An Interview With Dr. Lillian
A recent e-mail questioned the possible baneful effects of girdle-wearing on womens' health:
While there can be no doubt of the girdle's power to enhance the elegance of female dress, I don't see among the "Zona" elegies any comment on the effects of daily girdle wearing on female abdominal muscles. It stands to reason that those muscles, of special importance to women for childbearing, must lose "tone" to the extent that they are steadily supplanted by powernet in supporting the abdominal organs against the pull of gravity. Girdles or corsets may be fine for adding to the elegance of feminine attire and carriage for special occasions, but not so great, I would suggest, for everyday life.
-Arthur M.
It should be stressed that The Girdle Zone does not in any way advocate a return to the days of compulsory or continual girdle-wearing. Though such a prospect may seem pleasant to male girdle fanciers, only the most benighted would seek to deprive women of their freedom of choice.
Nonetheless, there are women who do wear girdles regularly as a matter of personal preference, and health questions concerning the practice arise often in enough in popular discussion to be of interest to all of us. This conversation between Lillian, a physician with many years' experience, and our good friend Suzanne, touches on some of the most common concerns.
A reminder to keep the lawyers happy: this information is presented for general educational purposes only. If you have specific medical concerns, consult your physician. Anyone who relies on a Web page for medical advice needs their head examined, anyway.
-Virginian
Suzanne: I wore a pregnancy girdle throughout my pregnancy, even though my obstetrician did not seem to believe it was necessary unless I was experiencing severe back pain. It felt great to have the support. What is your view of wearing girdles in pregnancy?
Lillian: Several remarkable things occur during pregnancy that a girdle can help.
As the growing uterus rises out of the pelvis in the second trimester one's center of balance starts to shift forward. At the end of pregnancy it feels as though one is carrying a watermelon and one's center of gravity is moved far forward. The natural compensation is to arch one's back, giving the sway-backed appearance of late pregnancy. In addition the uterus and its contents of baby, placenta, and fluid, press down and back on various structures in the pelvis, particularly the bladder.
The other major change is a hormone called relaxin which causes the various pelvic ligaments to loosen .This is important so that the pelvic bones can spread during delivery and allow the baby, particularly the head, to get through the birth canal. I think relaxin can start working as early as the second trimester, though I am not sure of this. This combination of a loose and wiggly pelvis carrying a watermelon makes back tiredness and pain very common.
Thus, a girdle that will support the lower back and keep the pelvis from wobbling too much is often helpful. This is rather like a splint and may serve the same sort of functions I described for "sports girdles."
There isn't much one can do for the protruding abdomen, though some pregnancy girdles have a lower front support built into them.
I wore girdles for my two pregnancies and thought them helpful. They were not attractive garments, it was a long time ago, but the back support was particularly soothing toward the end of the day when I had been very active physically.
Suzanne: Why are girdles so helpful when one is experiencing minor back pain or fatigue? They seem helpful even when they don't apparently offer much support to the back.
Lillian: For many years it was empiric to put patients with chronic low back pain in a variety of heavy and unattractive corsets, both men and women. Most back pain is from muscles and ligaments and not from bony abnormalities. Having one's torso held firm and movement restricted certainly keeps muscles and ligaments from stretching too far. This is a kind of splint. Posture is also improved.
There is also a sort of counter-irritant effect. Sensation on the skin often reduces or blunts pain from underlying structures. There is renewed medical interest in muscle- and ligament-related back pain as it is a common cause of absence from work. I have always advised women patients with backache to wear a firm panty girdle, high waist for some of them. More than one young woman has told me, to her great surprise, that it works. I think it can work for menstrual cramps too, though not always. This may be the counter-irritant effect of a snug garment around the hips, back, and tummy.
Suzanne: What exactly is "panty girdle syndrome?" I remember a corsetiere once mentioning this when I was buying a firm control girdle that had a stretchy area around the leg cuff. She said that the stretchy area was designed to prevent panty girdle syndrome, which I gathered was some kind of circulatory problem caused by too-tight girdle leg cuffs. Is this a common problem and what are the symptoms?
Lillian: This got considerable medical attention in the 1960's when everyone was wearing a longleg panty girdle. There was an article in the JAMA [Journal of the American Medical Association] and another prominent medical journal, as I recall. As far as I know this is the only possible physical harm one could attribute to a girdle.
