Protruding Urethra

I know what you mean about the cystocele filling your vagina. I can push it up, but falls right back down as soon as I move my finger! I am sorry to sound so dumb, but could you describe what your urethrocele looks and feels like? I think I have that too, but not sure what exactly it is. Did you have an injury that you are in bed? What happened that you had a prolapse event? Sorry you have so many things to deal with right now. I am about 3 months into my prolapse problems. I am just trying to stay in posture as much as possible. Haven't done much firebreathing or too much exercise yet, every time I try my bulge seems to bulge more. My hormones are all over the place so maybe that's why I am not having much luck yet, I will keep trying. Take care, Connie

I developed a urethrocele during pregnancy. I am now 7 1/2 weeks pp and it is still there, but much better with the weight off. Yes, it does become irritated because it is right at the opening. Try some lubrication, and I also am wearing the V2 supporter. You can purchase them online. I find it just gives me that little bit of extra support. I know how uncomfortable it is, some days I'm more irritated than others and I have found no rhyme or reason to it. ......Good luck.

Hi Crazylady

How long ago was the UTI. I think the antibiotics have probably knocked the bacteria off, but maybe the inflammation hasn't settled down yet?

One of the important things to remember about posture is to relax your lower belly which makes more room up front for your bladder, ie it rests more against the front abdominal wall, and less over your vagina. This also produces a nice soft pillow to absorb intraabdominal forces from breathing, moving, coughing, etc, so they can't bounce back and push your organs straight down your vagina. A taut lower abdomen will bounce those intraabdominal forces straight down your vagina and take your bladder with them!

Also, if you push your bladder or urethra back up your vagina from the front you will be in a position of pelvic counternutation, ie the top of your pelvis is tilting backwards. Your upper torso will be bent over forwards. This reduces the amount of room in your pelvic cavity for your bladder, so of course it will fall out again.

Learning to suck it back up might be more effective. See firebreathing, nauli and my upside-down jiggling thing.

Cheers

Louise

Do you think the ovarian cyst had anything to do with prolapse? Have you had previous surgeries that could have caused adhesions? I dealt with a ovarian cyst about 3 years ago. Pain like I never had before. I never had cysts when I was young, so at 51 I didn't know what to think. Apparently ovarian cysts are fairly commom during peri-menopause. I think I have had all 34 symptoms of peri-menopause in the last 3 years, now the cystocele which I know I caused myself by too much heavy lifting and squatting. I still get pain on my right side where the cyst was every now and then. Maybe my poor ovary is still trying to kick out an egg. I walked around alot today staying in posture and my bulge was alittle better. I really relaxed my lower abdomen like Louise said and I think it helped. Thank you again, louise. Hope you are doing some better, Connie

Hey Louise,

I push my bladder back up a lot (especially after a bowel movement) and it generally stays up there. Not sure why it doesn't just fall back out. If it doesn't stay up there, I consider it a bad POP day and start popping more vitamin C's and use lubricant. That usually does the trick.

Lately however, well actually for a few months now, I have had a new surprise. Every once in a while something else (not sure what) seems to fall as well and I need to push that up and away before I can push my bladder back in place. It's only happened a few times..but it definitely is there. I am not good at identifying what's what in there like some of you ladies are..I suspect maybe it's my uterus. It's not round like my cystocele..it's elongated and rigid...any ideas?

G-mom, didn't you tell me you have this also? You didn't think it was a prolapse...I forget what you thought it was...the lining inside pushing out maybe??? I don't remember..but it sure feels like something has fallen.

I see my gyno for my annual check up soon. Guess she'll be able to tell me. Whatever it is..it's something else to manage! Guess I've been lucky with just the cystocele all these years. Could be worse...as they say!

Regards,
~Mae

Your unidentified fallen thing doesn't feel like Michael Jackson's nose, does it? My cervix certainly doesn't feel like it used to, even a few months ago!!!

L

No, it doesn't feel like Michael Jackson's nose...I don't think! It actually fells like a chicken neck! You know the neck you pull out of a chicken or turkey along with the gizzards and liver. That's exactly what it feels like. Any idea what we have in there that might feel like that, or am I just one unique chick???

~Mae

So it is really solid and long? Mine is shorter with a pointy end and quite solid, but I couldn't say it is like a chicken neck. It just feels like it has smooth cartilage inside it, rather than bone.

Come on Mae! What have you done with the rest of the chicken? That's what I want to know!

But seriously, can we have some more clues please? How long is it? Where does it originate? Is it free standing or attached to posterior or anterior wall of vagina? Can you shift it around?

