Latest / ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women / 177 // How ADHD, the Pelvic Floor & Prolapse are Connected, with Jenn Lormand

Transcript

177 // How ADHD, the Pelvic Floor & Prolapse are Connected, with Jenn Lormand · ADHD with Confidence | Overcome Anxiety & Self-Doubt, Christian ADHD Coach, ADHD in Women

0:00
In today's episode, we are talking all about the pelvic floor.
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Now, this is going to be a different conversation than I've typically had,
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but this is a very fascinating conversation and one that is much needed.
0:13
20 to 25% of women over 40 have at least early stage prolapse, and it gets worse.
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One in three women will develop clinically significant prolapse,
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and that jumps to one in two for those who've given birth.
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Another thing about prolapse is that it's a progressive condition.
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So if nothing is done about it, it will continue to worsen.
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But there is hope. So Jen Lorman, who I'm interviewing today,
0:40
she has a program called Tighten Your Tinkler.
0:43
So in their signature program, you get lifetime access and they build community around it as well.
0:49
So the community of other people taking the course and then the instructors
0:53
as well so that you have that consistency of people with you walking you through this journey.
0:59
Now, if you are interested in checking out that program, you can go to Tighten
1:03
Your Tinkler and you can look it up. I also have a code ADHD that you can use
1:08
for $50 off of their program.
1:11
So remember, write it down, the code ADHD for $50 off.
1:15
I hope you enjoyed today's conversation. I learned a lot and I hope you do too.
1:22
Are you tired of feeling like you don't fit in? Like you're not good enough the way you are?
1:26
In this podcast, I will give you the strategies to build God-centered confidence
1:30
so you can know in your heart that you do belong.
1:32
You are enough and you are made on purpose and with a purpose.
1:37
Hey, I'm Kelsey Spronk, fellow ADHD mom and entrepreneur. Join me in building
1:41
confidence so you can experience successful.
1:51
Hey friends, welcome to the ADHD with Confidence podcast. I'm your host and
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today I'm joined by Jen Lorman. She's an exercise physiologist,
1:59
a published medical researcher, an author, and the co-founder of Tighten Your Tinkler.
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I'm so excited to talk to her today all about the connections between ADHD,
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perimenopause, and pelvic floor health. Jen, welcome to the show.
2:13
Thanks so much for having me, Kelsey. It is such an honor being here.
2:18
Well we are so glad to have you I think this will be a really fascinating topic
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to cover and one that I have definitely not covered on the podcast so far so
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can you start us off by telling us what are your connections with ADHD personally and professionally,
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Yeah, well, you know, I think I'm like a lot of the ladies listening in.
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I grew up and didn't know that I had ADHD.
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I wouldn't say that I was super rambunctious. I did like to hang out with the
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boys and climb trees and do those kinds of things.
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But I really struggled with math and discovered when my son,
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my middle son, was in middle school that he had ADHD.
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He was tested for that, and that's when I discovered that I also had ADHD and dysgraphia.
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And so it was hard, for sure, in the beginning to navigate all that, but I have to say,
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being diagnosed has helped recognize the gifts that are wrapped up in ADHD and,
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really has just drawn me to some absolutely beautiful people, including Dr.
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Edward Hallowell, who I am just forever grateful for, for all of his books and
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just the way that he really embraces it and talks about all of the different,
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phenomenal aspects of having ADHD and really just builds you up.
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And the real strengths and gifts that we have in terms of how we see people
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and how we see the world and the creativity that we bring to the world and the creative solutions.
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And so that is part of my journey professionally as well.
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After having my third son, I was diagnosed with stage 2 pelvic organ prolapse of my,
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bladder, uterus, and rectum, and basically was referred for surgery and told
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that I would probably need to
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have surgery 10 years later because of how young I was at 35 at the time.
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And, you know, after crying my eyeballs out when I got in my car,
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my heart just got really convicted that, you know, what do I have to lose in
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trying to figure out a different solution as a Christian in my faith?
