Prolapse advice needed!!

[Ck1990]

Looking some advice or encouragement…. Recently diagnosed with stage 2 uterine prolapse and rectocele. Can cope with the rectocele but not the uterine prolapse anymore 😭. 34 years old, 4 kids… youngest born 6 months ago but I feel my life is over. Unable to walk the length of myself or do anything without constant discomfort and heavy feeling down below. Can feel my cervix just inside vagina.
Saw consultant yest who put in a ring pessary on advise of my physio. Was slightly uncomfortable but came home and realised it was restricting my urine flow.. and then popped out. Have reinserted but same thing every time I use the bathroom. Consultant will see me next week to fit a smaller one but I’m at my wits end now. This was my only hope and now it seems the pessary won’t work 😢😢😢. Is this me for life? Nothing it helping or working and now my last resort has failed too … thanks for reading

Same thing with me , 2 popped out , I’ve been offered surgery and will go the waiting list .😱

Oh op that sounds so miserable, and you must be so disappointed the pessary wouldn’t stay in. Hopefully the new sized pessary will work well for you, hang on in there, it hasn’t failed yet, it’s just the one they fitted wasn’t right for you.

At 34 years it is worth you considering surgery , a friend had surgery and it was the best decision she made , as you get older you are more likely to have a leaky bladder and your sex life would be impaired so have the op while your young and healthy perhaps .

@FeelingLikeAFaultyNPC thank you for your words of encouragement!!! I really hope there’s hope still.
@Owl55 id probably opt for the surgery now although I’ve been told it’s not a guaranteed success and it’s a major surgery with a long recovery time… which is a nightmare with 4 young kids and a husband that works 60+ hours a week… besides that my consultant has said they wouldn’t even offer me surgery until I’ve tried intense pelvic physio 🥴 but 2 months in and I’m as bad as ever so I really don’t know what my chances of any decent quality of life are at this stage 😔

Keep working with the physio, and work with them on getting a pessary that works better for you.
The specialist physios are almost certainly better at that practical side of life stuff than the consultant.

The physio will take a lot longer than 8 weeks, so don’t get disheartened on that front yet. It’s worth sticking with. As is working with the physio on the rest of life stuff, things like lying on floor with legs against the wall to get yourself a bit of a reset.

If you were trying on bras, would you write them off as an item for support if the first one didn’t fit well? Probably not. Pessary will be similar.

@ScaryM0nster thank you!!! Yes you are totally right! My physio can’t fit pessaries but I’m booked in with one at the end of May (first available appt 🥴) so I’m hoping she may be a bit more experienced in fitting them etc than the consultant! Mean time I may just keep doing my pelvic exercises and hope for some improvement! It’s a lonely journey for sure! No one I know has experienced this so all I can do is cry to my husband and he’s helpless to even reassure me as he has no clue either 🫣

That sounds promising.

Do keep up with the physio exercises. If your husband is looking for a way to help, then sometime tell him that handling the children giving you 15 minutes to go and lie on the floor and do your exercises with a decent podcast is a constructive and positive thing to do.

Making it 15 minutes of me time, with a grown up podcast really helps my sanity.

As genuinely does lying on the floor with legs up against the wall.

The exercises do help over time. As does your body cutting back on the relaxin, and you’ll still have a fair amount at 6 months post birth. Apparently more so if breastfeeding. It will go so much better than it is now, but probably slow and steady not a speedy change.

(also, pram better than baby wearing, good lifting technique when lifting kids etc. if physio hasn’t gone through that then ask specifically. If private physio is an option for you then worth considering a standalone specialist womens health appointment. They’re sometimes more tuned in to the lifestyle stuff than the nhs system appointments).

Things apparently improve somewhat when breastfeeding ends (assuming you’re breastfeeding)

Discuss abs exercises with your physio. Mine is big in to these. She says that because our abs weaken so much during pregnancy our pelvic floor muscles end up picking up the slack.
Has your period returned yet? Apparently this can result in a sudden/ significant improvement.

What type of pessary is it @Ck1990 ? I went to a private specialist woman's health physio who fits flexible silicon ones - the NHS ones, I believe, are still the more solid type and not as comfortable. She is there for any help or questions in a way the NHS just isn't set up for these days.

She said the NHS ones (she used to work for the NHS) cost £5 each and the silicon ones she fits are £30, so the NHS of course uses the cheaper option.

@ScaryM0nster ah thank you! Yes I am going to a private pelvic health physio so hopefully things can improve a bit more. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to continue to breastfeed as I collapsed with sepsis a week after baby was born so I was too unwell to continue and risk adding mastitis to the mix so periods have returned albeit messed up for the past few months!!
@thiswilloutme someone else told me the private physios use a much nicer pessary. I am being seen privately by a consultant but I think it’s just the basic NHS one as it’s petty hard and painful when I insert it.. hopefully when I see the physio in a couple of months she can fit me with a softer more comfortable one!

@WmmW thanks! I will ask her about this tomorrow when i see her!
@Muffintopgalore unfortunately I had to give up breastfeeding a week after baby was born so things should have settled that way… but I suppose it does take our hormones a while to settle again 🙈

Just want to say don’t despair, other pessaries are available! I’m no expert, but I have a cube pessary which, so far, works fine. My pessary nurse showed me a ring pessary and said ‘you don’t want one of those’. I presume different ones are used for the different types of prolapse but ask if you can try something else. Good luck.

@Pegsmum aw thank you for this! When I spoke to the physio on the phone when making my appointment for May she mentioned a cube pessary so maybe she’ll try that! The ring one is horrible, so uncomfortable but then again maybe wrong size! Hoping I can find something to let me live a little 🤏 lol

Apologies for jumping on this thread.. but think I am in a similar place. @Pegsmumhow does a cube pessary work please? I can’t figure out how it would stay in?

Whilst I am here, has anyone else ever used anaesthetic cream on their prolapse please? I want to figure out if I can dull the pain….

@ChristmasLightsLover It’s like putting a tampon in, I suppose the size of it takes up space and pushes the prolapse and holds it back. I’ve never had a problem with it staying put and can’t really feel it.

Thank you, @Pegsmum!

You need surgery.