Practice Point #86 - Fanny Farting

I received a question from Anonymous from the Australia. Their question is...

How do I stop vaginal farting?

As embarrassing as it is, I am so happy this question was asked.

How to stop the vaginal mouth from taking in air in inversions?

A few things about this if you are lucky enough to not have experienced it.

When women invert the vaginal mouth can take in air, then we you come down from the inversion the vagina makes a farting sound which is terribly embarrassing.

I know it has happened to me.

It only happened to me after I had children and it also happened more often after menstruation. So you might like to start to observe when this happens to you to give you some clues.

The reason for this unfortunate incident is that the vaginal mouth is higher than the anal mouth. What this happens is the abdomen gets pushed forward and the uterus is pumped up and down which causes the vaginal mouth to suck air in.

So when inverted there are a few things to keep in check with your alignment.

Firstly, do not tighten the vaginal mouth, this is not correct.

We can correct this vaginal breathing through the alignment of the spine.

So when you are next inverted check this

The abdomen is held back towards the spine not pumped up towards the legs. To do this lift the pubic bone vertically up toward the torso

This will naturally take the tail bone up which will take the anal mouth up and the vaginal mouth down which is the correct position to avoid the vagina taking air.

It takes practice, but you will find it will benefit your whole sirsasana and the same applies in sarvangasana.

Should you have an accident and suck air in, you can control the release of the air out so it is not so loud, or let it rip, your not the first:)

Kate​