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I really believed and knew that God created our bodies for healing.
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God created our bodies to have babies. And, you know, I just believed that there was a better way.
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And I think, you know, having ADHD and that creativity to see things differently
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and also feel things differently, right, kinesthetically, I just started looking for a solution.
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And over the next couple years, my business partner now and I went to a conference.
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We found this tool, this external exercise tool.
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I started playing with a protocol for myself and then started utilizing it with clients.
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And then we decided, hey, let's see if we can get this research validated.
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So then we did a two and a half year medical research study and were published
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in several different journals proving that, in fact, you can help your pelvic
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floor without having to penetrate yourself with devices or doing Kegels.
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So I do definitely credit my ADHD to that creativity of looking for those solutions.
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And I think that's such an incredible way to start is that reminder of,
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once we have that self-understanding we can lean into those strengths like you said we can,
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think outside the box or even the fact that you see a problem and you say how
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can I solve this and how can I solve it in a different way than maybe what was presented to you,
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so yes as far as the kind of research that you've done, how would you say ADHD,
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is connected to our pelvic floor health?
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Oh, that's a great question. Take it any direction you want.
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I think most of us with ADHD have these sensory nuances, right?
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And what I think is really cool is that the vast majority of the women that
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I have gotten to work with, which is where I started noticing anecdotally that
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I was working with more neurodivergent women who were having these same issues.
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But a really cool exercise that we could all do together right now is if you
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kick your shoes off, place your feet on the ground, and press your big toe into the floor.
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There is a connection between the little cells, the neural, the proprioceptors
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in our big toe that connect all the way up to our pelvic floor.
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And so having ADHD, when I put this external exercise tool on called the Pelvicore,
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it's the tool that we utilized in our research and in our signature program,
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I immediately could feel something happening in my body.
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And I think that's the thing that most of the women with ADHD have told me is,
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oh, my gosh, like, I feel like my pelvic floor is lifting. I feel like I'm getting
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taller. I feel like I'm getting lighter.
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We are very sensitive to those things, that kinesthetic touch.
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And so I think ADHD women feel these connections faster. And I think they,
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in many ways, start gaining the benefits faster.
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But so I don't think that's really what you asked me, but I went off on my little tangents.
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No worries. In regards to, you know, the connection between ADHD and pelvic
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floor issues, it's really a nervous system dysregulation.
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That is the correlation that we see between women with ADHD and having these pelvic floor issues.
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And so, particularly regarding bladder, urgency, frequency, and stress incontinence leaks.
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And we know that that's connected to being stuck in fight or flight or having
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a higher vagal tone, as most women with ADHD do have.
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Another question within this that I was going to ask earlier was,
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what are some of the signs or symptoms of pelvic floor health?
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Whether you're doing well or not, what should we be looking out for?
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This is a great question, and the list is quite lengthy.
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It can be peeing more than 10 times a day is a symptom, regardless of how much water you're drinking.
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It can be urgency, feeling that gotta-go feeling, and then you know if you don't
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get to the restroom in time, you're going to have a leak.
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It can be leaks with jumping, sneezing, coughing, laughing.
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It can also be pressure, pressure in the lower abdomen, pressure in the pelvis.
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It can be back and hip pain or discomfort.
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And that can manifest in a lot of different ways because of the muscular imbalances,
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because the pelvic floor,
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is a piece of a very large system that includes the muscles of the core,
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which include the abdominals, deep abdominals, back extensors.
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Hip rotators, glutes.
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And so there's muscular imbalances that can occur there from either injury,
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childbirth, pregnancy.
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The other issues might be pain with intimacy. And again, this is kind of a wide
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range of symptoms. So that can mean pain during sex, or often women will describe it as a pressure.
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Issue where they feel pressure higher up in their abdominals during sex.
