Pelvic floor self-check
Short answer: Kegels help a weak pelvic floor and make an over-tight one worse, and the two can feel similar from the inside. This eight-question check sorts your symptoms into likely weak, likely too tight, or see a doctor first. It is not a diagnosis and it is not a validated clinical instrument — it is a sorting tool, so you do not spend three months strengthening a muscle that needed the opposite.
The single most useful thing you can know before starting pelvic floor training is whether your pelvic floor needs strengthening at all. Roughly the same set of complaints — poor erections, dribbling, a sense that something is off down there — can come from a floor that is too weak or one that is chronically too tight, and the treatments are opposites.
What the three outcomes mean
Likely weak or poorly coordinated
Post-void dribbling and losing rigidity partway are the two classic signs that the pelvic floor is not doing its mechanical job. This is the picture that pelvic floor training was studied in, and the one where the trial numbers apply. Start with the protocol on the kegel page and give it three months.
Likely too tight
Pain, post-ejaculatory ache and urinary hesitancy point the other way. Strengthening a muscle that already cannot release will make all three worse. The full picture, and what helps → What helps is down-training: diaphragmatic breathing, hip and adductor release, warm baths, and — properly — a pelvic health physiotherapist, who can assess the muscle directly rather than guessing from symptoms. Ask a GP for a referral, or search for a physiotherapist specialising in male pelvic health.
See a doctor first
Sudden onset, absent morning erections, or symptoms clustering with chest pain, fatigue or a new medication all point away from muscle and towards something with a cause worth finding. Absent morning erections in particular suggest a vascular, neurological or hormonal mechanism rather than a psychological or muscular one, because they happen without any conscious involvement at all. Why they are the most useful free signal you get →
Train the muscle. Privately.
Guided pelvic floor sessions and a 30-day plan on your iPhone. No account, and your answers and progress never leave the device.
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Common questions
Is this a medical test?
No. It is a self-sorting tool we wrote, not a validated clinical questionnaire, and it produces a direction to look in rather than a diagnosis. Validated instruments for this area — the IIEF for erectile function, the NIH-CPSI for pelvic pain — exist and are administered by clinicians.
Is my data stored anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs in your browser with JavaScript. Nothing is transmitted, nothing is saved, and closing the tab erases it. There is no analytics event attached to your answers.
What does 'too tight' mean?
A hypertonic pelvic floor is one that sits contracted and cannot fully release. It produces pain in the perineum, penis or testicles, pain after ejaculation, difficulty starting urination, and a feeling of incomplete emptying. Strengthening exercises make it worse; the treatment is release work, usually with a pelvic health physiotherapist.
I got 'see a doctor' — does that mean something is wrong?
It means your answers included something that an exercise programme cannot address and that has a reasonable chance of having a findable cause — sudden onset, pain, or symptoms that cluster with cardiovascular or hormonal problems. It is a prompt to get it looked at, not a prediction.
Can I be both weak and tight?
Yes, and it is common. A muscle that is held short is also a muscle that cannot generate force from a good starting length. Where both scores are high, release work comes first and strengthening comes after — which is the order a physiotherapist would use.