To ask if you have (or had) a prolapse after birth? I'm 25 and mortified

[Jessy111]

I gave birth 6 weeks ago and needed stitches for a second degree perennial tear.

I have reluctantly examined my bits to see how everything was healing and noticed things looked odd on the inside, a swelling of sort.

A closer inspection has revealed what I'm %99 sure is a prolapse (to be confirmed at my doctors appointment next week)

If i insert my finger past some tissue i can feel a lump and my cervix is well within reach, it has dropped down very low.

I'm only in my mid twenties and I'm mortified at the prospect of having a damaged vag

Can I have your experiences please, perhaps some reassurance that it can be resolved without intrusive surgery? I'm already doing my pelvic floors.

I'm so sad about this

Thank you very much for the reassurance, it's comforting to know I'm not alone.

Unfortunately I'm not in London and it's likely I wouldn't be able to afford private physio so I'm hoping my GP is supportive and will push a referral to women's health for me. What sort of wait could I be expecting?

No heavy lifting is going to be a sticking point as I have another young child. My DC are under two years apart in age which I feel contributed towards what's happened with the prolapse. We always wanted a small age gap but If I'd have known this was a possibility we would have waited alot longer before TTC. I know it's early days but I'm already put off having another in the future, I'm happy with the DC I have so perhaps a repair wouldn't be too bad after all.

Is the fact I can't avoid heavy lifting going to make my problem notably worse? At present nothing protrudes whilst I'm walking and standing thank god, but I'm concerned it could get worse.

You can’t avoid lifting the toddler but be really careful with the baby in a car seat. That is what made mine worse. I think I must have had minor damage from my first birth but 3 weeks after my second, I was carrying my baby in the infant carrier and I felt something drop out of me! I was devastated. The gp confirmed the prolapse at my 6 week check and I’m waiting for a physio referral now. 6 weeks later, things are better but I am very loose and hoping there continues to be improvement. It isn’t spoken about enough and it made me feel so sad.

Hugs to you @User8888888 I hear you completely.

I was never warned about prolapse and am now blaming myself for not doing my own research to know what to expect. I must admit I was slack with my pelvic floor exercises after my other baby, if i knew this could happen i'd have done them religiously.

I'll take on board about the heavy lifting. I was going to be moving some furniture around tomorrow but won't be doing that now, H will have to do it when he gets home from work.

@User8888888 in what way are things improving for you so far? Is the prolapse 'lifting' itself back up at all?

I had a toddler too, so I entirely understand how hard it is. When you have to lift them make sure you're engaging your pelvic floor at the same time.

And make sure your partner is really understanding. Mine made me go and lie down, would ensure I had time in the evenings to do some of my strengthening exercises etc. Don't try and hide the reality from them.

And don't beat yourself up! I religiously did my pelvic floors and had a larger age gap than you (and a blissfully short, easy birth), but it still happened. Bugger all we could have done about it.

Jessy111 to be quite graphic- when it first happened I could feel something rubbing when I was walking quite a bit and it was sore. Now I don’t seem to have the bulge unless I’ve had a big poo and it seems to push everything back down again.

Keep up with the pelvic floor excercisee and get referred for physio asap , it's early days recovery wise give yourself a chance to recover and all will be good

I've gone to the loo and there is fresh red blood this afternoon, I'm concerned I've irritated something in there by poking about to examine things. Is that likely or could this be my period? I'm 6 weeks post partum.

It feels somewhat like a UTI but I had a urine sample dipped 2 days ago which showed no bacteria in the urine.

Argh I despise being female sometimes

Hi Jessy111 - it's really good to talk about these things. I remember after DS1 having a look and seeing a massive pile - think bunch of grapes....I nearly died. They shrunk right down. And I had a tiny op to resolve that. He was a C-section so no prolapse. But after DD2 when I looked it was as you say. My doctor referred me to a physio. She gave me exercises and a machine to use. It definitely helped. Although time has been the biggest healer. And funnily enough exercise has made most impact on the leaking. When I'm not too overweight and I exercise more then it almost goes. I do wear a pad when I go to aerobics - I also avoid caffeine or fizzy drinks before a class (Lights by Tena Ultra Towels thinner than a sanitary towel, very absorbent, individually wrapped) You also learn to tense before sneezing!! I wanted the op but knew we were going to have a third baby so was waiting until he was about 3 so no lifting. In that time all the reports came out about the complications of the op and the doctors stopped recommending it. Now I live with it.

First of all don't think it's silly or trivial. Women's health is important. These matters although rarely spoken of are extremely common and very important.

Secondly its still early days. I recommend the NHS squeezy app. You have to do your exercises and make a good effort of it for at least 3 months. I noticed a massive difference after 3 mo this of using the app.

Lastly please see your GP and don't be worried. It's a common injury. They will be able to put your mind at rest. You may only need more time or some post natal physio.

How is your DP about this? Embarrassed? Supportive?

Oh and don't do any strenuous exercises for a while but ifwhen you do I found one of these very helpful for a bit of bladder weakness. It also makes your vagina walls stronger if you use it while you do your pelvic floor exercises. Don't even need mine any more.

Fortunately he's very supportive, he's feeling a misguided sense of guilt over it all and feels like it's his fault because he gave me the children, the daft bugger.

Thank you all for the reassurance it does help

I'm going to try the incostress too as soon as I get the nod from my GP :)

I've been prodding about trying to ascertain what type and severity of prolapse it is, I'm reluctant to put anything else inside at the moment because it feels quite irritated. Almost like a UTI type stinging, without the burning when I wee.