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Pain with insertion is usually due to either an overly tight pelvic floor or vaginal dryness,
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which many women in perimenopause, postmenopause deal with, which can be a little
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bit of a separate, more nuanced issue.
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But pain with sex can also mean if you feel sore after having sex or if you
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have swelling after sex.
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All of those things are considered under that umbrella of pain with sex.
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It can also be losing the ability or you pass gas without knowing it,
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right, with position change.
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Or oftentimes women might actually pass a little stool when they bend over or have a loose stool.
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Pressure in the rectum. So, I mean, it is a very wide variety of symptoms that
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women can be dealing with.
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Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I feel like there are, as you said,
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there are so many different things to look out for.
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So if somebody is dealing with any of these symptoms that you just listed,
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what would you recommend? What are the first steps? How do we go about getting
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support in order to work on that?
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Yeah. So first of all, if any of that sounds familiar, the best thing that you
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could do and the direction that we point all women is to go to our website and
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take our five-minute quiz. because our five-minute quiz is actually based on our research.
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So it will give you a score to let you know your severity of symptoms.
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And it also, you know, what we've heard from women taking that quiz is.
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There's validation there and what they've been dealing with.
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And it also really does help connect the dots of, you know, oftentimes medicine
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and ourselves, we've compartmentalized these different issues as my back's hurting.
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This is my orthopedic issue.
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You know, I'm having these bowel issues. That's for my gastroenterologist.
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You know, here's this part is for my my gynecologist.
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But they are all connected. So the first step would be to go take that quiz
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and know that if you're in the green or gold zone, there is hope for you in
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terms of help with an online DIY program.
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We also offer recommendations for ladies who do end up in the red zone because
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unfortunately there are better candidates for one-on-one in-person care or oftentimes surgery.
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The next thing that I love to talk about is some action steps that ladies can start taking today.
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And so I'll go through a couple of those. Things that you want to watch out
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for is if you know that you have had back pain,
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hip pain, neck pain also, because our bladders actually hang from our necks.
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The fascial tissue that holds up our bladder actually wraps all the way around our neck.
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So oftentimes this position where we're sitting in front of a computer doing
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this is actually making our bladder issues worse.
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So the first two things that I would say is stop wearing heels because they
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pitch your pelvis forward and they create more downward pressure on your pelvic floor.
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You want to stop wearing tight, compressive garments. So all of your cute little
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yoga pants and Spanx and all that, like, I love Sarah Blakely so much. Like, I adore her.
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I don't like Spanx. They're so bad for your pelvic floor.
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So sorry, Sarah Blakely, but no Spanx.
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And what you want to do with those compressive garments is roll down the waistband past your hip bone.
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Because that will really help alleviate that downward pressure.
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The next thing I would tell women is to use a squatty potty or a toileting stool,
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for both peeing and pooping.
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Because if you are chronically constipated and you're straining,
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which many women are dealing with, it really does a number on your pelvic floor.
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It creates more downward pressure.
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Sorry, I was going to ask earlier. Is constipation one of the signs of pelvic floor dysfunction?
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So it is not.
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It can be. The real answer is if you have an enterocele, which is the falling
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and dropping of the intestines due to other types of prolapses,
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yes, that can create slower digestive motility in the digestive tract and constipation.
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But most times women are dealing with other digestive diagnoses such as Crohn's
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or IBS or something like this that then...
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You know, has this domino effect in causing pelvic floor issues as well.
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Oh, okay. I love that you asked that because women who are dealing with chronic
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constipation, it's one of those things where we want to get our hands around that first.
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Oftentimes women will end up in our inbox and be like, I'm having these awful,
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you know, rectal prolapse symptoms.
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And our first question is, well, are you dealing with some other diagnoses?
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Because you've got to get your hands around either the diarrhea or the chronic
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constipation to really help those downstream consequences.
