Grade 2 prolapse - cystocele

[Londongal12]

Hoping for some advice! I’ve recently had an endometrial ablation for heavy periods - so far successful. However on the discharge letter I’ve been told I have a grade 2 cystocele - bladder prolapse. I’m quite shocked as I had a full examination prior to my surgery and was advised there was no evidence of a prolapse to then be told two months later it’s a grade 2?!
Obviously a bit of research has shown me lots of horror stories and that life will never be normal again 😫

I don’t really have any major symptoms or bulging (at least for now!!) other than being careful when I cough or sneeze and a feeling of pressure on my bladder. I’ve had 2 pregnancies - single child and set of twins. Could this have caused it?

Does anyone have any success stories or advice they can share? I’m assuming this problem is more common than were being told…

Anyone? 🙁

Hi OP. I've been told I have a "bit of a prolapse" and I think been told the grade but I honestly can't remember. I've had 3 natural births. I eventually went back to the pelvic specialist physio after a number of years and my uterine prolapse had improved! Had gone back up quite a few cms (again, I'm so rubbish with numbers I can't remember if she said 5 cm or 2cm) but I was delighted with myself! I have been doing online pilates for years for back pain. I'm assuming that was the magic but of course the physio couldn't say.

@Corksoles thank you for responding! amazing that it’s got better! Did you have many symptoms when you had the prolapse? How often did you do Pilates for it to improve? 🙂

Hi OP. I've got grade 3 rectocele and grade 2 cysto-urethrocele.

Im having surgery this year on the posterior and then probably surgery on the other one within the year.

My physio AND consultant (both private) want to give me my quality of life back. They've said I CAN lift weights again, run again and do all forms of exercise.

So. I'm terrified about the surgery, but confident my absolutely amazing physio and a bit of hard work will get me back to normal.

It's a shock though, I was told out of the blue 15 months ago. I had no idea. They have both got significantly worse since then.

Hi @Londongal12 .yeah, i had no idea it could get better. I thought it was all about holding back the deterioration.

I had a dragging, heavy pain with my period that felt like something was coming out of me. So bad I would need to sit or lie down to alleviate it. I also got it with pregnancy 3 and an older midwife recognised it and said she'd had the same - also an older mother and she said pushing for a long time with baby 1 would have contributed significantly. And I had the obvious back pain and a sort of side pain - but no real incontinence issues. (I'm now peri menopausal and have had a couple of small leaks when I had a bad cold! Sneezing. FFS.) That dragging pain has massively improved to be fair.

I reckon I do half an hour of pilates once or twice a week.

Oh, and I had a belly button hernia after baby 3 which didn't resolve within the 6 months or year that drs said it might, but looks so much better after I started the pilates. Really sunk back in as my core strengthened.

@Droolylabradors Im due to see my consultant again at the end of the month but not sure surgery will even be on the cards at this point - but I’m worried without it it’ll keep getting worse 😫

@Corksoles oh no! You’ve been through the lot 🙁 but good to know the exercise helps, I’ve been doing my pelvic floor since the diagnosis but can’t really see any difference yet :/ though I didn’t know I had anything wrong in the first place until they diagnosed me!!

I think that if it isn't too bad, you are better off doing insane amounts of pilates and physio (I like Lottie brown pilates on YouTube) and if it gets worse, they might say a support pessary is a good idea.

I have one and it makes a massive difference to my rectocele.

@Droolylabradors i did read about those pessaries. Do they need removing very often or can you leave them in for a set period of time?

I tried every pessary going, they all dropped out. 🙄 I’m having surgery next month, I can’t wait to get it fixed and get back to a normal life.

Women’s anatomy is all wrong. I’ve pushed out three big babies and everything else followed on. 😂

I have a grade 2 cystocele after two difficult births. I've had it since DD2 was born (she's now almost 5) and it hasn't gotten any worse.

The main things are I changed my exercise routine as I was told running or anything high impact could make it worse. I now cycle, swim, walk and do yoga. I do need to wear a pantyliner as coughing or sneezing can make me leak a little bit.

I get a ridiculously heavy period and dragging pain on day 1 and 2 of my period but then it's fine. Pelvic exercises and some yoga won't hurt. Squats etc can also help your pelvic floor.

I'm not a candidate for surgery at the moment but I'm assuming I will need it in the future. But for now I'm holding off as long as I can.

