Your Pelvic Floor and Bowel Leaking

Your anus is the last part of your digestive tract. The role of your upper anus is to detect rectal contents – it is so sensitive that it can actually distinguish whether the contents in your digestive tract are gas, liquid, or solid! It  is surrounded by two muscles: the internal anal sphincter, and the external anal sphincter.

The external anal sphincter is an extension of your pelvic floor muscles. When stool enters the rectum (where stool is stored until you go to the bathroom), the internal sphincter relaxes. We are unable to consciously control this relaxation - but we are able to squeeze our external sphincter until we find a toilet. Once it is “appropriate” to go to the bathroom, we relax our external anal sphincter and pelvic floor muscles. This is known as normal continence.

Like the bladder, if your bowels aren’t functioning normally it can lead to problems emptying or leaking stool. Bowel leaking is also known as anal incontinence and can happen when you pass stool or gas without any control. This can happen if the muscles of your pelvic floor or anal sphincter or the nerves that make them function are injured.

Treatment for anal incontinence begins with pelvic health physiotherapy.  Dietary modifications and medicines can also be helpful.  Surgery is the last resort as the risk of complications is higher, and the surgery is often not successful. The best way to prevent anal incontinence is to protect your perineum at childbirth.