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So basic things like we talk about in our signature program of using electrolytes
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to help with stool consistency, but also for the women,
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who are dealing with they're peeing more than 10 times a day,
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they're having urgency, they don't want to drink a ton of water.
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So, you know, you can make better use of the water that you are drinking with that.
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And then, of course, getting soluble fiber into your diet to help with softening
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stool consistency and making that ease of passage of stool a little bit easier.
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And I imagine that's because you don't want down the road, if you've worked
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on your pelvic floor, you don't want to be bearing down with constipation.
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That's going to put more pressure. Is that why?
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Yes, that's correct. Because that constant downward straining and holding of
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breath. Because if we think of the...
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The abdominal and pelvic kind of area as a canister, the respiratory diaphragm controls that.
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It's the pressure valve at the top of the canister, and the pelvic floor is
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the pressure valve at the bottom of the canister.
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And they influence one another. So it's also why like a great,
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another great tool that women could start utilizing, and in fact we give away
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a freebie is this position.
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It's called a 90-90 position that puts your body anatomically correct to decompress your back and hips.
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And then we teach you the diaphragmatic breath work, which really helps get those.
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Two pressure valves, so to speak, in sync with one another and help rebalance
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and restore that pressure, which is a huge issue for so many women,
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especially those dealing with prolapse.
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I think something you said earlier
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that was very validating was the not wearing really tight garments.
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And I think about like I have, so I'm quite tall, I'm five foot 11,
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but I have trouble finding pants that fit properly because I am tall.
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And so they just jeans don't fit right and all these things.
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But when I wear a pair of pants that it will sit tight kind of around my hips
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I will have back pain for days afterwards it is just it's not worth it for me,
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so I just completely avoid that but I was also curious kind of.
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Within that is it connected so you were talking about,
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how do I know if lower back pain is or isn't connected so for example I had
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gone to a health care specialist the other day and they said it was a really
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tight iliopsoas So kind of like underneath your hip there. And I was...
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Amazed. This was technically a massage therapist, but they knew a lot more about this.
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And by releasing that, my horrible back pain was gone so quickly.
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Like I stood up after and I could not believe it. Is that connected at all to the pelvic floor? Yes.
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Yes. So we're talking about all of the muscles that basically insert on,
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in, and through the pelvis that are connected to the pelvic floor.
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So it is a vast array of muscles. It is a very busy area.
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So yes, your hip flexors are definitely a part of that system.
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And you are not alone with many women, especially postpartum.
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Our abdominal muscles, our deep abdominal muscles have gotten so stretched out and are weak.
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And then your rectus muscles, which we tend to think of as those six-pack muscles,
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during pregnancy they separate.
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And so I feel like we need to include in here, if you've been diagnosed or know
19:58
that you have a separation of those abdominal muscles, that is also a piece of this puzzle.
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It's also a sign and symptom of pelvic floor dysfunction because if your abdominals
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are not working properly, you have pelvic floor weakness for sure.
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So, yes, oftentimes post-pregnancy or even depending upon what your exercise
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protocol was before that.
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The hip flexors can often end up stepping in and trying to do the job of stabilization
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of the abdominals when they have kicked off and turned off,
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particularly during the beginning stages of pregnancy, but possibly beyond that
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if you've not ever healed and rebalanced the strength in your pelvis and your core.
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Hmm i haven't okay as you talk i'm thinking of more and more questions more
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things that i want to find out this is great um another question would would something like.
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Bloating be a part of this at all or does that have more so to do with you said
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the other chronic conditions Crohn's ibs things like that,
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yeah so for sure women who are dealing with pelvic floor dysfunction,
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especially prolapse, will often say that as the day goes on,
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they feel more bloated in their lower abdomen.
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And this can be due to the pressure differential that we talked about.
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And so their bellies feel more distended and they feel more discomfort, more pressure there.
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And, you know, women know if this is happening, right?
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If you wake up in the morning and your stomach is flatter and you're feeling
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great, you know, and as the day goes on, the longer that you're on your feet,
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you're experiencing that.
