New Here - with a Uterine Prolapse!!!

Submitted by Joanne_D on July 26, 2005 - 7:37am
Body: 

Hi,
Just found this website and so pleased to have finally found something positive with regards to helping / support with prolapses.
This is all so new to me, so please forgive me if I use the incorrect termonology....but about 2 months ago I noticed a bulge in my vagina and was diagnosed with a prolapsed uterus. I think its a grade 2. I had my first baby boy 9 months ago and hadnt been right since I had him - I was told that I had damaged my Coccyx during labour so found sitting extremely uncomfortable, then this seemed to disappear and along came the prolapse. Im 33 years old (34 on Thursday - yehhh!!!!) and am pretty fit and did all my pelvic floor exercises through-out the pregnancy. But I have since discovered that a common reason for a prolapse is a tipped uterus - which I have.
Anyway, I am now going to Physio at my local hospital - they are giving me various exercises to do (pelvic floor etc), I have stopped going to the gym and doing high impact, and have begun to do more Pilates and Yoga. But its is still getting me down.
I feel a bit sorry for myself as prior to having our baby boy, we have undergone 3 attempts at IVF - so I kind of feel my body hasnt been my own for years, and now when I want to just chill and enjoy being a mum I have yet another reason for doctors to probe and poke me!!!! I also feel really unattractive and the little chance we have of conceiving naturally is reduced even further as I dont feel very sexy and ready for sex!!!

I have ordered the DVD, I cant wait to get it and start putting it into practice.

I do have a couple of questions though - Does anyone know whether having this prolapse affects fertility? IF (Big IF) I did concieve naturally would I have problems with holding the pregnancy? Will I ever feel 'normal' down there again? or will the exercises and DVD just make things not get any worse??

I hope I havent babbled on for too long - and I hope I have made sense (Im trying to type this quickly before my son wakes up!!!)

This is a great website - I found a similar support network when I was going thru IVF, and I have to say I learnt more from the friends I met on there than most of my doctors!!!

Thanks and lots of Love

Joanne
xx

Christine

July 26, 2005 - 12:35pm

Hi Joanne,

Happy birthday! 34 is a wonderful age to be and what a blessing to have your baby son. I really don

caz_789

July 26, 2005 - 12:43pm

Hi Joanne,
Don't get too down you will find lots of help on this site. Having said that, I can't help with the fertility questions!
Try the posture described by Christine, most people seem to find it beneficial. It is a bit like the Pilates 'Neutral' spine (perhaps a bit more exaggerated lumbar curve) but standing up. Watch out with the Pilates though that you don't pull the tummy in too much. The pulling up of the pelvic floor muscles should be much stronger than the 'hollowing' or 'navel-to-spine' in fact I don't do the tummy part at all now (I am a bit older at 44).
The exercises from Christine's routines that I find most beneficial are 1: lying on back knees bent, lift bottom (like pilates bridge)
2: Kneeling on all fours arch back pulling up pelvic floor as hard as you can (cat stretch) 3: Kneeling all fours lift one leg up behind you bent so sole of foot faces the ceiling - lift 10 times each leg 4: Lying on back gently raise one leg at a time until both are at right angles to back soles of feet facing ceiling, raise arms above your head and bring to touch knees repeat 10 times.
Hope this helps to get started (with the qualification that I don't have any medical training re: young mums and what is appropriate in particular)
Best wishes Caz

Joanne_D

July 27, 2005 - 1:44am

Hi Christine & Caz

Thankyou so much for your replies. It helps to have support and gives me great encouragment. I always think half of any battle is having a strong mind, and thats what I need to get - a "this wont beat me attitude"...I did it with the IVF and it worked, so I'm going to get it again!
I have a Pilates session this lunch time, so will remember what you have told me. Glad you have told me as I know that I have been overcompensating using my tummy muscles and not my pelvic floor.

Will definately keep you posted - I hope with some good news.

Its raining here in the UK at the moment (No Surprise there then!!!) - so if you could all send some birthday sunshine over it would be much appreciated!!!

Lots of Love
Joanne
xxx

Joanne_D

July 27, 2005 - 7:17am

Soory Christine - one last question - does Julie (the lady you mentioned in your previous post) have her story or background posted anywhere on this site? Would be good if I could read about her progress.