Maybe sex too soon. Take it easy on yourself. A person came out of you remember! Try to enjoy that a bit more and give yourself some time to get better. Definitely see a GP. You will feel better with their advice. These things are mostly fixable or improve drastically with time. I had a 10lb baby 9months ago and partial prolapse. All back to normal now. GP was fab. You can be too.

I had a prolapse after my 1st. I was 32 and knew something was very up (had never heard of prolapse at that point) so went to see a GP. He (elderly, now retired) was polite but very unsympathetic. Didn't seem to grasp how distressed I was. 'These things happen at your age. You can do exercises but it will probably never go back to normal.' That type of thing.

Happy to say that was bollocks. Everything returned to its natural place.Well it feels like it has anyway. Nothing 'hanging down' I had another DC. No re-occurence. I'm probably not exactly the same as I was pre-children but I don't think things are all that much different.

Sorry to jump on your thread Jessy111 but I just wanted to ask some of the posters about the Squeezy app.

Would the Squeezy app work with an old prolapse or only immediately post-natal? I’ve had what I assume is a bladder prolapse since my Son was born almost 6 years ago. I had a horrible feeling of fullness which has eased now but my urinary symptoms persist (I never feel like I have fully emptied my bladder, I get an urgent need to go on the toilet soon after going, sometimes I need to urinate and can’t).

I’ve never been to the GP due to embarrassment which is ridiculous I know.

I didn’t have a prolapse. But I had stitches and these purple swollen area with piles. I looked once and burst into tears.. it looked horrendous. I couldn’t sit or do anything and I just remember lying in the bath and crying and crying. I thought I would never be able To be intimate again. I then did not look again. I couldn’t bear it.
The doctor told me 8 weeks later that I needed to give my body more of a chance to heal. I thought ‘what is she talking about. These things clearly aren’t going anywhere etc’.
Within 3 after that everything had totally calmed down. My two friends who has prolapses have both massively improved within 6 months.

You have practically just given birth. It’s very hard but please don’t despair. I agree with previous advice about doing research and exercises etc but try not to get into a headspace about how it’s permamnentku damaged. I’ll have my fingers crossed for you.

I do.

All three in fact, cystocele (bladder prolapse), womb/uterine and rectocele (rectal prolapse).

The good news:

• it doesn’t cause me any discomfort
• it hasn’t affected sexual enjoyment
• unless you look up there spread eagled you can’t see it

The bad news:

• I feel very ugly, very self conscious about DH going down there with lights on
• sometimes the urine flow is slightly blocked
• going for a poo often requires ‘splinting’ which basically means, sorry, I have to stick fingers up the vag and feel for the poo and push....
• the NHS will be very reluctant to fix it for you
• if by some miracle you do get the operation, it is very controversial with some women trying to get the mesh used banned

More positive stories, oh I love that. Thank you!

I've been doing some reading and keep coming across the term 'avulsion' in regards to loss of sensation with sex after prolapse, that would explain my complete loss of feeling so I'm wondering whether i have that. I've written down a list of questions for the GP appointment just incase I forget anything, brain like a civ at the moment.

Totally get why some people would feel too embarrassed to go to the GP about prolapse. I'm dreading the examination but am telling myself it's nessecary and is a step in the right direction for accessing help for it.

I can relate about feeling self conscious about H seeing me down below with the lights on, though he promises me he couldn't see anything unusual when he was down there last week. I'm fortunate that at the moment nothing protrudes unless I'm in a squatting position. Hopefully things stay that way and don't get any worse. I'm tensing so hard when I have to pick up the DC.

I can't tell you how pleased I am to hear from those of you who've gone through this and had it get better or know people who have. Thank god for mumsnet, had I not been able to offload here and get the replies that I have i'd likely still be a gibbering mess

Question about uterine prolapse as I'm fairly sure that is what I have, or at least the only one I can be sure of (don't know if I have a bladder lapse but I'm confident I don't have a rectal one)

With uterine prolapse, is hysterectomy the only surgical option? Can a repair be done without removing the womb.

I'm sure I don't want any more children for the foreseeable, but if I really think about it I think 25 is far too young to be making myself infertile as things may change in 10-15 years and we may want to add to our family

Usually they repair with a mesh.
I don’t think they usually go down the hysterectomy route anymore.

My mum had hers repaired with mesh and has had no problems at all but the mesh is very controversial with a lot of women claiming it caused problems worse than the prolapse, chronic pain and things.

Although it does tend to get worse over time I’ve had mine for nearly 10 years and it hasn’t worsened much at all, it seems a very slow moving thing.

Good to know it's a slow moving thing because i've been going about the house tensing every time I need to bend or pick something up, I've been worried that now the organs have dropped they're going to continue to drop further at a rapid rate as they're not supported.

I've just been reading up about the mesh, is it right that the procedure has been paused whilst they investigate the problems it causes some people?

A bit different here, I’ve noticed one today and my youngest is 2. With hindsight I think I haven’t been quite right since he was born but this is the first time I’ve been able to feel something on the outside. I’m mortified as I’m early 30s. All my babies were over 10lbs.

6 weeks is early days, your body has lots more recovering to do before it settled into a new normal. As mentioned up thread, even if you could just get to an assessment session, a woman's health physio would be able to give you an idea of what you are dealing with. The 'Mummy MOT' is worth looking up, even though the name is dire!

with some women trying to get the mesh used banned

Mesh literally ruined my mum’s life. It cut into the ureter, it shed, she had constant pain, blood in her urine symptoms of UTIs and thrush and despite paying privately to try and remove it, they couldn’t get it all out and things didn’t improve. She then developed ovarian cancer as a secondary cancer (basically unheard of) at 60 and died at 61.

Women have been trying to be heard on mesh for years. There are other options for prolapse surgery, mesh is a relatively recent invention.

I would strongly strongly recommend against it.