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That too is a symptom of pelvic floor dysfunction.
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It's also a big time symptom of having a DR or a diastasis recti,
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that separation of the abdominal muscles, as well as the back pain piece is also a symptom of that.
22:07
Interesting. Okay, this is such good information. I think this is really important for us to have.
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Another question that I have as far as if somebody is dealing with some of these
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symptoms, they're feeling frustrated, they go to start some of these recommendations that you have.
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How long does it take before they're going to see a noticeable change or feel a noticeable change?
22:31
Okay, so, you know, many of the things that we discussed earlier in regards to,
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you know, not wearing compressive garments, utilizing a squatty potty,
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all of those different things, they're going to help with stopping the triggers
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that can be causing a progression of symptoms.
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But, you know, the real solution is going to be pairing that with.
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A movement protocol of sorts to functionally strengthen the pelvic floor,
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the core, all of the muscles that we discussed earlier, rebalancing the pressure.
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And that's what's going to ultimately turn this around for women.
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And so that can take, you know, it really depends on severity of symptoms.
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Going back to the quiz that we talked about earlier, I can confidently say that
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women who score in the green zone can expect to,
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see great changes in the first 30 days of beginning to implement that protocol
23:32
that we just talked about, which is the protocol we offer in our signature program
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where we balance the recovery tools,
23:39
stopping triggers, and utilizing that muscular skeletal functional movement
23:45
program to help strengthen things.
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So 30 days for the green zone, you know, if it's a woman who has been diagnosed
23:54
with prolapse, stages zero to two, it can take a little bit longer.
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60 to 120 days is probably the most realistic time frame. And again,
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it really depends upon consistency and, you know, following the protocol as best as they can.
24:15
Now, for those that are listening, you had mentioned earlier something about
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your website. What is the website that they can go to to learn about this?
24:23
Sure, so the website is tightenyourtinkler.com.
24:28
We also are on Instagram, titan.your.tinkler. And I suspect that your audience
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is much like us and will want to consume more information.
24:42
The best place for that is YouTube.
24:45
We have tons of videos over there, teaching videos, breaking all of these different
24:50
things down, nuanced. And so you can find us over there as well.
24:54
Wonderful. Another question I had before, I wanted to make sure if people are
24:58
listening and they're saying, this sounds great, sign me up.
25:02
You had mentioned a gift for my audience. Are you able to share that with us
25:06
now? And then we'll continue on into the connections between perimenopause and pelvic floor health.
25:12
Yeah. For anyone that's interested in our signature program,
25:16
we are offering a $50 discount to your listeners.
25:19
They can use the coupon code ADHD at checkout and get $50 off.
25:27
Amazing. And thank you so much for that. I'm going to have to check this out
25:31
too. And just, you know, even you said that quiz that people can start with,
25:34
figure out what zone they're in. And I think this all sounds very,
25:38
very thorough, which will be very helpful for any questions that people have.
25:43
Are you able, go ahead. I was just going to say, I do want to mention,
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we have an incredibly robust resources page on our website.
25:53
Really, we walk you through all of the different issues and everything is curated
25:58
by symptom there. So a lot of YouTube videos, a lot of our freebies that we offer.
26:04
So when you go to TightenYourTinkler.com, if you click on the resource page,
26:08
it is quite long, but that is the best place to do the deep dive based on your
26:14
symptoms that you're looking for help with.
26:17
Perfect. Yeah, I think that is helpful because, as you mentioned earlier,
26:21
there's a whole array of symptoms.
26:23
And so to be able to deep dive into the specific ones and have a better understanding,
26:29
like you said, of how it is all so connected in ways that I think most of us don't realize.
26:35
Yes. As far as perimenopause and our pelvic floor, what are the connections there? Yeah.
