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Submitted by Mae on May 20, 2008 - 2:53pm
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Hi Christine and Louise (and anyone else who might be interested!),

Yesterday I finally had my appointment with my original gynecologist who diagnosed my 3rd degree cystocele 3 years ago. You might remember that she was off my insurance plan for a year and I saw another doctor who said I was in need of surgery and sent a certified letter to me stating that I had refused the necessary surgery. Well, I was delighted to have my doctor back as she discusses ALL options with me and puts no pressure on me whatsoever to have surgery. I won't be looking for a letter in the mail from her tomorrow!

I mentioned to her that I had read about the failures of many people who had such surgeries. She said the failure rate was high if the doctor just tacks the bladder up because the uterus will most often follow in prolapse. However, she said that if they remove the uterus (not to worry...I am not going there!) and then tack the bladder up (my words not hers..she was a little more technical) there is an 80% success rate. That seemed kind of high to me so I've been reseaching it. I can't find the stats for that. Does anyone know? I am wondering because I thought I had read, somewhere, at some point, that the success rate was much lower.

Thanks in advance for any info. Always trying to learn more about all of this!

Warmest regards,

Mae

Christine

May 20, 2008 - 4:47pm

Hi Mae,

The problem with prolapse surgery (as well as gynecologic literature), which many doctors will fully admit at this time, is that "success" is never, ever quantified. So yes, perhaps the bulges are gone - for a few years - but what about all the other things that should be measured as part of true "success"? Like chronic pain; straining to urinate; urge incontinence; lifetime need for laxatives; sexual disability; inability to squat, sit cross-legged, or spread your legs; far-reaching endocrine effects; irreversible and progressive musculoskeletal deformity; depression; drug addiction; divorce; isolation, etc. etc. etc.

This is the Real face of reconstructive surgery - and one that the profession chooses, year after year, to ignore.

I'm going to write a blog post on the state of medical science and informed consent. Look for it within the next few days.

:) Christine

Blue

May 20, 2008 - 6:24pm

Hello Mae,

Experiencing a bit of a rough time of late pushed me to do an internet search earlier in the day using the search words "prolapse recurrence following prolapse repair" and I stumbled upon the following report (FWIW, the study is a bit dated.):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15547521

It's interesting to note that the reported results were from 1-year post-op follow-ups.

~Blue

annaf

May 20, 2008 - 10:39pm

I have just read the objective and conclusion and my anger grew! How can those surgeries be legal if they have such a poor outcome! I can't understand how thousands of women are cut without solid results. Are we all guinea-pigs?

louiseds

May 20, 2008 - 10:40pm

Hi Mae

This is the surgery I was offered. He was going to do some tape procedure too. No doubt I would have been totally hitched up by the time he had finished. Goodness knows what that would have felt like. However, I had found this site before the consultation, so I took it all with a grain of salt and high-tailed it out of there. Even if he had said 20% risk of re-prolapse (which he didn't!!) a likelihood of 1 in 5 of further prolapse would have chased me away.

That means that 1 in 5 women who have this procedure are walking around with prolapse again AND a heap of scar tissue and foreign material inside them as well. No thanks. The doctor gets to walk away, or make more money from repeating the surgery. The 1 woman in 5 gets to stagger around with the results for the rest of her life and experience the cascade of secondary effects that follow.

Interesting link. More food for the mill.

It is all very well blaming the doctor. Women also need to realise that they can say no, and they can investigate these things for themselves. What is it that puts the doctor in such an influential position and intelligent women behaving like lambs to the slaughter? It is just so sad, and it needs to be changed.

Cheers

Louise

Mae

May 21, 2008 - 8:18am

Thanks Christine. I'm looking forward to reading your post.

Regards,

Mae

Mae

May 21, 2008 - 8:45am

Hi Louise,

I totally agree with you about the doctors. I think, at least for me, a lot of it has to do with age. When I was younger I just believed the doctors knew what was best for me. As I got older (and perhaps wiser?) I came to realize that doctors were just people who were out there doing their job and trying to make money like everyone else. I also realized that their opinion was not necessarily the same as the next persons and it was best for me to get several opinions, then decide for myself what was best for me.

So, it is the young girls I worry about. So many of them will put their blind faith in what the "good doctor" tells them. I'm not sure how we can reach them because I don't believe POP is ever even discussed as a possibilty by an OB/Gyn or anyone else. I think, unless you know someone who's had POP, the first time one hears about it is when she is told she has one.

I also think one in five is not such great odds but it was clear my gynocologist thought it was. Scary stuff...

So you and I were supposed to have the same kind of surgery! Thank goodness we found this website and didn't!!

Warmest regards,

Mae

Mae

May 21, 2008 - 9:21am

Hi Blue,

I finally had a chance to check out that website. Very interesting! Makes me very happy I am controlling my POP on my own. I can only imagine how devastating it must be for the women who undergo surgery for POP to find out they need yet another surgery...

I hope you are feeling better about your POP. Keep reading. There's always so much to learn and different things to try to determine what works best for you!

Have a great day and thanks again.

Warmest regards,

Mae