if half of mums have it does that make me normal?

Hi Newmum,

No…those figures aren’t accurate. The number of postpartum mums with prolapse seems to be “epidemic”, but we have no actual figures. The 50% figure – of all women - comes from gynecology and the practice of reconstructive pelvic surgery. We have no way of knowing the accuracy of those numbers either, but the doctors are the ones who should know and they have indeed offered up those sorts of statistics.

Yes…from the perspective of WholeWoman, your musculoskeletal-fascial-organ system is all wonky and when you pull the entire structure back toward its intended shape, your symptoms will very likely improve.

:-) Christine

honestly, if you didn't know I had a prolapse, you'd never know. I suspect that alot of moms hide it well. I also suspect that lots of 'em don't even know they have a prolapse. I didn't know what it was at first, only that I was uncomfortable. I thought I had a yeast infection or uti or was just plain overworked and underslept. so I put a smile on my face (in public anyway) and went about my day.

and yes, you can have a prolapse with symptoms. I'm pretty sure mine was years in the making and I just didn't know about it until the day I found it.

and yes, prolapse is absolutely related to structural wonkiness. by working on my posture I am no longer symptomatic (most days that is), the bulge is a bit smaller and higher than it was, but I don't look like I used to down there. took me a long time to wrap my mind around that one, but now its in the same category as the sagging boobs and the lines developing around my eyes.

Hi. Those figures are not right. I read that too, that like 50% of women have some kind of vaginal prolapse, and it may sound bad, but I felt comforted by that, because I didn't feel so alone. Somehow it seemed to make it ok, as long as so many others had it too. So then I called a bunch of other women I know closely who have also had kids, and asked them if they had any kind of vaginal prolapse and after they all said no, even my Mom who has had 7 vaginal births, I did a little more research and found out this statistic: (don't know how accurate it is, as it is just from one source) I read that 40% of all women have some kind of VAGINAL WALL WEAKNESS, and that OF THOSE 40%, 10%-40% have some kind of prolapse, so if you do the math, that is only like 10% of all women who have vaginal prolapse, not 50%, very big difference. But one out of 10 women is still a lot. Hope that helps clarify.

Hi All

I think Christine's Blog entry says it all. It is hard enough to quantify prolapse with the different grading systems. I have seen several research papers that document %'s of women who are identified by examination as having asymptomatic prolapses. The surgical figures say 50% of all women who have birthed babies. It is all so rubbery.

It also depends on the context of the figures, and who is trying to convince whom of what, ie you can pick whatever figures you want, depending on whether you are trying to convince people that the figure is high, or low. The devil is in the detail of the actual research papers.

All I know is that I have all three prolapses, and I am dealing with them myself, very nicely thankyou!

Cheers

Louise

Prolapse is everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I had a rectocele since my first birth. I went through 2 more pregnancies and probably 20 vaginal exams and was NEVER diagnosed. Basically professionals are not trained to recognise it. Mine wasn't aparent unless I was standing- when was the last time you had a standing vaginal exam? Most exams I have ever had they just insert the speculum-look at the cervix and feel for ovaries- no one ever talked to me about my "walls"- they-midwives and gynos have no clue. AT ALL.
And most women have no idea either. even when you ask them specific questions- you really have to dig to get women to discuss their pelvic floor. And YES you can have no symptoms. or symptoms that don't point to pelvic floor- Like my tailbone hurt all the time- or some women say their lower bach aches or some ladies will report a tired feeling when they stand on their feet for a long time- aching in the pelvic bones or ligaments- heavyness during menstruation- I could go on and on-
and when was the last time you just checked out your vagina? I just didn't have the time to sit around checking out my stuff-I felt good - if it ain't broke don't fix it right? Now I wish I had looked and been more intimate with my own body- but most women are not at all.
I had no idea that there was so much to my pelvis and I even had anatomy and physiology training-
I think it is totally normal to have some "settling" of the pelvic organs- I know severe cases happen - due to obstetric damage or bad posture or constant constipation- but I guarantee you that if you picked 10 women who have had children off the street you would find 10 cases of pelvic organ descent (after my first my midwife commented that I had a tipped uterus- I now know that this was just the beginning of my pelvic support system changing)- it may present as softening of the walls or could be as severe as protruding cervix-
What is totally wonderful is that the Wholewoman posture and techniques keep it all inside.

Look. you have to take a look at who is doing the research- who is reporting numbers- who they sampled- what the test protocal is- there are so many factors that go into research- and statistical analysis- you have to be a mathematician to understand it all. Then the only thing we have is each other- and I can tell you all that almost every single person I have discussed this with has some kind of weakness- maybe they can't retain a tampon- maybe they have pain in the pelvis afer cleaning house for 3 hours- maybe they feel like a brick is about to fall out- but almost every woman I have talked to has some form of this.

You can walk around and have no clue. So why do we all know? b/c we are lucky- we are the small number of women who knows about this and can work to improve it. oh ya and we are charged with the responsibility of sharing this with others.

hahaha- I just ranted. Sorry everyone. I love you guys-

we posted at the same time.