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Female pelvic muscles Male pelvic muscles. The pelvic floor or pelvic diaphragm is an anatomical location in the human body, [1] which has an important role in urinary and anal continence, sexual function and support of the pelvic organs. [2] The pelvic floor includes muscles, both skeletal and smooth, ligaments and fascia.
The coccygeus muscle completes the pelvic floor, which is also called the pelvic diaphragm. It supports the viscera in the pelvic cavity, and surrounds the various structures that pass through it. The levator ani is the main pelvic floor muscle and contracts rhythmically during female orgasm, and painfully during vaginismus. [4]
The same human pelvis, front imaged by X-ray (top), magnetic resonance imaging (middle), and 3-dimensional computed tomography (bottom). The pelvis (pl.: pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of an anatomical trunk, [1] between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton [2] (sometimes also called bony pelvis or pelvic skeleton).
The internal obturator muscle or obturator internus muscle originates on the medial surface of the obturator membrane, the ischium near the membrane, and the rim of the pubis. It exits the pelvic cavity through the lesser sciatic foramen. The internal obturator is situated partly within the lesser pelvis, and partly at the back of the hip-joint.
The muscular pelvic diaphragm is composed of the bilateral levator ani and coccygeus muscles and these attach to the inner pelvic surface. The iliococcygeus and pubococcygeus make up the levator ani muscle. The muscles pass behind the rectum. The levator ani surrounds the opening which the urethra, rectum and vagina pass.
The rectococcygeal muscles are composed of smooth muscle and run from the anterior surface of the 2nd and 3rd coccygeal vertebrae down the posterior wall of the rectum as a triangular shaped muscle before branching and inserting among the various muscles and fascial structures associated with the pelvic diaphragm and anal canal and collectively called longitudinal anal muscles.
The coccygeus muscle is posterior to levator ani and anterior to the sacrospinous ligament in the pelvic floor.It is a triangular plane of muscular and tendinous fibers. It arises by its apex from the spine of the ischium and sacrospinous ligament.
The external obturator muscle or obturator externus muscle (/ ˌ ɒ b tj ʊəˈr eɪ t ər ɪ k ˈ s t ɜːr n ə s /; OE) is a flat, triangular muscle, which covers the outer surface of the anterior wall of the pelvis. It is sometimes considered part of the medial compartment of thigh, [1] and sometimes considered part of the gluteal region. [2]