Arnold Henry Kegel worked and carried out research in the medical field of gynecology in the US during the twentieth century. Through his work, Kegel was one of the first to describe what researchers call Kegel exercises, which strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, or the muscles that extend from the pelvis to the tailbone and support the internal reproductive organs, bladder, and bowel. Kegel observed that weakened pelvic floor muscles could cause disorders like urinary incontinence, when a person loses partial or complete bladder control, and organ prolapse, which is when the pelvic floor cannot adequately support organs in the pelvic region, causing them to fall out of place. Kegel was also one of the first to find that females could strengthen their pelvic floors through exercises, which provided an alternative to invasive surgeries to repair those muscles. Kegel helped discern the role that the pelvic floor plays in reproductive health, and he developed simple methods to strengthen the pelvic floor that could, in turn, improve sexual and reproductive health in females and males of all ages.
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