26:44
Yeah, it's pretty stunning. Some of the latest research shows incredibly strong
26:51
correlations between the severity of perimenopausal symptoms for women with ADHD.
26:58
So women with ADHD are 80% more likely to have severe perimenopausal symptoms,
27:07
which, P.S., is what I'm living right now.
27:10
No, no. I was like, I have not heard good things from people.
27:14
That's not good news. Did you explain why?
27:17
I have to say, I felt gobsmacked. I really didn't know.
27:22
I discovered this research because I was looking for myself because I have several
27:27
friends who are also in this time of life. And I feel like all my symptoms are
27:32
way worse. And so it was kind of nice to get that validation and also kind of want-want.
27:39
Did it say and i'm curious and i i have i mentioned this to you earlier i have
27:43
somebody coming on in the next couple weeks specifically talking about the connection
27:47
between hormones perimenopause and adhd but i was curious in the research that you did,
27:55
did it explain why there's that connection for adhd because i met somebody the
28:00
other day at a bookstore and she was saying,
28:04
you know her sister I think I don't know how old she was but in her in her 50s
28:08
I think and she said that yeah she reached perimenopause and just like completely
28:12
fell apart and was saying you know my strategies are not working my supports
28:18
are not working everything's way worse
28:20
I need I need support and they were encouraging her to seek an ADHD diagnosis
28:26
did the research say anything about why there's that connection yes.
28:30
Well, not exactly. Not directly.
28:34
You know, they are still, I mean, this was literally published in 2025.
28:40
So there's still ongoing research that needs to be done.
28:45
But what the research that I found was, first of all, which was stunning,
28:51
that women with ADHD typically have an earlier onset of perimenopause.
28:57
So what this research study found was ages 35 to 39 is where they started having
29:04
those perimenopausal symptoms as opposed to the general population, which is more 45 to 49.
29:12
You're just full of good news today.
29:15
Hey? No. I just turned 37. I'm like, don't tell me that. No.
29:20
Well, look, I am 48. So I fell into the normal bucket for once in my life with
29:28
regards to my age of perimenopause.
29:32
But still, what it shows is that, you know, women with ADHD just have,
29:39
you know, it makes sense.
29:40
Going back to what you were hearing from the other woman, we have higher swings
29:45
of anxiety and depression to begin with, with just the nervous system dysregulation of having ADHD.
29:51
So with the onset of, you know, spikes and drops in estrogen,
29:57
progesterone, testosterone that are all very random, it's no surprise that women with ADHD.
30:05
Are 80% more likely to have problems with depression, anxiety,
30:09
fatigue, concentration, hot flashes, sleep problems, joint pain,
30:16
problems with sex, bladder problems, and vaginal dryness.
30:20
You know, when you just think about it from a higher level, we already have
30:26
those issues at our baseline, right, because of our higher vagal tone and our
30:32
different sensitivities to things.
30:34
I think it also has to do with we report higher incidence of this because we
30:39
feel things much more deeply.
30:41
You know, our threshold for feeling is different than other people.
30:47
So all of that really makes sense to me but your friend is right I think it
30:53
you know I was having coffee with a friend not that long ago and talking about how
30:57
I literally feel like I'm crazy because you know after living with this for
31:02
decades you do develop these coping mechanisms and strategies,
31:07
and all of a sudden you don't feel like they're as effective anymore and so
31:11
it's definitely a challenge change.
31:14
So, yeah, I was thinking that as well as when you're talking about the changes
31:19
in estrogen and progesterone and things like that,
31:22
is that things that may have worked before now are just flipped upside down
31:27
and you have to completely figure out a new approach to things.
31:31
So where is the hope in this? I find that there's a couple of pieces that are
31:37
usually helpful. One is that understanding piece of feeling validated in what
31:41
we're experiencing. So if somebody's experiencing this, to feel that validation and understanding.
31:46
And then the next piece is, what can they do to either prepare for,
31:53
to handle, to deal with some of those symptoms of perimenopause?
