Empowered Relationship Podcast: Your Relationship Resource And Guide · Dr. Jessica Higgins

ERP 517: Pleasure, Pain, and Partnership: Navigating Pelvic Floor Health Together - An Interview with Dr. Sara Reardon

·41 min·2 clips

Reardon says the partner, not just the patient, should learn the anatomy and support plan.

1. Empowered Relationship Podcast episode 517 centers on pelvic floor health, pleasure, pain, and partnership with Dr. Sara Reardon. 2. Dr. Jessica Higgins hosts the conversation, and Sara Reardon joins as a board-certified pelvic floor physical therapist and author of Floored. 3. The episode asks what changes when pelvic floor pain is treated as a relationship challenge instead of an individual problem. 4. Reardon describes the pelvic floor as a basket of muscles at the bottom of the pelvis that supports the uterus, ovaries, bowels, and bladder in female bodies. 5. She explains that those muscles also surround the vaginal opening, the anal opening, and the urethra, which makes them central to urination, bowel movements, intercourse, menstruation, and vaginal birth. 6. Reardon says tension, weakness, and coordination problems can each affect sexual function in different ways. 7. The episode connects pelvic floor health to lubrication, arousal, orgasm, and comfort during vaginal penetration. 8. Reardon says most people do not know they have a group of pelvic floor muscles, which makes pain, leakage, and sensation changes harder to name. 9. She says many patients are told to relax or are gaslit when they raise concerns about intercourse pain, urinary leakage, or painful bowel movements. 10. Reardon argues that shame drops when the body is explained in physiological terms, including the pelvic floor functioning like any other muscle group. 11. One memorable claim is that no amount of pain with sex is normal, because sex is meant to be a pleasurable event. 12. Reardon says 90% of people have orgasms with clitoral stimulation only, and she notes that the clitoris has over 10,000 nerve endings. 13. She explains that lubrication depends on hormones, hydration, and menstrual-cycle timing, so not feeling "wet enough" does not always mean someone is not aroused. 14. Reardon uses the "foot on the gas" and "foot on the brake" model from Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski to describe how stress, bloating, and disconnection can suppress arousal. 15. She says pelvic floor tension can be addressed in therapy with internal techniques, vaginal trainers, and tools that release tightness or tenderness. 16. Reardon recommends practical habits such as not pushing when urinating, using a squatty potty for bowel movements, and exploring self-stimulation in a private, low-stress setting. 17. The interview style is conversational and instructional, with Jessica Higgins asking follow-up questions that move from anatomy to relationship dynamics. 18. Reardon’s tone is direct and practical, with frequent examples from therapy rooms, parenting, and her own married life. 19. Best for listeners who want pelvic health guidance for couples. 20. Skip if you want purely abstract relationship theory without body-based detail.

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