{"id":1993,"date":"2019-12-09T01:05:33","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T01:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/?p=1993"},"modified":"2019-12-09T01:05:34","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T01:05:34","slug":"episiotomy-and-sex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/?p=1993","title":{"rendered":"Episiotomy and Sex"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Episiotomy\nCut: Debate 2012: In 1935 Aldridge and Watson published their theory that\nperforming an episiotomy, which is a cut in the perineum to widen the vaginal\nopening for birth, would protect the mother\u2019s pelvic floor, and enable the\nmuscles to stretch less. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early\n1900s gynecologists and midwives felt that episiotomies would confer protection\nof various pelvic floor problems, including prevention of prolapsed uterus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the 21st<\/sup>\ncentury obstetricians were looking at all the factors leading to bladder\nincontinence and weakness of the pelvic floor muscles, and it was hotly debated\nas to whether these episiotomy cuts would be helpful or harmful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current\npolicies generally recommend avoiding an episotomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a study\nin Sweden there was really no effect of episiotomy on arousal, orgasm, or satisfaction\nwith sex. But some women had more trouble with painful sex and poor lubrication\nduring sex if they had an episotomy. Complicated labors and deliveries also had\nan effect on sex after birth as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subject\nis complicated by the fact that women have some bladder dysfunction, and\nprolapse, immediately after delivery that resolves relatively quickly. The\ndysfunction immediately after delivery probably comes from temporary weakness\nor paralysis of nerves of this area, secondary to the baby\u2019s head pounding\nagainst the pelvic floor and it\u2019s muscles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a study\npublished in Obstetrics &amp; Gynecology in 2012 a group of\nresearchers  from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine looked at women 5\nand 10 years after their deliveries to determine how they fared. Specifically,\nthis study was interested in \u201cwhether a woman tore\u201d her vaginal area in the\nprocess of birthing. And they asked in the subsequent years of a woman had\nincontinence, overactive bladder, anal weakness and prolapse (dropping) of the\nbladder. They looked at whether a delivery had forceps or a cut or just had a\ntear in the process of delivery. And they couldn\u2019t find any association between\nthe pelvic complaints or whether the patient had an episiotomy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually,\nhaving delivered by forceps, or if you have had a tear, the pelvic floor is\nworse. Women with multiple tears were actually worse off, so if you had a tear\nin one delivery, you need to think about ways to avoid this in other\ndeliveries. Other causes of potential injury are many. Just having a birth\nthrough the vagina can lead to more pelvic floor dysfunction. Larger babies and\nlonger times in the second stage can cause problems. \n\nSo, \u2018bottom line\u2019 is how do we protect the\npelvic floor. Birthing isn\u2019t the only issue, you can\u2019t strain too much\nwhen having a bowel movement, nor lift heavy objects regularly.  Oddly either choosing to have no children,\nfewer children, or no vaginal births (elective c-section) do all work \n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Episiotomy Cut: Debate 2012: In 1935 Aldridge and Watson published their theory that performing an episiotomy, which is a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[24,115],"class_list":["post-1993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-gyno-health","tag-birthing","tag-sex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1993"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1993\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.womenshealthpractice.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}