The Act of Marriage: The Beauty of Sexual Love (23 page)

Why is the ability to exert pressure important? The answer to this question explains to many experts the ancient puzzle of how the vagina can provide sexual satisfaction when it appears to contain almost no nerve endings.

The solution is explained this way by Dr. Terence F. McGuire and Dr. Richard M. Steinhilber of the Mayo Clinic: “According to current data, the muscles beneath the vagina mucosa (the lining of the vagina) are well supplied with proprioceptive endings (nerve endings of the type sensitive to pressure, movement, and stretching). These are adequately stimulated during intercourse, and could well represent the primary… sensory apparatus…. It would appear that vaginal orgasm is a reality.”

In other words, the muscle which surrounds the vagina is rich in sensitive nerve endings. Doctors failed to find these endings because their search was limited to the lining of the vagina.

Since these nerves are outside the vagina, it takes firm pressure from within to stimulate them. In a wide, slack vagina, the male organ makes poor and infrequent contact with the walls of the passage, thereby stimulating nerves in the surrounding musculature very little.

If the vagina is narrowed to a tight, firm channel by the contraction of surrounding muscle, the male organ will press and push these muscles, giving strong stimulation. Stimulated, the muscles will respond with an automatic contraction which increases the contact, thus helping to build the tension which leads to feminine climax.

This phenomenon had long been suspected by some observers. As early as the turn of the century, Dr. Robert L. Dickinson reported that he could identify women likely to fail sexually by examining them. He wrote, “The size, power, reactions and rhythm of contraction of the pelvic floor muscles give information concerning vaginal types of coital orgasm (orgasm during intercourse).

In one of his early case records he noted: “Levator is not very good. Taught her to use the muscle.” And he adds, “It seems very important that many women are able after instruction to get something which they call orgasm, when they failed before instruction.”

Some primitive and Oriental people have observed the need for such muscular control and strength and teach young women accordingly. In one African tribe, no girl may marry until she is able to exert strong pressure with the vaginal muscles. Other cultures have noted that sexual performance is often poorer after childbirth because of the stretching or injuring of the birth canal. In some Moslem countries women actually follow the appalling custom of packing the vagina with rock salt after giving birth, in order to make it contract.

After their study of sexual response in many societies, Ford and Beach concluded: “There is considerable evidence to support the belief that distention of the vaginal walls resulting from insertion of the penis is an important factor.”

Widespread reports now confirm this conclusion. Dr. Donald Hastings, of the University of Minnesota, comments: “The exercise and contraction of the voluntary muscles which form the pelvic floor and surround parts of the vagina are important for… enhancement of sexual pleasure.” He adds, “Some of the ‘secret’ sexual practices of other cultures depend upon the strength and cultivation of the vaginal muscles.”

Fig. 7.
(Left) Side view showing
good
P.C. muscle tone. Note how the vagina is in proper position; (right) The P.C. muscle with weak tone hangs loose and low, permitting sagging of the female organs due to poor support. Childbirth may be more difficult for this woman; she may be susceptible to backaches; menstruation may be harder and coitus less stimulating to both her and her husband.

And Dr. John F. Oliven, of New York’s Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, reports in his textbook on sexual problems for physicians and other professionals: “The most important hypesthesic [lack-of-feeling] syndrome occurs in connection with vaginal over-relaxation. To the patient herself this may appear to be a matter of insufficient contact between penis and vaginal walls. However, there is evidence that relaxed walls are hypesthesic walls, because the sub-mucosal ‘deep-touch’ nerve endings, which are responsible for the greater part of so-called vaginal sensation are minimally represented if their vehicle—chiefly the pubococcygeus—is hypotrophic [weak through underdevelopment or degeneration].”

Oliven ends by saying, “Thus, probably no degree of ‘bulk immission’ can completely overcome these women’s diminished sensation.” In other words, when the vaginal walls do not contract so that they offer pressure and resistance, sensation is likely to be limited indeed, regardless of the size of the male organ.
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The benefits of the P.C. muscle exercises are multiple. They will improve a woman’s body for (1) childbirth, (2) urinary control, (3) reduction of backaches, and (4) increased sexual enjoyment for both the wife and the husband. In addition, if she is unable at any time to attain orgasm, she can relieve much of the pelvic congestion by repeatedly contracting the P.C. muscles fifty or more times.