L

Mae,

I have the same problem. My OB described it as a fleshy piece of my anterior wall and it comes down with my urethra. Good analogy, it feels just like a chicken neck. I have never had to push away my bladder though (or so I think). I hope this will respond just as well to posture and exercise as a pure cystocele. I am getting a lot of irritation from this as it protrudes just out of the vaginal opening.

Hi davemayamom,

Thanks! Good to know I'm not alone, but I am sorry that any of us has to suffer this..or anything else for that matter.

I think that's what G-mom said it was as well. I've only had it happen a few times, but it's rather unsettling. It feels like something that shouldn't even be in there. What is a chicken neck doing in my vagina..right? Luckily, it pushes up and out of the way pretty easily. However, unlike my cystocele, which protrudes somewhat on a bad day, I feel like I could almost give birth to this thing! Oh, the joys of prolapse!

I don't think I could move it around Louise. It fills my whole vagina. I just move it up and over my cystocele. So, do we consider this another form of prolapse...an anterior wall prolapse perhaps??? I wonder if kegels would help this...I've never gotten much results in the way of kegels...but maybe they would work for this. Hmmm?

Other than G-mom, myself and now davemayamom, I've never seen this mentioned on this Forum. Anyone else have this chicken neck syndrome..or it it unique to the three of us???

~Mae

You are all describing the neck of the uterus. Can't any of you see the cervical "os" or opening? If it is in the middle of your vagina and you can feel all the way around it, and it feels like a muscular neck - it is your cervix! We've talked about this many times - except I think I described it as a turkey neck ;)

Yes, crazylady, I think mine was more of an event too. I know it had been there for awhile, I remember looking down there last summer to see if my hemmroids were getting worse, and noticed something filling my vagina. I thought, what's that? Oh well, I don't feel anything, must be nothing. Then in Dec. I squatted down, when I got up and moved around I felt that full feeling in my vagina which has never gone away since that day. I think the cystocele had been there but my squatting down let it slide down further so now I feel it every minute of every day. It probably went from a grade 2 to 3 and it has stayed there. I have tried tampax, sea sponges, nothing holds it up. I guess I might bite the bullet and see about a pessary. Talking about the cervix, mine is high but a bit off to the left, normal? If you would have a cervical polyp, could you feel that and what would it feel like, a skin tag? I am learning something everyday from this site. Thanks for taking time to answer my silly questions. Connie

In fact, it was the worst event I've ever been to! My organs went from a stage 1 to a stage 3 rectocele, stage 2 cystocele, stage 2 uterine prolapse in one moment. However, it was years in the making. I did/still do experience much pain(although it is better). I don't think it really matters how it happens. It just sucks!

Thanks for clarifying that Christine. So what does it mean since it's there now and wasn't before...did I have another prolapse??

~Mae

Mae...it means your prolapse has worsened. The vaginal "ceiling" is now much lower.

Connie...I have had a cervical polyp that looked like a large teardrop growing out of the os. I had it removed and its little stalk has grown back. Yes, just a fleshy little skin tag.

Thanks Christine..although that news is very disappointing. I've been managing so well and now this..well at least I know now what's happening. I feel another Pity Party coming on! :(

This is the condition the Whole Woman work was created in response to, Mae. There are many things you can do to reposition your uterus. Louise’s lowish cervix is now high and horizontal, which means the rest of her uterus is fully in its normal, anteverted position. Mine is very low at the moment after weeks of serious coughing, yet I remain completely confident that things will once again be better positioned when I recover from my respiratory ailment. The following is probably a review, but in case you need reminding:

1. First of all, you must realize where you are trying to get your uterus to go. It needs to go FORWARD into its niche, which is located right above your pubic hairline.

2. After your bath or shower in the morning, gently push your uterus all the way forward. Apply a bit of vaginal lubricant in the process to help the vaginal walls suction together.

3. Understand that staying in the postures throughout the day helps to keep your uterus in the direction of where you pushed it. The seated postures - especially straddling - are particularly helpful in that regard.

4. Either do the workout in the dvd, or make up your own little routine out of the overcrossed back bends, firebreathing, and nauli from the dvd. Do these at least twice a day.

5. Become very conscious of your breath. The uterus prolapses because it is pulled back from its anatomical position do to sucking in of the belly. This causes the body of the uterus to tip up so that intraabdominal pressure strikes its front surface and begins to hammer it backward toward the pelvic outlet. In normal anatomy, intraabdominal pressure strikes the top surface of the uterus and pins it into position, rather than blowing it out of the body. Leave your lower belly free and relaxed as you pull up and expand the thoracic area.