Blood goes down the legs in a high pressure system in arteries and returns to the trunk, and eventually the heart, in a low pressure system in veins. If there is more than modest constricting pressure around the thigh the blood flowing uphill through the veins will be stopped or at least impeded. Ultimately fluid will be forced out of the veins into the tissues of the lower part of the legs causing swelling, that is edema. Panty girdle legs that are too tight act like tourniquets and dam the blood up in the veins.
Thus, the panty girdle syndrome or panty leg syndrome. While most of the cases of this disorder I have seen over the years were caused by longleg panty girdles, occasionally I have seen a brief girdle with a particularly tight leg band cause this.
The real danger in this is that blood in veins that is not flowing often clots. When this happens we call the condition phlebitis. It is uncomfortable and potentially very dangerous. If a large clot in a leg vein gets loose in the venous circulation it will go to the lung. This is called a pulmonary embolus and it can be fatal, in fact it can cause sudden death.
Wearing a panty girdle is fine, and not dangerous, if the legs and leg bands are not too tight. If your panty girdle leg makes a dent in the skin of your thigh it is too tight! You should be able to put your fingers under the leg of the girdle easily. I like to wear longleg panty girdles, particularly under skirts. I don't like the lines at mid-thigh to show under pants. I have never had any trouble with panty girdles, but I have always been careful to buy garments with loose legs.
Suzanne: When I was growing up, I remember that some of the reasons that were conventionally put forward for wearing girdles were quasi-medical. I remember reading somewhere that a young woman's developing body needed "support," and I often heard, from my mother and others, that wearing girdles was important for maintaining alertness and preventing fatigue. While I suspect that these "medical" reasons for wearing girdles were specious, I have nevertheless always felt that there seemed to be some truth to the latter claim. During the period of my life when I wore girdles on an occasional basis (1974-8), I genuinely found that I was more alert, more focused, and less tired on days when I wore a girdle.
I specifically remember an instance in graduate school when I was going to spend all day in the library but had to go to a reception in the late afternoon. Although I usually spent library days in jeans without a girdle, I dressed up, for the reception and spent the day in a girdle and a skirt. I found that I had to take fewer breaks, and I was especially productive.
From that point forward, I would occasionally dress up for a day in the library stacks, when I absolutely had to get something done. Is there any medical reason at all for this? Or was I just psychologically responding to being dressed up? Is there any physiological benefit to wearing girdles under normal circumstances? Under what circumstances have you or would you recommend wearing a girdle to a woman for health reasons?
Lillian: As women, we have the possibility and option of sculpting our bodies with bras and girdles. At least in this group we know that wearing fashionable well-fitting foundation garments casts our bodies in the forms we wish to cover with outer clothes. In addition our postures are improved. In a sense we are adding an exoskeleton. (Remember the insects only have an outer skeleton which is called an exoskeleton. One might ask if there is really some deeper meaning to the term "wasp waist." )
It is my business to see and examine patients when undressed. It is depressing to see women who are slovenly in their dress and whose bodily habitus is slovenly. (Worse are fat men whose protruding bellies have hidden their genitals from their direct view for years!) Pride of appearance counts for much, just as our mothers said it did. Thus, the psychological lift of being well-girdled and wearing a good supporting bra is real and it is an indication of how we feel about ourselves. Depression is common in our society. One of the first clues I have to depression in a woman patient is carelessness in her dress. I don't mean to imply that girdles will replace Prozac (though they are much cheaper) but depressed women are very likely to wear depressing underwear.
In regard to Suzanne's observation that she could work better and harder in the library as a graduate student when well-girdled I would have to observe that the sense of being girdled and her better posture probably kept her awake and alert. If you don't mind a sports analogy, in many sports to be at the height of physical (and perhaps mental) prowess, complicated "exoskeletons" are worn. There are "sports girdles" for men, particularly the runners who must be especially graceful and quick.
I remember years ago watching my son, a gifted athlete, put on his football gear. Taken together his regalia was much more complicated than a Victorian era corset. He was very fussy about how everything was fit and adjusted. He was a "free safety,"and could fly around the football field, scarcely touching the ground, knocking other boys down and occasionally snatching the football from someone and running like an antelope to the other end of the field for a touchdown. Look carefully at the pants worn by football players on television these days, they are longleg panty girdles without the lace. Look carefully, you'll agree.
Back to our gender, I would conclude that feeling firm, compact, and trim is important for all women. We were designed with fat around our hips and upper body (our breasts are mostly fat) and smoothing and shaping our figures is most appropriate, even those of us who are relatively slim.. I really don't feel dressed unless I am wearing a bra and girdle.
I can't honestly say that you will live longer if you are girdled, but you will live better and feel better about yourself.
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Revised January 2003