Medical series keen to help women with prolapse

Hello Toral,

Hopefully by now you understand this is a website devoted to helping women recover naturally from pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence. A little research on your part will quickly highlight the fact that there are no surgical cures for prolapse, but rather post-surgery women suffer other - usually far more serious - maladies.

Your television program has come up before as a topic of conversation and perhaps you were even sent here by one of our members. I did not view the program myself, but one of the concerns expressed was that there was no representation of the downside of surgery, which even reconstructive surgeons admit is enormous.

I will allow this one post to stay for our own information purposes, but please understand this forum will never be available as a hunting ground for surgical subjects.

SIncerely,

Christine Kent

Toral, what would the women potentially gain from participating in your invitation?

Louise

I would like to know what company? Anmd what show exactly?

If it is the show I watched and transcribed to this forum a while ago - That was a completely biased view towards surgery and ONLY surgery. It showed nothing of the afterwards - I emailed the company and conveniently they did not reply!

Doctors - They know little of prolapse - And in my opinion only make the situation worse by tellingus there is no help - Well there IS help - It is here!

And to be honest I am not putting my life out there (And I am in UK) for you to chop up into sections for your view of prolapse.

I would really like to know more - Just for informations sake - Because I believe this show (Which when on i will more than likely transcribe to this forum as I did the last one - As it aired on TV I typed exactly what happened to this forum) Please tell us more......

But rest assured women here do not want their genetalia mutilated by your so called fixes, and if that is what you are proposing - I pray you find no applicants :-(

Suffice to say the 'afterwards' on that show I transcribed was approximately 3 or 4 weeks - That is in NO WAY a follow up! Try going back to the same woman 3 or 5 years later..... Bet ya get a different view...

Sorry for my jumping in with anger here Christine - I just hate the way they sanitise everything for Tv - To make women believe it is the answer to all their problems - When in all effects - It aint.

I would also like to know what women would gain and - Would you - Tell women the whole story? Would you tell the women about the Whole Woman way??? Or are you hiding behind the 'I must tell this story and nothing else' tag and will only talk from one side of the coin?

I apologise again - But women here who have been here a long time - Have seen with many thanks to Christine - The errors in oh so much of the ''information'' given to us by our Doctors and on our Televisions.... Hence asking and being a tad sceptical...

Sometimes youre holding someone else's heart in your hands. You can drop that heart & bruise it. You can squash that heart & hurt it. Or you can stomp on it & totally annihalate it. You stomp on that heart or bruise it. It can forever be changed ♥

the thought of a tv show producer coming here stinks like bad fish to me

women with prolapse are scared and vulnerable. we don't need to be exploited for the almighty dollar.

leave us alone

Well said, and to the point.
Thank you, Cristine.

Hi Toral

Are you free to tell us which TV program it is? Email me if you like.

Louise

HI Toral,

I think a lot of people might object to the notion of embarrassing bodies--at the end of the day, they are our bodies! Many women are able to be very open about their prolapses and help to break the stigma around problems "down there," instead bringing them to light as the common problems that they are. I recognise that you are about trying to sell the programme to viewers, but i wish the media would take on the responsibility to instead of sensationalising these issues actually try to change societies perceptions of them.

Hi All

I had a look at the site last night. The patients are indeed treated sensitively by the program producers. I can see that there are people who are genuinely helped on the program. I can also see that their reticence to see a doctor privately is what has caused the long term suffering that they have experienced (And I do see the presenters encouraging people to seek medical help rather than suffering on unnecessarily, which is good.) I heard a lot of language that expressed patients' concern that the medical condition was affecting their relationships and everyday activities, which is valid. These same stories are told on these Forums.

On the other hand I heard a lot of language that encouraged the patient to see themselves as imperfect and in need of a doctor to *solve their problem* for them and ready to *trust* them *do something* to make them like they were before (on the outside maybe?). If they had been comfortable with their bodies in the first place they would have sought out their family doctor to help them sort it, instead of making their body problem and relationships media super stars. Anything for fame perhaps?

It was also a concern that the program did not mention the extensive urodynamics diagnosis that would (should) have gone into the diagnosis of the woman with the spasming bladder, before the diagnosis was announced. The program as it stands gives the impression that a doctor would make that diagnosis on the basis of one test and that the woman would agree to treatment involving (repeated! not mentioned) anaesthetics and invasive procedures on that basis. It is making diagnosis look too straightforward and not encouraging people to ensure for themselves that they are being diagnosed correctly. The 'simple little operations' are not exactly that. "We can fix that", is simply a throw away line designed for putting a patient at ease. It is not necessarily the case.

