Though research isn’t conclusive on the topic, having a loose, weak, or just somewhat lax pelvic floor could theoretically make it easier for your vaginal canal to stay open and trap more air inside it, Dr. Dweck says. Then when you go to contract your core during exercise or sex, for instance, the extra pressure in your abdomen will force that air out as a queef, Miracle explains, particularly if your pelvic floor is too weak to brace against it. (This kind of pelvic laxity can happen naturally with age or as the result of pregnancy and childbirth.) It makes sense then that research links queefing with urinary incontinence (leaking some pee when you don’t mean to) and prolapse (when pelvic organs sag from their usual positions and bulge into the vagina) as both are often the result of a weak pelvic floor.
But at the same time, the reverse scenario of an overly tight pelvic floor may also put you at higher risk of queefing, Charles Ascher-Walsh, MD, a gynecologic surgeon and director of the division of urogynecology at Mount Sinai in New York, tells SELF. (Those muscles can become tense from years of involuntary clenching, which you may do for multiple reasons, including to compensate for a muscle weakness or injury or because of a health condition that affects your pelvis, like irritable bowel syndrome or endometriosis.) A very tight pelvic floor is essentially in spasm, he explains, which means it may move a lot more than normal—not unlike someone with a weak pelvic floor. “It’s the opposite end of the spectrum,” he says, but it can lead to queefing all the same. Research also suggests that having a higher “resting tone” of your pelvic floor (meaning, it holds more baseline tension) can add resistance to air exiting your vagina, making a noticeable queef more likely.
In extremely rare cases, it’s also possible to experience what feels and sounds like queefing as the result of a medical condition wherein your rectum forms a tiny connection to your vagina, called a rectovaginal fistula, Dr. Dweck says. This connection then allows gas that you’d normally fart out to come through your vagina, she explains. (You’d likely need surgery to close off the link and keep these openings separate.) In this scenario, though, the air you’d pass would smell like a fart (since it’s transferring over from your GI system), she says. Plus, fistulas don’t typically form spontaneously, Dr. Ascher-Walsh says. They generally occur in folks who had a vaginal tear during childbirth that then doesn’t heal completely or in those with severe inflammatory bowel disease (for instance, ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease) who are also generally in a lot of abdominal pain, he says. So if neither applies to you, there’s a high chance your queefing is NBD.
How to stop queefing at the most inopportune moments
To be extra clear: There’s no rule saying you have to stop queefing—better yet if you feel at peace with it when it occasionally happens. But if it’s becoming a nuisance or is in any way uncomfortable to you (say, it’s making you self-conscious in a workout class you love or distracting you during sex), you might want to tamp down the frequency.
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