Look in to hypopressives (stomach vacuum)

I believe some European countries teach these to all women after birth and make a huge difference

Thanks everyone 🤍 makes me feel much better know I’m not on my own here!!

I believe some people can leave them in. I have to take mine out for a bowel movement, as the poo goes around the pessary to hang in the prolapse so trying to then fully poo is murder if I don't hoik out the ring!

And with the prolapse I poo two or three times a day, so I goes in and out.

It took a while to get the hang of putting it back in as my rectcocle does everything possible to avoid being pushed back after a poo. The trick is to breathe out as you push and as it goes in, my cervix drops into the middle of the ring and I know it's safe then.

It does come out when I sneeze sitting on the loo sometimes though!

Overall it's fine, it's just getting me to surgery in the summer.

To the PP who said our anatomy sucks. Yes it bloody does.

As well as the posterior and anterior prolapses, my consultant said that my uterus is 'fine, for now'.. I must ask him if that means the uterus is going to drop down further at some point too!!

@Droolylabradors are they saying that the surgery will fix things completely?

@GameOfJones do you get any bulging as of yet being grade 2 ? I haven’t noticed any yet but that’s my biggest fear and I’ve definitely become more aware of a weird full feeling down there since the diagnosis 😢

@Londongal12 i don't have any option.

I can't stand in the queue in the supermarket without the most awful dragging in my stomach and back ache. I end up holding my stomach up as if I'm holding a baby bump.
I've ignored the whole thing for a year since I was told I had prolapses, but I bit the bullet and went back to a different (much nicer) gynae in January about some soreness and asked in passing if he could grade my prolapses.

When I came out to discuss with him after the internal exam, his first words were 'I think we should go for surgery really and improve your quality of life'. I hadn't admitted to myself what impact it was having until that point.

Since then I feel every symptom. My perineum has disappeared too so sitting on the sofa hurts.

So I am hoping that my rectocele will disappear entirely with surgery and then there is a view to doing the cysto-urethrocle next year.

I do have a massive bulge from the cystocele though. I'm so sore trying to push out a poo which in turn irritates the cystocele. And yes I eat insane amounts of soluble fibre but even when the poo is soft it gets stuck as the prolapse drops out a couple of inches sometimes.

Nothing is bulging out of me currently, I do have an internal bulge due to the prolapse that I can see with a mirror if I bear down (although I try to avoid getting constipation of any sort precisely to stop me bearing down and putting any more pressure down there.)

It doesn't affect my sex life at all, and DH swears he can't tell it's there. You're definitely not alone, it is really, really common.

A few things that helped me:

1. I had mine lasered. Its call NU v and they laser inside which causes brand new collagen to be laid down in that area- the difference it made was incredible.
2. Pelvic floor exercises- google hypopressive pelvic floor exercises- far more effective for me than kegels ever were

I had quite a bad prolapse and now I can go running after 5 cups of coffee with no issues whatsoever.

website here: https://completecorecontrolandfitmummy.com/?fbclid=IwAR0Mk_bBoPbsUX0SjCy5XEy5Pw7ZOjTZBFroPhzM-TYWxTzSg9AltPevfoI_aem_AQUu4ixG2kelpzKB4TnWQA9GWlEuHVxZfpMEr00Bn70LUrwgGxR0N9sygUoUaa-c6jntPHhN9KxWW1Q5s1rbaqkS

@Palmtreechacha do you mind me asking where you had the laser treatment?

I had surgery for a rectocele in my mid 40s (about 12 years ago) and was told I might have to also have surgery on a cystocele at some point but so far so good and everything is still holding up.

What has helped me:
Hypopressives - been doing a weekly class for several years.
Yoga - taking care not to go too strong on the abs.
Lots of walking and gentle (very low stride) running.
Avoiding high impact exercise such as star jumps.

I have belonged to this yoga based membership for a few years and it has truly changed my life. In the first years after my surgery I was scared to exercise apart from swimming and walking and it wasn't enough, thanks to everything I have learned from Linda I can now do a far greater range of exercise safely and am much more able to eg lift heavy things safely (whilst acknowledging that there are still some limitations).

https://www.womenswellbeing.me/

@Palmtreechacha - where did you go for the laser treatment? Was it privately? At a clinic or a hospital?