The smiling faces, gleaming smiles, low necklines and lean film star looks of the doctors and the patients put a promotional gloss on conditions and procedures that need thorough diagnosis and careful thought, not rose-coloured glasses. Anyone would think it was an evening medical drama series, rather than real people with real problems!

I find it hard to believe that a woman who is having serious sexual problems that are putting her marriage on the rocks because she won't have sexual relationship with her husband ("She won't let me even touch her." How sad.) wouldn't resolve it by communicating openly with him and together finding medical or other help. Instead, she is putting her relationship difficulties and her sexual organs on Channel 4. I don't get that! There is some other stuff happening there, and I don't think TV is the place to put it on display.

Nevertheless, the immediate surgical outcome is good and she is obviously lifted in heart after the surgery. She did mention that she could only just get a tampon in now. Goodness, normal robust sexual activity is going to be interesting, isn't it? This was not commented on, and it would probably be cause for conern in the patient who has invested a lot so far. I hope her body can adjust. I'm glad it is not my body. I would hope that the program can commit to following up on this woman in 10 years time.

I also hope that the program can do a similar case study on a woman who has had repeated pelvic repair surgery for prolapse and childbirth injury which has resulted in development of further problems. Now that would be interesting, to give the other side of the surgical picture.

Still, I guess it gives people who have lost hope a glimpse of what doctors can do for them. And the program does have the mystery of diagnosis, glamour, and blood elements, and of course each program has a happy ending. If only it were that simple.

I would think that there would have to be some disclaimer at the end of each program saying that this one was a short term success, but that all procedures have side effects that might not be immediately obvious; there are failures and there are always risks, some major enough to be life-threatening or leave the person worse off than they were before; and state what they are for each procedure. Then I would be a lot happier.

One final point, Toral. Once a person has had a surgical procedure, it can not be undone. This is something which is glossed over. There was not any information about what these people had tried before, other than sitting at home and worrying about how dreadul their lives were. There was no discussion of the non-surgical alternatives on the videos I watched. There was no mention of supportive therapies for the psychological problems that the medical problems cause. No followup therapies, no adjuncts like use of lubricants and learning to communicate about our relationship and sexuality with our partners.

I think you could do better. I really don't think you will find our Members beating your door down, cos we are here as a result of the lack of help we have had from doctors, and many of us don't think doctors in general are the best therapists for women with POP. We have all(?) been through the doctors appointments, the expensive tests, the lack of real knowledge and the lack of real solutions that don't address the cause. That's how we ended up here in the first place. It is not up to me to tell Members what to do, or what not to do, but we have a supportive community here where we can teach each other how to manage POP and its challenges, once we have decided that surgery is not the way to go.

If you are willing to take on board a completely different model of pelvic anatomy and convince doctors that they are looking at the woman's pelvis with the wrong model, there is no way these doctors would even understand what we are on about. Christine Kent has been trying to get through to them for years. The problem lies in the way they are trained, and they cannot and will not make the brain shift to extending that horizontal cadaver-inspired model to a vertical-living, live woman, where gravity acts in different ways on the structures and organs of the body. Doctors have too much invested in their old model to look past the ends of their own noses on this one. ;-)

Good luck.

Louise

Embarrassing Bodies? It's not really called that, is it? Personally I don't think there are embarrassing bodies, only imperfect ones (whatever THAT means) - meaning all of us on the planet!

It might be easier to get contributors with a more sensitive title!

Thanks, Louise for checking it out. I think I'm incredulous as a result of having lived without television for the last 14 years. Happy my kids are growing up without it!! Not missing much.

Marie

This is the exact show I transcrbed to the forum previously...

They always say how small and little this operationis..... This is MAJOR surgery, and these Doctors do NOT know everything - As I found out when my own Gynae started telling me how tiny an Op it is - And I know very well it is NOT.

I would like for this show to have Christine on it and truly turn a corner by showing women there is another road they can take...

I will be watching and transcribing the next one when It is on TV - So you will know what they say (Might actually video it this time and not do a live transcribe - as that would definitely be easier - lol)

In all essence i feel they have the show's interests at heart and not the womans. For they - In this show - Jump from one person to another making any continuity very hard to keep to...

Anyways hafta go out now - So just a quick thought before I go...

:-)

Sometimes youre holding someone else's heart in your hands. You can drop that heart & bruise it. You can squash that heart & hurt it. Or you can stomp on it & totally annihalate it. You stomp on that heart or bruise it. It can forever be changed ♥