Although analysis isn’t conclusive on the subject, having a free, weak, or simply considerably lax pelvic ground might theoretically make it simpler on your vaginal canal to remain open and entice extra air inside it, Dr. Dweck says. Then whenever you go to contract your core throughout train or intercourse, as an illustration, the additional stress in your stomach will drive that air out as a queef, Miracle explains, significantly in case your pelvic ground is simply too weak to brace in opposition to it. (This sort of pelvic laxity can occur naturally with age or as the results of being pregnant and childbirth.) It is smart then that analysis hyperlinks queefing with urinary incontinence (leaking some pee whenever you don’t imply to) and prolapse (when pelvic organs sag from their traditional positions and bulge into the vagina) as each are sometimes the results of a weak pelvic ground.
However on the similar time, the reverse state of affairs of an excessively tight pelvic ground might additionally put you at greater threat of queefing, Charles Ascher-Walsh, MD, a gynecologic surgeon and director of the division of urogynecology at Mount Sinai in New York, tells SELF. (These muscular tissues can turn into tense from years of involuntary clenching, which you will do for a number of causes, together with to compensate for a muscle weak spot or damage or due to a well being situation that impacts your pelvis, like irritable bowel syndrome or endometriosis.) A really tight pelvic ground is actually in spasm, he explains, which suggests it could transfer much more than regular—not not like somebody with a weak pelvic ground. “It’s the alternative finish of the spectrum,” he says, however it may well result in queefing all the identical. Analysis additionally means that having the next “resting tone” of your pelvic ground (that means, it holds extra baseline stress) can add resistance to air exiting your vagina, making a noticeable queef extra possible.
In extraordinarily uncommon circumstances, it’s additionally attainable to expertise what feels and seems like queefing as the results of a medical situation whereby your rectum varieties a tiny connection to your vagina, referred to as a rectovaginal fistula, Dr. Dweck says. This connection then permits fuel that you just’d usually fart out to come back via your vagina, she explains. (You’d possible want surgical procedure to shut off the hyperlink and hold these openings separate.) On this state of affairs, although, the air you’d go would odor like a fart (because it’s transferring over out of your GI system), she says. Plus, fistulas don’t usually type spontaneously, Dr. Ascher-Walsh says. They typically happen in of us who had a vaginal tear throughout childbirth that then doesn’t heal utterly or in these with extreme inflammatory bowel illness (as an illustration, ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s illness) who’re additionally usually in a whole lot of belly ache, he says. So if neither applies to you, there’s a excessive likelihood your queefing is NBD.
The right way to cease queefing on the most inopportune moments
To be additional clear: There’s no rule saying it’s important to cease queefing—higher but for those who really feel at peace with it when it often occurs. But when it’s changing into a nuisance or is in any manner uncomfortable to you (say, it’s making you self-conscious in a exercise class you like or distracting you throughout intercourse), you may wish to tamp down the frequency.