sure that we have all your links to the things that you offer in the show notes and on Instagram. What's your handle on Instagram?
Kim Vopni:Vagina Coach.
Jenn Salib Huber:Perfect, so you offer lots of great content on there as well.
Kim Vopni:Thank you.
Jenn Salib Huber:Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast For more non diet health hormone and general midlife feast. For more non-diet health hormone and general midlife support. Click the link in the show notes to learn how you can work and learn from me, and if you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful, please consider leaving a review or subscribing, because it helps other women just like you find us and feel supported in midlife.
