Your Wellness magazine Nov 2012

Wellness experts discuss embarrassing leaks:

I feel like an elderly lady. Please help me

“I gave birth to my third child six months ago and I’m suffering ‘embarrassing leaks’. When my baby is sleeping, it’s really important for me to be able to play with my 18 month-old toddler and my 6 year old, but I simply can’t run, dance around or bounce on the trampoline with needing sanitary towels. Even sneezing means I have to cross my legs! I feel like an elderly lady needing incontinence pads! My sex life isn’t great either. Please help with this awful problem.”

You are not alone

“You aren’t alone. In fact, a recent survey for my book Joyful Pregnancy, showed over 50 per cent of new mums, and even more menopausal women, suffer from stress incontinence – that’s 4 million women in the UK alone. Women are sometimes offered physiotherapy, or even Botox to remedy the problem, but by far the simplest way is to exercise your pelvic floor muscles. I’m sure you were advised to do Kegel exercises but these were originally devised to work ‘against resistance’. Fortunately there is a simple, effective answer in the form of the PelvicToner. This exerciser enables you to identify the correct muscles while squeezing against resistance. It’s had full clinical trials and over 80 per cent of users report noticeable results after on two weeks of use (five minutes a day) and an improved sex life, too."

Your Wellness Natural Living expert Janey Lee Grace