Your Uterus is Connected to Your Leg Bone

The alignment of your pelvis and the rotation of your femurs affect your uterine health, position, pelvic floor health, and foot health. It’s all connected!

The image above is an oversimplified illustration of how femoral position affects the pelvic floor and uterus. Even the feet collapse in (pronate) when the femurs are internally rotated, and vice versa.

Cardinal ligaments are known as the main supporting ligaments of the uterus, upper vagina, and cervix.  It attaches in a circular pattern around the cervix and moves laterally to the obturator fascia along the pelvic sidewalls.  Inferiorly, it is continuous with the fascia on the upper surface of the levator muscles! The obturator internis attaches to the medial aspect of the greater trochanter, which is on the upper leg bone! This leads me to believe that a neutral femur would help support the cardinal ligament.

I can actually feel slack in my pelvic floor when I internally rotate my femurs.  When my femurs are properly aligned, my pelvic floor and core feel more engaged and stronger.

Read more about all the uterine ligaments and their attachments here.

Yeah, alignment matters!  Does it seem natural that we have such a high incidence of uterine prolapse in the US? Our bodies are beautifully designed to hold our organs in place without the help of mesh, pessaries, and 1000 Kegels a day. Recent estimates are that around 24% of women in the US have pelvic organ prolapse. I’m guessing it’s even higher because many women with stages one and two don’t seek medical attention. We sit in chairs most of the day, we no longer squat, we wear positive-heeled shoes, and we don’t use the correct muscles for the most natural task….walking.

Whether you’re dealing with foot, knee, hip, or pelvic floor issues, one crucial structural factor is the position of the femur.  Try this self-assessment to see if you have internally rotated femurs: stand in your usual stance, looking straight ahead, and have someone take a photo of the back of your knees.  The hamstring tendons should form little pits at the back of your knees that track straight back.

Or, do the back of your knees look more like the image below? Sorry, my camera takes grainy photos, so I drew lines to represent where the hamstring tendons are.

What I did to correct my femur position:

Start here:

• I made sure I didn’t use my quads to rotate my femurs externally. The action comes from deep lateral rotators.  But first, I had to work to release my stuck-up knee caps.
• I do Pelvic Lists to strengthen my lateral rotators.
• Wearing Correct Toes™ gives my feet a broader base, so my feet don’t collapse in taking my femurs with them.