How to take care of your pelvic area

How are you supposed to care for your pelvic area? This article guides you through six steps to help you understand how to take care of your pelvic area.

Talk to it

It may sound a little weird to talk to your pelvic area, but it can actually be a great way to feel connected to it. If you feel like it, you can give it a name that you feel happy about and that feels powerful to you. There are lots of slang names for the vulva, and many of them are stigmatised, but maybe there is one you like, otherwise come up with a new one. Claim a name for your pelvic area! And if you are in doubt about a decision, ask your pelvic area. It always has the answer.

Look at it

Grab a mirror to look at - and admire - your pelvic area. Look at all the details of the mons pubis, the labia, the clitoris and the perineum. Try spreading your labia and look at your genitalia at the vaginal entrance. It often looks like a wreath of beautiful leaves, but can look a little different from person to person. If you feel like it, you can use a speculum to look at the inside of your vagina and cervix. When the speculum was invented, it was used in horrific experiments on enslaved African women, so its origins are certainly nothing to exalt. But I think it can be a hugely liberating act to reclaim it for something you can use to get to know your own body better, rather than a tool that others can use on you. You can find speculum at Peech right here!

Feel it

Feel your abdomen in different ways and notice how different parts of the vulva and vagina respond to different types of touch. You can, for example, give your vulva a nice massage with some delicious lube, as well as internal massage. We hold the whole upper body with the pelvis, so therefore a lot of tension can arise in the muscles of the abdomen. So it is greatly beneficial to massage the area. It needs massage just as much as the neck, for example. Both as relaxation, but also as self-love or part of masturbation.

You can also try to feel your cervix at different times of your cycle or at different times of the day. The cervix can sit both high and low inside the vagina and sometimes a little to one side or at the back, so you can not reach it at all. When ovulating, most people will experience their cervix sitting high in the vagina and feel soft, and the cervical opening (the small dot in the middle) will feel a little open. After ovulation, it often comes lower down into the vagina and becomes hard, and the cervix feels more closed.

Air it

It is very good for the vulva and the vaginal area to get plenty of air. It can for example help prevent fungus and other imbalances. Feel free to air it while watching Netflix on the couch. And sleep daily or once in a while without panties on, then your pelvic area will thank you.

Smell it and taste it

It may sound strange, but it can give you a huge amount of knowledge about your body, and if there are others who smell and taste you, it is probably not so weird to do it yourself. Your discharge smells and tastes different in different parts of your cycle. The fluid that comes when you are aroused also smells and tastes different depending on whether it comes from the vaginal opening or the vaginal wall inside the vagina. By smelling your discharge, it can also give you signs of having bacterial vaginosis, which can make the discharge smell fishy. You can also try to notice the smell of your menstrual blood depending on which menstrual products you use. If you use disposable pads and tampons, it will often smell a little sweet, maybe a little nauseating, due to the reaction with the chemicals in the product. This odor almost never occurs with the use of cloth bandages and menstrual cups, where it instead smells more neutral.

Have a vulva circle

It can be wildly powerful and beautiful to host a vulva circle with other vulva owners, where you show each other your vulva while sitting in a circle, and praise them and see the diversity in them. They can look wildly different and that is quite normal and actually quite amazing. In pop culture, we are sold a single way a vulva can look, which makes many people think that their vulva looks abnormal. So sharing your beautiful differences with others can be a body-liberating experience.

You can also read our guide on how to intimately massage yourself, or why you need to know more about lube!