Will my vagina ever feel normal again?

[IllustratingMummy]

I had my DS 2 years ago, I had a natural birth but after 2 hours of pushing the nurses realised he was back to back and to had to intervene with forceps and an episiotomy. I healed externally quite quickly but for months after I gave birth I felt like my cervix was constantly hanging out. I eventually did a mirror check and could see my cervix opening cm from my vagina opening so went to doctors and eventually had a round of physio. They said the walls of my vagina were weak and thin from being cut and it was causing everything to slump downwards.

I was discharged last May as the physio was happy that my cervix was strengthening through doing pelvic floor exercise. I haven't had huge problems up until a few months ago when I started unable to hold in my wee. Not huge amounts, but if I sneeze I have to cross my legs, and I can't exercise because running around and straining my body makes me leak. I still can't hold in tampons, they just fall out of my foof. Sex feels ok unless I am a few days away from my period as my cervix hangs a lot lower. My vaginal opening feels like it's gaping though. My husband has no complaints but I am worrying that my problem is worsening. I'm so embarrassed at the state of my vagina that I struggle with my sex drive, I'm so self conscious. I was a very sexual person pre-pregnancy, but I feel like a totally different person now :(

[BooseysMom]

I know exactly how this feels and i truly sympathise. I had my DS 5 years ago and i have this feeling that my insides are dropping out. I had the same sort of birth experience as you, epiostomy and third degree tear and god knows how many stitches. It was shocking and like you i seemed to heal quickly on the outside but not inside. I was doing my pelvic floors x3 a day but stopped about 2 years ago and i put the dropping feeling down to my age (47). I have re-started the exercises now but still have the same feeling. I told the gp and she said it takes about 3 months to strengthen it up again. Do you still do yours? It is prob worth seeing a gp if no improvement.

[IllustratingMummy]

Thanks for replying! No I admit I have been pretty lazy at keeping up with the pelvic floors, I have restarted the regime and will give it a couple of months and see how I go. I don't feel like this will ever truly go away though, especially my opening - literally a wizard's sleeve (got to keep some humour with this I guess!!)

[BooseysMom]

You poor thing. I hope the exercises work for you. I must admit mine is more when i do any sort of high impact exercise like jogging or star jumps. I have to do the low version of those and I've given up jogging because of it. I find incorporating the pelvics into Pilates good but have really got lazy and i've just not been doing it often enough. Maybe we should both come back here in a couple of months to share our results and any improvement! Good luck x

[Surfingtheweb]

This machine is good, I need to start using it again!!

www.kegel8.co.uk/kegel8-ultra.html

[BooseysMom]

@Surfingtheweb.. just re-discovered this thread and realised i didn't reply! That machine looks good but pricey. How have your exercises been going? I'm trying hard to do them twice a day. You can get an app to help you i think

[ProfessionalBullshitter]

I really sympathise. I had similar issues after a very similar birth.

Luckily I have private health insurance through work, so I ended up having surgery to sort everything out. Pelvic floor exercises helped but they didn’t quite cut it. I’m so so glad I had the surgery.

[BooseysMom]

@ProfessionalBullshitter..yeah pelvic floors def don't completely sort it. Well done for going thru the surgery..it sounds like it was the best thing to do

[ProfessionalBullshitter]

It really was.

A friend in my NCT group had the same problem and she also had surgery but she got it done on the NHS. If it’s a route you want to go down then definitely persevere. It was affecting my mental health and mine and DH’s relationship. It really pisses me off that women are just expected to put up with their cervixes hanging out of their vaginas like it’s ‘just one of those things’. Fuck off. Do you think a man would put up with the equivalent? Do you think he’d be expected to?

First stop GP for you OP. In the first instance they should be able to refer you to a proper physio (I was), and you can take it from there.

[Internetaddictgirl]

@ProfessionalBullshitter what surgery did you have and can you run etc like before?

[littlecabbage]

@ProfessionalBullshitter

I’d really like to know about your surgery too if you don’t mind telling us? Feeling like my prolapse is worse than “usual” at the mo.

*IllustratingMummy - my vaginal opening feels similar. My bladder prolapse bothers me a bit, but my gaping vaginal opening bothers me more at the mo. Especially when I walk into the swimming pool and feel cold water rushing up there

[thetoddleratemyhomework]

I have developed a gaping vag. Think it is a prolapse, sadly :( would be very interested to hear about recovery post surgery