6. Never underestimate the natural pelvic organ support system. Every pelvic surgeon understands that the pelvic organs suspend from the spine by a vast network of connective tissue. When we change the shape of the spine, we change our symptoms. However, remodeling endopelvic fascia is a long and slow process.

7. Breath, gravity, and the natural shape of the spine work together to create pelvic organ support. This is a profound truism that each woman must make sense of in her own body. No one can do this work for us.

I think you will be just fine, Mae. It's a lot of work looking after the body - but the results can often surprise us.

Hugs, Christine

Mae, just before you send out invitations to the pity party ...

While Christine says my uterus is high and horizontal it is still possible for me to get it close to the introitus, just by bearing down, particularly after heavy exercise. But equally I can now get it to stay up. I really haven't had that horrible vulval fullness for some time, except fleetingly.

I literally spent all of Friday from about 8.30am until 8pm, with a break of an hour for lunch, shovelling soil and shifting and laying bricks, then ripping PVC pipe out of the ground (old lawn reticulation). I did it all slowly and deliberately, mindful of intraabdominal pressure, adjusting my method and posture if I felt anything pushing downwards. Saturday morning my muscles were so stiff and sore, but my POPs were fine. I have never been so grateful to have only sore muscles and stiffness.

However, wind back a couple of years. After a couple of weeks of demolition work (pergola removal and stacking of timber) my previously 'off-to-one-side' cervix descended to just inside the introitus, dead centre. All the sensations I felt in my vulva and vagina changed. I no longer had one-sided pressure in the vagina. It stayed quite low and uncomfortable for some weeks until I finished the job at hand, then I found that I could get it up higher again, and it stayed dead centre, which felt much more comfortable than previously. It has been a steady improvement with the odd setback ever since, now my organs are not lop-sided. I think all the intraabdominal pressure is now exerted symmetrically, so there is less unevenness and the pressures are better spread.

The moral of the story is that you can have what seem like quite serious setbacks, then make amazing recovery, to a level that was better than before. Remember Sue's period of worsening that lasted a few months, before she finally decided just to live with it. Out of that came Sue's whole attitude changing, as well as her POPs.

We have just seen glimpses of confident Alemama's difficult birth and have witnessed her expression of (what I see as) vulnerability. I am sure that she will recover OK, but it illustrates how the most calm, confident, knowledgeable, fit and accomplished woman can be reduced to somebody quite different and more vulnerable by a new and unexpected experience.

In the same way we see Newbies arriving at the Forum in Full Grief mode, and a few weeks later posting encouragement to the next batch of new arrivals.

In the same way I am sure that you will come to grips with this new manifestation of your POPs and find ways of dealing with it. I really like Christine's response to you. It is like you need to go back to basics again and look at it with fresh eyes to understand it and deal with it.

Cheers

Louise

Thank you for that information Christine. I did not know all that. While I read as much as I can on POP, my main focus and internalizing of information has been with my cystocele. I've got that under control, having good days and bad days like everyone else, of course. I am happy to say they are mostly good because I try to follow the WholeWoman techniques and have a few little tricks of my own (which I always share here) that work for me. That is why it was so upsetting to me to hear that my prolapse has gotten worse. I don't know what I was expecting to hear..I had to know it wasn't going to be good. Denial, I guess.

Well, before I could get my Pity Party started I walked outside to get the mail. Like a God send there was the second edition copy of your book in my mailbox! I finally got around to ordering it (I have the first) this past Wednesday, March 18 (order #1695). I was not expecting it to arrive so quickly. Coincidence that it came then? Maybe..maybe not..at any rate, it was just what I needed at the moment. It was like you were reaching out and saying, "Suck it up and get busy learning what you now need to know." Pity Party crashed! Thank you!

I will follow your advice and who knows? Maybe I can reach the heights of my dear friend down there in Oz!

Bless you for the work you do. The new book looks wonderful. I've only gotten to a few things in there..Uterine Prolapse first, of course..but I will read it cover to cover.

Warm regards,
~Mae

Thanks for the support Louise. You are right. I do need to go back to basics and figure this out. If you read my post to Christine you know I've just been focusing on my cystocele. I'll figure it out and find a plan that works for me. Christine's book couldn't have come a better time. How strange is that??? I took it as a sign that everything is going to be O.K.

Christine had some great ideas for me to try and I'm studying the book. I'll be fine. I just would like to keep things as they are..not have them get worse. My cervix has only fallen a few times in the last month or so. I'd sure like to keep it from getting any worse than that. Any other thoughts about how I can do that would be most welcome....

~Mae

I have the chicken neck feeling too Mae and perhaps also a touch of the Michael jacksons
Sally