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Anatomy of the Pelvic Floor
Introduction
If there is one thing that experts can agree on when it comes to the pelvic floor it is the fact that pelvic floor muscular anatomy is complex to say the least. This page is designed to give those with a curiosity about the muscular structure and anatomy of the pelvic floor a better idea of just how everything is put together down there. This page can also serve as a tool to help those suffering from incontinence and electing to use conservative treatment modalities such as pelvic floor exercises to better visualize the muscles which are intended to be strengthened during the process of doing kegel exercises.
Major Muscles of the Pelvic Floor Described
The University of Michigan Medical School provides a chart which does a good job of summing up the various structures and functions of the entire pelvic region. Click the following link to view the chart, you will have to scroll down to the portion about the muscles. The other anatomical structure descriptions may also be a helpful guide to the anatomy of the pelvic floor. In reference to the chart, A muscle "Origin" is considered the beginning of a muscle and a muscle "Insertion" is considered the end of a muscle. A muscle has a beginning and end based on the direction in which it contracts.
University of Michigan Medical School Anatomy of Pelvic Wall and Floor ChartMajor Muscles of the Pelvic Floor Visualized
This image is taken from the online version of Gray's Anatomy and is considered public domain. The next group of images (follow next link) comes from The Harvard Medical School's Radiology Department. In this research study a group of 10 healthy women had their pelvic floors imaged with a MRI, for the purpose of creating a therapeutic baseline for the healthy female. The implications of this research would include the possible ability to correlate pelvic floor muscle mass and continence. In other words if your doctor had an MRI of your pelvic floor done and determined that your muscle mass was significantly less than this study's baseline, it would provide conclusive evidence for doctor that this was indeed something that could be affecting your urologic health among other things. The link to the study is below and provides several three dimensional type images that may be useful.
Three Dimensional Modeling of the Normal Pelvic Floor, Harvard Medical School
The next useful site in this guide to understanding the pelvic floor is the Women's Continence Center of the University of California San Francisco's page dedicated to just this subject. The images are less detailed, but may provide helpful insight into the many different causes of pelvic floor associated problems. These images focus on the pathologic anatomical changes that occur during various types of pelvic prolapse as well as women that may be status post hysterectomy. Click on the small images to get to the larger versions.
University of California San Fransico, Pelvic Floor Anatomy
Another site with a few high quality three dimensional type images is brought to us by the University of Illinois Chicago, specifically from the fine efforts of Mary Rasmussen and her team in the Virtual Reality in Medicine Lab. This group has made virtual reality models of various parts of the human body which are used by medical students to help them better understand the anatomy they are learning about. There are only a few images here, but they are impressive. Click on the small images to get to the full sized images.
University of Illinois Chicago Virtual Pelvic Floor
The National Association for Continence has one simple but effective diagram available in the publication "Pelvic Muscle Exercises". Since the diagram is in Adobe Acrobat format you can easily zoom in on the diagram by pressing the magnifying glass once Adobe Acrobat Reader opens up.
National Association for Continence Publication "Pelvic Muscle Exercises"
Stanford University brings us their "Visible Female" pages. This project stemmed from researchers' discovery of the "Lucy" skeleton and their desire to determine the sex of that archeological find. Whatever the origin, Stanford's Visible Female project has done a great job of showing the various structures of the pelvic region. The link below will take you to the Visible Female images index page. The most useful link for you to click on from there will be the Peritoneum & Pelvic Floor link. The other pages may also be useful.
"Lucy 2.0" Stanford University's Visible Female Project
I hope you have found this list of resources useful and informative. Additional resources are welcome and can be sent to us via the contact us page. Best Regards, Brad Porter, RN, BS