31:58
Yeah, I think this time of life, like no other community, is incredibly important.
32:06
And I think that can be challenging. You know, this is also a season of life
32:11
where you're pulled in a lot of different directions. I mean,
32:15
I have kids who have graduated from college who are still in college,
32:19
and I still have a middle schooler at home.
32:21
We also have we're caring for my husband's sick parents.
32:25
And so there's just a lot of responsibilities and it can be it can be very a
32:31
very isolating time of life.
32:35
But I do think that that finding community is so incredibly important.
32:40
And I think, you know, this is a time of life where we need our faith.
32:45
You know, I mean, I'm blessed. I have a women's ministry at my church,
32:49
and those women are truly my soul sisters. They're who I really just plug into and lean on. And.
32:58
There is a sense of peace and of calm, which I think is what we all need more
33:04
of, particularly in this time of life.
33:07
So I would encourage women, and community can look different for everyone.
33:11
I mean, it can be, you know, being a part of a coaching community like yours
33:16
or an online community of some type.
33:20
Or just going and having a regular coffee date with a friend or a regular,
33:24
you know, talk and walk, as I like to say.
33:27
I've got lots of friends that live different places. And so just getting on
33:30
my phone, heading outside, getting some sunshine, vitamin D,
33:33
and just talking helps so much.
33:38
Feeling seen and heard. I mean, I was sharing with you before we pressed record,
33:44
just listening to your podcast, your pep talks.
33:47
Feeling seen and heard and validated and knowing that we're not alone,
33:52
I think is just such a big first step that cannot be overlooked this time of life.
33:58
The other thing that I would say is, you know, find a really good doctor who
34:06
is going to work with you and listen to you and not,
34:11
overload you with hormones, you know, because we are in this delicate season.
34:17
And while I really wanted to get sleep, I started taking way too much progesterone.
34:23
And for me, that kind of made me even more spun up because we're just in this constant flux.
34:30
So I would say, you know, find a physician who is really going to listen to
34:34
you, work with you, be flexible, who is going to make sure that They're not
34:40
just randomly giving you blood tests, but really,
34:43
testing things at certain windows of time.
34:48
And then I would say be proactive with taking care of your body and giving yourself
34:54
grace. I mean, regardless of severity of symptoms, I feel like at this stage
34:58
of life, everyone should be using a toileting stool.
35:02
Everyone should be drinking water or whatever fluid you want with electrolytes
35:07
in it, getting your fiber, getting outside.
35:12
All of these things can have tremendous impacts on a lot of the different issues that we talked about.
35:19
I know for me, prayer is a huge part of the practice of just connecting with
35:24
self and connecting with God and opening up an invitation to be able to receive
35:30
peace and joy amidst the storms.
35:34
Mm-hmm. That's something when you're talking about that, too.
35:38
The prayer piece, the God time, that's something, I mean,
35:42
of course, I don't have the research for it, but in my own experience,
35:45
I have found that that's one of the few times that I'm able to silence that inner,
35:50
you know, chaos of my mind and how many thoughts that I have.
35:53
It feels almost like, you know, a Holy Spirit medication for my brain where
35:59
my brain is quiet and it feels peaceful.
36:02
And it's one of the few times that I've ever really experienced that.
36:07
So thank you for sharing that as well. I think your reminder,
36:09
too, about the importance of community.
36:11
I mean, in the book ADHD 2.0, they talk about loneliness and connection and
36:16
community and how important that is. Or in Caroline McGuire's book talking about,
36:21
friendships for neurodivergent people.
36:24
It is so incredibly important to feel seen to feel heard to feel understood
36:30
and i do think that is how we are created and i do think that that can be incredibly,
36:35
helpful in in even helping support us in what our perspective is maybe we are
36:41
still going through a hard time but it may not feel debilitating if we have
36:47
those other people around us to support us.
