MN Can we please support/highlight this? Pelvic Organ Prolapse

[Shakey15000]

PELVIC ORGAN PROLAPSE

There. In big letters. Affects so many of us (there are some really supportive threads on MN) but it needs awareness raising.

I belong to APOPS-

www.pelvicorganprolapsesupport.org/pelvic-organ-prolapse-the-silent-epidemic-3

A really informative and helpful site. There is also a FB site that again, is extremely informative and supportive.

The founder has recently embarked on a large campaign to highlight awareness. I enquired if she had approached Mumsnet (as it seems obvious) and she informs me that yes, she had approached MN but sadly had no response?

Is this something that can be rectified revisited? It's such a huge, invisible and relatively unknown condition that I'm sure MN would be a great advocate. Perhaps MN could invite the founder to a Webchat?

I, for one, have suffered, am still suffering in fact. I considered myself to be quite well informed and I'd never heard of it! I actually though it was predominantly a "male" thing, then realised I was muddling it up with prostate

Anyhow, would anyone like to badger suggest a Webchat about it? The founder has said she is more than happy to send the book and I'm quite sure she's also jump at the chance to use MN's worldwide platform to raise awareness.

Thanks in advance

Count me in too. First child was C-section birth, we may have another baby and I want all the info before I decide about VBAC

I don't know how accurate it is and how much was hinting at not choosing a planned section, but I was told when I had ds2 that the damage was done from carrying the pregnancy, not from (an instrument free) birth itself

(Tears excepted too)

Another supportive voice here.

Please do support this!

I am awaiting surgery for mine and agree that it's a subject that needs more awareness of.

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment on this. We can see there is a fair bit of support and so we're passing all your thoughts onwards and upwards, and will keep you posted here .

Another sufferer here whose problem has recently been cured by surgery.

I was okay until menopause so luckier than many. Just wanted to add that I asked the surgeon this, and whilst childbirth is a significant factor, of course, I think he said 56% of women who have had vaginal deliveries will have a prolapse against 16% of women who have never had children. He said the rejection in oestrogen and progesterone after the menopause are major factors so we cant entirely blame giving birth.

Good to highlight that hold Similarly, men can also experience prolapse.

Thanks @CarolineMumsnet

Look forward to an update

Thanks Caroline

I support this idea wholeheartedly. When I first realised I had a problem, ( and I had at least heard of it ) and wanted to research, the threads highlighted here on MN were the only ones that gave me any insight to all the problems , and some solutions. It gave me the information to make an informed choice as how I wanted to proceed.

Adding my support to this. I'd love information on how best to prevent this if possible. I'm on my second pregnancy and had never heard of it before this thread.

Great idea! I think this would be really useful.

I'll never forget an embarrassing bodies I watched years ago where the doctor was horrified to find a poor woman had been dealing with an enormous prolapse for years - she was one of the ones they showed the follow up for and the surgery was clearly life-changing for her (as it would be).

I think women spend so much time just coping that they don't realise that they deserve to be fixed too.

Cannot support this enough.....

Aged 31 with 2 toddlers & been suffering in silence.

Noone can tell me exactly what prolapse I have or the degree .... only 2 options seem to be surgery or kegels with physio with the NHS.
Incredibly disappointed in the NHS & the lack of knowledge. To get a referral to the right person (!) is like pulling teeth & even when you are on a list you are waiting for weeks/months! Meanwhile, we live with pain & discomfort. We can't lift, we can't help others, we are raising kids, we can't exercise or move like we used to, we are struggling with shopping trolleys & lifting our kids into swings! We struggling to go to the bathroom in a 'normal' way - it's horrific!

And yet....
It's SILENT. Completely silent. Noone understands or knows what you are talking about or thinks you must just be weak.

I am not overweight, I don't drink or smoke, I worked out & looked after myself & ate healthily & it can happen to ANYONE.

When I was pregnant, the pelvic floor advice seemed to just encourage you to have a tighter vagina.... & to stop this happening LATER in life. Noone mentioned that suddenly, one day at 30 this could actually happen to YOU!

The Australian government have been fantastic at helping & encouraging ladies with this condition (which is complex & different for every lady as they may have one or a combination or prolapses).
These are EXCELLENT websites:
www.pelvicfloorfirst.org.au

www.pelvicexercises.com.au/pelvic-prolapse-information/

Mumsnet, please help us to find one another, to encourage one another & not to have to suffer this lonely emotional journey alone. You have the power to do it!

What she said ^^^

Thank you so much Amongthewildflowers33

Again, thank you all so much

It's just awful, the whole bloody lot isn't it? The sheer lack of information, guidance.

If I'd even known about perineum massage pre labour, I could have gone a long way to perhaps prevent my 4th degree tear (I know it's not a given but still...) As it is, due to the birth trauma, my pelvic floor is shot to pieces. And I still shake my head about my ignorance of prolapses.

One (of the many!) symptoms that hurt the most for me was backache. Ye Gads, it used to take me ages to get to sleep, then I'd sleep poorly, then couldn't lie in because it hurt to Never gave it a thought that nerves etc were squished. When I had surgery in 2015 the backache went, Just like that. I'd suffered for a good..ooh... 5/6 years. The relief was immense. Now, even though my surgery failed (more to do with an undiagnosed ruptured sphincter which meant my pelvic floor was severely compromised. That's just been fixed so hopefully, more support for next round), my backache is still absent. Possibly due to different nerves being squished but it's still great to be without it, despite various other difficulties.

Waffling now Thanks again and for anyone suffering.

What everyone said. Finding out if you have a prolapse or not is like a mysterious walk in the dark. I'm sure I still have some sort of urethra one

I'd really like to see a web chat on prolapse. This is exactly the sort of thing I think Mumsnet should highlight: ie it has a big impact, but most of us known nothing about it.
Not glamorous, but essential.

Adding my support

I can’t express how important it is to raise this issue. I’m over a year from having my first child and I’m suffering badly physically but also psychologically. I had a proctogram today and just cried the whole way through it thinking ‘how did I get here? Why did no one tell’ it’s hoffific to get this at any age but newly post partum on top of everything else really has pushed me to my limits. It needs to be discussed more openly. Thanks for starting this thread.

Adding support also Thanks for raising the issue OP.

Adding my support as a post-menopausal MNetter.

MNHQ - many of your loyal users are getting older now and don't want to shuffle off to Gransnet so please address this!