When Holiday Stress Lingers in the Body: Diving Into Post-Holiday Pelvic Dysfunction

Introduction

If you’re noticing new or worsening pelvic symptoms after the holiday season, it’s important to know this first: your body isn’t failing you — it is responding to change.

For many people, the holidays disrupt the routines that quietly support pelvic health. Exercise habits shift, meals change, sleep schedules vary, work deadlines pile up, and emotional demands increase. When the body is asked to adapt quickly, often without rest or recovery, pelvic symptoms such as pain, urinary changes, or bowel dysfunction can surface or intensify.

You may be feeling frustrated, discouraged, or even worried that symptoms you worked hard to manage have returned. What most people want in this moment isn’t a rigid plan — it’s understanding, relief, and a way to gently reconnect with their body as the new year begins.

Why the Holidays Can Impact Pelvic Health

Pelvic health is deeply interconnected with routine, movement, nervous system regulation, and emotional safety. When those foundations are disrupted, the pelvic floor often reflects that strain.

Stress, threat, and the nervous system

The holiday season often brings increased stress related to work demands, finances, family dynamics, and time pressure. Research shows that perceived threat and stress can increase involuntary pelvic floor muscle activity, particularly in individuals with pain histories or heightened nervous system sensitivity (van der Kolk; van der Felde et al). When stress persists, muscles may remain in a guarded or tense state, contributing to pain, urinary symptoms, or difficulty with bowel movements.

Routine disruption and bowel/bladder function

Our bowels and bladders thrive on consistency. Changes in wake times, meals, hydration, and bathroom access, especially during travel, can significantly alter bowel frequency and stool consistency. Holiday foods, reduced fiber intake, dehydration, and delayed bathroom access commonly contribute to constipation and IBS symptom flares (NIH News in Health).

Prolonged sitting during travel can further increase tension in the pelvic floor, hips, and lower back, making it more difficult for the pelvic muscles to lengthen and coordinate effectively during elimination.

Reduced movement and exercise

During the holidays, many people experience decreased physical activity due to packed schedules, cold weather, or time off work. Increased time spent sitting or resting can lead to:

  • Increased pelvic floor and hip tension

  • Weakness or deconditioning of gluteal and abdominal muscles

  • Worsening constipation

  • Increased urinary leakage or prolapse symptoms

Emotional stress, trauma, and symptom resurfacing

Time spent with family can bring joy while also activating stress, anxiety, or unresolved experiences from the past. There is strong evidence linking trauma history with pelvic pain, IBS, and somatic symptom expression, particularly in women (White et al., 2010; Schubach et al.). These responses are not psychological “failures,” but nervous system adaptations shaped by lived experience. When re-entering these experiences and environments, our sympathetic nervous system ‘turns on’ to protect us from any future threats that may come our way. What our bodies and nervous systems don’t realize is that this can often contribute to more pain and dysfunction, rather than less.

What Healing Can Look Like Post-Holidays

Improvement doesn’t require perfection or an immediate return to pre-holiday routines.

Healing often looks like:

  • Feeling more grounded and regulated in your body

  • Regaining predictability in bowel and bladder habits

  • Experiencing less pelvic pain, pressure, or urgency

  • Learning how to support yourself through routine disruption

  • Creating flexible habits you can return to during future busy seasons

Most importantly, it involves meeting your body with compassion rather than urgency.

Understanding the Patterns: How Routine Disruption Shows Up in the Pelvic Floor

When routines are disrupted, several interconnected systems are affected:

  • Nutrition changes may reduce fiber and water intake while increasing bladder irritants such as caffeine, alcohol, acidic foods, and additives (Pelvic Health Solutions).

  • Muscle tension increases with prolonged sitting, stress, and reduced movement.

  • The nervous system remains activated, increasing pain sensitivity and GI symptoms.

  • Mental health is impacted, contributing to symptom amplification and fatigue.

Together, these changes can lead to urinary urgency or frequency, pain with urination, constipation, IBS flares, pelvic pain, or a resurfacing of previously managed symptoms.

What Can Help: Trauma-Informed Ways to Support Your Body

Bring back gentle movement

Rather than jumping back into intense exercise, focus on:

  • Daily walking

  • Gentle spinal and hip mobility

  • Breath-based movement

Consistency matters more than intensity.

Support bowel and bladder routines

  • Gradually increase water intake

  • Reintroduce fiber in a way your body tolerates

  • Consider tools such as a travel squatty potty to support bowel mechanics during travel or schedule changes

Create a flexible “minimum routine”

Develop a short, accessible movement or mobility routine you can rely on during future travel or busy seasons. This helps prevent the all-or-nothing cycle that often worsens symptoms.

Support nervous system regulation

Mindfulness, gentle breathing, and intentional rest can reduce pelvic floor tension and pain sensitivity, particularly for those with trauma histories (van der Kolk).

Practice boundary-based self-care

Supporting pelvic health may mean:

  • Saying no to an extra event

  • Simplifying expectations from loved ones

  • Choosing rest over obligation

Prioritizing what nourishes you is a valid and necessary form of care.

Reach out for professional support

If post-holiday symptoms feel overwhelming or difficult to manage alone, working with a pelvic health physical therapist can provide individualized, trauma-informed care that addresses both physical and nervous system contributors.

Conclusion

Post-holiday pelvic symptoms are common, understandable, and deeply connected to how our bodies respond to stress, routine changes, and emotional load. Disrupted movement, altered nutrition, increased stress, and nervous system activation can all influence bladder, bowel, and pelvic floor function.

With gentle re-engagement in movement, intentional support of bowel and bladder health, nervous system regulation, and self-compassion, it is possible to feel more at ease in your body again — and to build routines that support you moving forward.

You don’t have to navigate this alone. Pelvic health care exists to help you reconnect with your body in a way that feels safe, sustainable, and empowering. If any of this speaks to you, take the leap to reach out to a provider to begin regaining confidence in your pelvic health.

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About the Author

Dr. Bridget Ochuko is a pelvic health physical therapist based in Durham, NC. She treats prenatal and postpartum folks, pregnant and postpartum runners, active young adults, active aging adults, and complex/chronic pelvic pain. She promotes LGBTQIA+ inclusive care. If you are interested in seeking care with her, check out her provider profile here or reach out at (919) 283-3135.

“Do yourself a favor, and hire them for all of your pre- and post- natal needs”

-K.J., Chapel Hill