Considering the benefits from the exercises, Deutsch continues,

The exercises which strengthen the P.C. muscle are safe, simple and not fatiguing. Aside from the sexual benefit they seem to provide, they improve the support given to the organs of the pelvis. Such support has been found by experts to reduce the number of the childbirth injuries to the mother and to shorten the time of delivery, thus increasing safety for the child.

Proponents of natural childbirth see such exercise as essential. And even many doctors who are not in favor of natural childbirth feel that this muscular training is valuable. Instructors who teach the Y.W.C.A. classes in preparing for childbirth give the exercises to the pregnant women they train. And the International Childbirth Education Association has made the exercises part of its programs of instruction.

But for the vast majority of the many thousands of women who have now learned the exercises, there is meaning beyond health and safety….

Many women can contract the P.C. on conscious command by merely learning it exists. And Dr. Kegel has pointed out that some women can achieve satisfaction for the first time just by being made aware of the muscle and its role in the sex act.

But if the muscle is weak, as it is in most women, awareness is unlikely to be enough. Not only must the woman learn conscious control of the muscle; she must strengthen it with exercise. “And it is a rare woman,” says Dr. Kegel, “who cannot benefit from increased strength of the muscle.”

Fig. 8.
(Left) An artist’s conception of the vagina, seen from above, showing good muscle development. The heavy lines indicate strong muscle fibers, which are exaggerated here to suggest the thickness and resistance of the pubococcygeus muscle, which makes possible better vaginal perception; (right) An artist’s conception of the vagina, seen from above, showing poor muscle development. The lines indicating muscle here are lighter and sparser, suggesting the thinness and lack of the resistance of the pubococcygeus muscle usually accompanied by poor vaginal perception. Note how much wider are the poorly supported vaginal and urinary passages.

Gaining control, however, can be difficult without guidance. Most women, when they are asked to contract the vaginal muscles, begin by trying to contract the smaller, weaker,
external
muscles instead. This may be seen in a kind of pursing of the vaginal opening.

Asked to try again, and reminded that this is internal muscle, many make greater and greater efforts, contracting muscles of the abdomen, the lower back, the hips and thighs. These muscles have no link to the P.C. And, in fact, one may be certain that the exercise is done incorrectly if one experiences muscle fatigue.
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Fig. 9.
How the doctor examines the pubococcygeus muscle. (Left) When the muscle has good tone, resistance is felt in all directions; (right) When the muscle has poor tone, the vagina is roomy and the thin walls feel as though detached from surrounding structures.

The Kegel Method of Exercises

The best method of exercising the P.C. muscles to provide maximum muscular control and strength was devised by Dr. Kegel and used by him and his associates on hundreds of women. The fame of its near-unanimous success and improvement of sexual response in patients who diligently fulfilled the six-to-eight-week program spread until it was adopted by many doctors throughout the world. Although the exercises demand concentration and consistency, they are really quite simple and well within the capability of most women. One doctor has said, “Nearly all women could be taught to contract the muscle.”

To teach the patient how to contract the muscle, what it feels like, and how to check it at home, Dr. Kegel devised another way. This is the simplest and best for an individual.

Remember that, among other functions, the P.C. can control the voiding of urine. So if urination can be interrupted, the P.C. has been contracted.

However, since the weaker external muscles can also shut off urine flow, except under stress, these must be kept out of play. To do so, the knees are widely separated. In this position, once flow has begun, an effort is made to stop it.

In nearly all women, this effort automatically contracts the P.C. This signifies little about strength, for the muscle can stop urine flow in most women unless there is extra stress. But it teaches the feeling of a P.C. contraction. After a few trials, most women can recognize the sensation and can repeat the contractions at any time, anywhere, using the occasional interruption of voiding only as a check. Each contraction exercises the muscle surrounding the vagina.

There is little physical effort, though concentration is needed at first. “Once the contraction is learned,” says childbirth educator Dr. Mary Jane Hungerford, “it takes little more effort than to close an eye. In fact, it can be done as rapidly as you open and shut an eye, though when exercising, the contraction should be held for about two seconds.”

Once control of the P.C. is learned, women are instructed to begin exercise with five or ten contractions before arising in the morning. The contraction seems to be easier at this time.