If you've ever wondered why you feel strong and coordinated one week, then suddenly clumsy, leaky or weirdly sore the next, you're not imagining it. Your pelvic floor changes across your menstrual cycle.
Yes. You read that right.
Most of us were never taught this, but I reckon it's one of the most useful pieces of body literacy a woman can have.
Here's what's actually happening, phase by phase, and how it can affect your sex life.
Menstrual Phase (Days One To Five)
Oestrogen and progesterone are at their lowest. Your pelvic floor tends to be more relaxed and more sensitive. Blood flow to the area is increased, which is partly why arousal can feel different (often better) during your bleed.
This is not the week to be PB-chasing in the gym. It is a beautiful week for gentle mobility, restorative Pilates, walking and rest. Pushing through high-impact work right now is where a lot of leaks and pelvic floor flare-ups happen.
Follicular Phase (Days Six To Thirteen)
Oestrogen starts climbing. So does your tissue resilience, your motor coordination and your appetite for harder work. Your pelvic floor tone rises with it. This is genuinely the strongest, most coordinated phase of your cycle.
It's also the phase where strength training, reformer work and high-impact movement feel best in your body. Your tissues are primed. Lean into it.
Ovulatory Phase (Days Fourteen To Sixteen)
Peak oestrogen. Peak strength. Peak everything, really. Your pelvic floor is at its most responsive and integrated with your deep core. Power output, coordination and recovery are all favoured.
It's also (not coincidentally) the phase where libido tends to spike. Your body is biologically wired for connection right now.
Luteal Phase (Days Seventeen To Twenty-Eight)
This is the phase no one warned you about. Progesterone rises and stays high for the back half of your luteal phase. Progesterone is a smooth-muscle relaxant. That's lovely for nervous system calm. Less lovely for your pelvic floor tone.
In late luteal (the five or so days before your period), many women notice they're leaking on the treadmill again, feeling heavier or experiencing more cramping. Bloat from progesterone-driven water retention adds intra-abdominal pressure. The whole system is working harder for less return.
This is where so much of the "I used to be able to run/jump/do reformer fine, now I can't" confusion comes from. You can, you just need to time it differently.
What To Do With This Information
Three small shifts that change everything.
One. Stop expecting your pelvic floor to perform the same way every week. It won't, and that's not a sign of weakness. That's just a hormonal reality.
Two. Move your hardest impact sessions into your follicular and ovulatory phases. Save the luteal phase for strength work that's less reliant on intra-abdominal pressure (so think slow tempo, controlled lifts, mat Pilates, swimming).
Three. Treat your menstrual phase like the recovery week your body is asking for. Restorative movement, breathwork, mobility. Your performance the rest of the month gets better when you stop fighting this one.
A Note On The Contraceptive Pill
If you're on the combined pill, your cycle is suppressed, and these fluctuations largely flatten out. That can feel more "consistent", but it does come with its own pelvic floor implications, especially around tissue elasticity and lubrication. Worth a separate conversation with your GP if you've noticed changes.
Your pelvic floor is hormonal tissue. The more you can sync your movement, your training and frankly your expectations to your cycle, the kinder you can be to your body and the better it performs across the whole month.
You're not inconsistent. You're cyclical.
By Heather Foord, Core Restore Co
About The Author
With a background in women's medicine, Heather Foord (aka The Vanilla Sexologist) is a clinical sexologist and passionate advocate for women's health. Heather writes for Mamamia and Women's Health magazine, has appeared on Sunrise, The Today Show and The Morning Show, and is the Director of pelvic floor and core clinics Core Restore Co. With a Master's in Sexology and Women's Medicine, degrees in Communications and Health Science and a Diploma in Pilates, Heather works hard to break stigma through education and workshops across Australia and abroad.