36:51
I so agree. So well said, Kelsey. As far as just to kind of end us off here.
36:57
Oh, I had another question as well. You were talking about as far as taking
37:00
care of ourselves, being proactive.
37:02
Is exercise a part of that as well? How does exercise fit into this?
37:07
Yeah, exercise is a part of that. Unfortunately, there are lots of,
37:14
you know, when you've got pelvic floor dysfunction, particularly prolapse,
37:18
which I know I've mentioned a couple of times, but I think it's worth,
37:21
I don't know if your listeners are really understanding the distinction between those two things,
37:26
but, you know, pelvic floor dysfunction is, okay,
37:30
you've got a problem, some of these things are going on, but it's very fixable at that point.
37:35
It's usually just a muscular imbalance.
37:38
When I'm talking about pelvic organ prolapse, this is a progression of pelvic floor dysfunction.
37:45
And this is where, excuse me, the pelvic organs are falling down into the pelvic compartment.
37:55
And so that can look, usually each case of prolapse is incredibly unique.
38:02
But this is a further progression of that muscular skeletal system not working properly.
38:11
And so in regards to talking about exercise, it's really important that,
38:18
you know, the exercises that we're choosing to do if we are dealing with these issues
38:24
are going to be lower impact, you know, not lifting heavy, because we know that
38:29
when we've got prolapse, we're dealing with that pressure differential that we talked about.
38:35
We're dealing with a pressure issue as well.
38:38
And so heavy lifting, things like repetitive air rowing.
38:44
Pushing and pulling heavy things, running, jumping, all of those different things
38:51
will cause a progression of symptoms.
38:54
And if you have prolapse, it's going to cause a very quick progression of symptoms.
39:01
So we want to really pay attention if, you know, any of the things that we talked
39:05
about today, women are experiencing,
39:09
you want to hit the pause button on activities is the way that Christina and
39:13
I explain it, and you want to come back and shore up the foundation, right?
39:17
Because your pelvic floor really does hold your guts up and in.
39:23
You know, there's no bony tissue down there. So it's very important that if
39:29
you're having dysfunction there, it is like a wound, right?
39:33
So we want to make sure that we shore that up, that we functionally strengthen
39:38
in the foundation of the body before we start trying to jump into aggressive exercise.
39:45
Absolutely. Yeah, that's a good reminder, too. And even the fact that it's a
39:49
pause, it's not a forever thing.
39:51
And I know for me, it was hard. So I have three kids. They're three, five and seven now.
39:55
But I remember, so all of my kids were quite, quite big.
39:59
I didn't have gestational diabetes or anything like that.
40:03
I'm just I'm quite tall. And my kids were all over nine pounds one of them was almost 10 pounds,
40:08
and so after that I just remember yeah it took quite a while to feel normal
40:13
again and you do you feel like everything everything's just gonna
40:15
fall out and that can be such a scary such a scary thing so I appreciate this
40:20
work that you're doing can you tell us where can we go remind us where can we
40:24
go to find out more about you and what you do.
40:28
Sure. You can head over to our website, tightenyourtinkler.com.
40:31
That's where you can take the quiz.
40:33
It's where so many of our great resources are located.
40:37
You can find all of our teaching videos on YouTube, and our YouTube channel
40:43
is tightenyourtinkler.
40:44
And we're also over on Instagram, not as active anymore, but tighten.your.tinkler.
40:51
So you can find us all those different places.
40:53
Perfect. And then if they're interested in the signature program at tightenyourtinkler,
40:58
then use the code ADHD and that is the gift of $50 off. Thank you so much for that.
41:04
All right. Thank you for all of this information that you've shared.
41:07
I will try to include in the notes at the bottom, all of the relevant links
41:12
for the website and the gift coupon code and all of that stuff.
41:17
I'm sure everyone will find this incredibly helpful. So thanks so much for taking the time to be here.
41:22
Thanks so much, Kelsey, for having me.