Fatigue and its Impact on the Body
We all know the feeling of fatigue: being overtired, and unable to go about your daily life. This is often brought on by many different things, from illness to lifestyle choices. This can affect your body in many different ways, from physically to mentally.
What Causes Fatigue?
Fatigue may be caused by many different things. Short term fatigue can be caused by lifestyle choices like diet, alcohol use, stress, jet lag, or a more sedentary lifestyle. By making simple changes, you can manage fatigue in a holistic way. For example, practicing good sleep habits, like having a set time to sleep and wake, and aiming for 7-9 hours each night, eating healthy and staying hydrated, and regular exercise.
Fatigue can also be caused by illness. Many illnesses, such as mononucleosis (mono), the flu, pneumonia, COVID-19, all cause extreme fatigue. Typically, the fatigue ends when the infection clears up. Heart and lung conditions, autoimmune disorders, and other chronic conditions can contribute to long lasting fatigue as well.
Physical Impacts of Fatigue
Fatigue can feel different from person to person, and present in many different ways. It can affect your musculoskeletal system and your physical performance, as well as neurologically and in your day to day life.
Physically, it can feel like sore or aching muscles, or muscle weakness. Sometimes, it can feel like your limbs are heavy, or uncoordinated. You may feel slower during activities, and unable to react as quickly as you normally would.
Fatigue can also manifest as blurry vision, dizziness, and lightheadness. You may also experience headaches and more sluggish thinking.
Long term impacts of fatigue can include a weakened immune system. Because your body is overtired, it can become more susceptible to infection, and have a harder time fighting off disease.
Mental Impacts of Fatigue
Fatigue does not just affect you physically, it can also affect you mentally. You may feel moody, or experience depressed or anxious feelings surrounding what is causing the fatigue. It can also cause memory issues, like brain fog, or slower processing.
Feeling fatigued can also cause issues with concentration, judgement, and motivation. When you are overly tired, you may have a hard time focusing on the task at hand or in your day to day life. You may also have impaired judgement, what once was a bad idea may seem good to your fatigued brain. Finally, you may not feel motivation to complete any more tasks than you have to.
Fatigue and the Pelvic Floor
You may be wondering – how does fatigue affect the pelvic floor? There are many ways that these things are connected.
Fatigue can be caused by hormonal imbalances, and a huge hormone disruption is caused when women experience menopause. The shift in progesterone and estrogen levels can cause the body to feel extremely tired.
The pelvic floor is a group of muscles, which can also experience fatigue. You use your pelvic floor every single day, it helps with posture, continence, supporting pelvic organs, and responding to breath and movement. You can check out our post on Fatigue and the Pelvic Floor to learn more about how these two things go together.
Read more about V Strong Physical Therapy, and learn how pelvic floor physical therapy can benefit you. Book a consult call with our team to get started on your pelvic health journey today!
Works Cited
Cleveland Clinic medical. “Fatigue.” Cleveland Clinic, 30 Sept. 2025, my.clevelandclinic.org/health/symptoms/21206-fatigue.
“Fatigue Causes.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 20 Feb. 2026, http://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/fatigue/basics/causes/sym-20050894.
O’Connell, Krista. “Fatigue: Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment & More.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 18 Apr. 2023, http://www.healthline.com/health/fatigue.