Thanks v v much
Joanne
xx

Christine

July 27, 2005 - 7:36am

No...all of this history-making info is just jumbled into this wonderful forum of women! However, you can read all of Julie's posts by using the SEARCH function at the top of the page and typing in Julie J.

granolamom

July 27, 2005 - 7:07pm

Joanne
I am also a *young mum, I'm 32 (33 in sept) and I have three children. I noticed my prolapse a few weeks ago (my youngest is 20 months old). I know what you mean about not feeling sexy or 'normal' with a prolapse. All I can tell you is that since I found this forum and Christines book I've been doing the postural work and reading everyone's stories. I'm not sure if my prolapse has gotten better, but it sure feels that way. Its still there, but I don't feel it all the time. And as Christine put it, you find a new normal. I doubt my body will ever be what it was, but maybe just maybe I can accept what it is and prevent it from getting worse. Not only that, but I find that as I stand upright I feel beautiful, which is a new thing for me.
Stick around, you'll learn so much here.

sybille

July 28, 2005 - 8:36am

I don't think I should expect to feel in my 20's when I am 59. The one thing positive about my prolapses is that I am standing taller and my posture has never been better. Even my husband has remarked that he hasn't had to say, "stand straight." I do so all of the time. I did have a "hunched over" look and now I walk proudly. Little does the general public know that I am managing prolapses that way. To walk any other way feels quite abnormal now - I also sit "tall."

I truly feel our universal prolapses are Nature's pessary. Along with standing properly, those prolapses cannot possibly get worse. The pooched out organs are in a confined space; they aren't going to be traveling south any time soon. Much like a few indiviudals attempting to walk through an open door space. They aren't going anywhere until one (uterus) is "surgically removed or another permanently attached away from the door space" and leaving a larger opening where others can "fall through." My take on this entire thing.

I also find that if one keeps the bowels empty, that helps with the "added" weight and just keeps everything in check.

Sybille

joybliss

July 28, 2005 - 12:09pm

Hi to Everyone,

I agree with Sybille and I enjoy her contributions to the discussion...Sybille and I both joined this group around the same time, I think, and I am 58 years old. I have also experienced wonderful results by using the posture. For me it is really all about the posture. I am now so comfortable and natural with it that I can't go back to however else I used to stand and sit. 'Everything' stays up and inside, and I have no problems with any of it. Like Sybille, I feel younger, taller, stronger, more confident. I have so much energy too. I too am quite sure that my 'bumm' is tighter and lifted up because of this posture. I know for sure my heart and spirit has been lifted, yes indeed.

About whether to get the video or the book....I preferred the book, as I really needed to hear 'all the gory details' of why surgery is such a bad choice, I needed to understand in very clear and comprehensible terms exactly why surgery is detrimental. Once I got that, then I finally felt secure about my decision to go 'au naturale' and work with this condition using all of Christine's suggestions, trust my own marvelous physical structures and LOVE that I have not been humiliated, mutilated, and nutured by the horrendous, authoritarian, egomanical, dominating tyranical, money oriented surgery-obsessed gynocologic and ob practacices. ( I should have known, without reading Christines book, because of the experiences I had with that system when birthing my 3 children 30 years ago! and by reading other websites that recommend surgery I see it has not changed.)

So,That's my 2 cents for the day....

Love to all, SJoy Bliss

Christine

July 28, 2005 - 6:04pm

Golly Sandy-Joy

joybliss

July 28, 2005 - 10:22pm

Thanks Christine,

you made me laugh out loud with your very charming response! Yes, I think this posture has given me the spunk to express some kind of inner fortitude and power that I had been rather shy to expose. Not so sure I have achieved Goddess status yet, maybe just call me a little "sassy-pants".

You are the one who deserves the title of Goddess....

Love to all, SJoy

Joanne_D

August 3, 2005 - 2:33am

Hi !!

Have received my DVD - It was really helpful and has made me understand how important the rest of the body is with regards to a prolapse and not just the pelvic floor muscles.

I think I have been holding myself in the standing position in the wrong way. ...... In Pilates they have taught me to hold my middle in the natural position, and to do this they said to over exaggerate by arching my back and sticking my bum out and then to over exaggerate the other way buy tipping the pelvis upwards, then to come into a position in the middle of that....this was my natural alignment (Hope that made sense). But, watching your dvd it seems that I should be letting my lower back arch a little more. Is that right? I have been kind of tucking my bottom in and I think that is wrong.

I have also realised just how much I slump in front of the TV, so I have been trying to use the sitting positions you recommend. I have a fit ball at home that I used when I was pregnant (similar to a birthing ball)infact I am using it to sit on while I type this message....Do you think these are good to use for sitting??

I am off to order your book now too - I am on my honeymoon in a couple of weeks and will be taking it with me to read by the pool (!!! Who says romance is dead!!! ha ha!!!)

Thanks and lots of Love
xxxxxx