new and scared

I'm from uk too but different age and problem. Don't panic, you are not alone - the women on this site who have had a similar experience to you will give you good advice and support. There is a lot of hope even with the other complications you have got. I know from reading posts on the site that there are a lot of women here with other health issues and young children.

Big hugs

pollyanna

The best way to know is to go and get it checked out.
It sounds like a cystocele (bladder prolapse) or rectocele (prolapse of the lower colon/intestine) but it could also just be a cyst. The only reason it doesn't sound super straight forward is because you say it's off to one side.
My rectocele goes off to one side- but I'm pretty sure the bladder prolapses are centered mostly.

No you are not doomed!!! You are going to be fine. This is not anywhere near a death sentence. You can have more children when you like.
But you need to get the coughing and constipation sorted as soon as you can- like yesterday.

The ribbed look is rugae- it's normal- but with prolapse you see quite a bit of it-
let us know how you go....
and have a look around here- there are tons of tips and lots of great information.

Hi there,
Welcome to WW. I am glad to hear you are going to teh GP to get it checked, and find out what is going on. If it is a prolapse, don't panic. So much can change!!! As Alemama said, getting that cough and constipation sorted is so important. With the cough, lean forward to cough and relax your belly. Louise wrote before about Buyteko(sp?) technique for breathing, that can really help avoid coughing. used a lot by people with asthma. google will enlighten you, and i used to have a book on it...

Re constipation, since i had my pop i have to really watch what i eat. I have to avoid dairy, chocolate, and too much carb--especially white refined. i eat a ton more vegetables, pulses, and fruit. really makes the difference. lots of water too. looka t what you eat and experiment--you'll find your solution.

i'm in the uK and in general they don't push surgery which is great. if this is a prolapse, get Christine's book & DVD. Understand your anatomy, and how we should be standing. then you can help your organs find their natural place again. the excercises strengthen your body and help everything to be supported.
If anyone does suggest surgery, get informed. Christine's book outlines the dangers of it--you will quickly decide finding ways to heal your own body, which is very possible, is far more desirable...

and ask away here--lots of support and knowledge!

take care...you will be fine.

Kiki

Alemama, I think the reason it is one sided is that episiotomies are usually done on one side. If it is not stitched effectively, the bladder will fall to that side when it comes back and down. This is what mine used to be like. Eventually it all came down further, but became symmetrical, which was much more comfortable. That's when my real improvement started.

It is usually the woman's left side that the bladder leans to, because most obs are right-handed, and cut from their right side, which is the woman's left side when her feet are up in stirrups.

...too (cystocele). I had a deep vaginal tear (now scar tissue) on the right. My vagina still feels weird, it is not symmetrical inside b/c of the scar.

Wow, Louise, interesting, what you wrote. Mine never got centered, indeed, when I feel a bit bulgy, it is always on the right. Maybe that's why I had such a slow improvement (only in my second PP year).

Doflo, welcome! You've come to the best place possible. I have 3 kids and when I found my cystocele 2 years ago, I had 3 kids under 3, so I know it is hard.

Cough is BAD! Get rid of it ASAP! As far as I remember, Louise had a great post about getting rid of cough effectively.

Liv

Hello, I am from the UK too - glad to 'meet' you and sending you lots of positive thoughts and encouraging hugs. Start practicing the posture and learn to do firebreathing immediately and things will start to feel better very soon, I feel sure. I have a 17 month old granddaughter who lives with us so understand how much they need picking up at this age - I try really hard to lift in an exaggerated posture - it really helps. X

Hi All

Liv, remember that my evening up happened about twenty years postpartum, about three years after finding Wholewoman.;-)

This final settling, which I believe it was, happened a couple of years before my last menstrual period. I think it was my during my demolition and building phase. My pelvic organs became lower, but evened up. I was no longer getting one sided pressure and rubbing in my vagina. The lower level of my organs, particularly my cervix, was a worthwhile price to pay. Since then, probably with the further shrinking of my uterus, my cervix has almost completely disappeared up my vagina, leaving me with sometimes a bit of a cystocele, and rarely a rectocele, except if I get constipated for a day or two, but it resolves quickly. Nothing that good posture won't fix.

So many women find that POP worsens during perimenopause, although the books all seem to say that POP worsens with menopause. For me it was definitely during perimenopause, probably more than five years before menopause, that I realised that I really did have POP symptoms, but I only recognised them as changes. It was not until the rectocele kicked in about 12 months before finding WW, that I realised it was POP, and decided that I would have to do 'something' about it.

I see this perimenopausal discovery of POP as just another example of things that go heywire at perimenopause, ie another part of the disharmony that segues into the next phase. Once my periods stopped it was as if I had entered more calm seas. Once the uterus shrinks and finds its new space for the long term I don't think POP is likely to get any worse.

Are there Members out there who feel that their POPs developed aafter menopause? Or did it happen in perimenopause? It would be nice to know what actually does happen on average.

There is a lot of difference between finding POP during perimenopause and having the worst part of it happen after menstrution has stopped, like maybe ten years difference. That is a lot in a lifetime.

If most of the changes happen during perimenopause, and that is when diagnosis is made, it is no wonder that women opt for surgical repairs, because it is a pretty traumatic thing to happen, at a time of your life when all of youth's bloom is fading. It would be easy to think, "If my uterus/bladder has fallen this far in the last six months, how far will they fall in the next 20 years?"

I took the chance that my doctor was wrong, based on what I had read here. I can now say with some certainty that the doctor was lying. No, not a white lie, a lie to scare me into surgical repairs that I did not need!

What is the truth?

Louise

I think 'POP worsen during perimenopause' sounds reasonable, especially b/c of the fluctuating hormonal state. Many things happen around that time in a woman.
Menopause is another, new state of equilibrium, at least it sounds like as you tell.

My grandma (83) just told me she has POP since 4 decades, cervix is outside by evenings (she had 3 uneventful homebirths by the way). She thought it was normal, since my great-gran also had it (had 10 kids all at home of course). She said she had managed it well and I believe her, she is very active, never had a UTI, never had been hospitalized.

I suppose, if POP is well managed during the weird menopausal years and the uterus can settle down/shrink in(to) a right position then no worsening would be expected in menopause.

Sorry for the bad english, it is dinner time here and I am tired...that is why I visit the forums in the morning, teehee...

Liv

Hi Louise,
Well my pop, rec and cys started about 5 years after menopause.Actually the "drop came quickly." It came to visit about a year ago. Never saw it coming. It was a sneaky little dickins. I had never heard of anything like this during my entire 62 years. It was scary and I really thought my insides were letting go and going to fall out. Thank the Lord for this web site!
Heavenly

after 10 years of rumbling like an series of earthquakes. At age 44 I was diagnosed with diabetes. So I lost 250 pounds if you count the 160 pound husband who left me for my girlfriend. Did a lot of pilates and floor exercise to help with the stress. I was probably in the best shape of my life. Met a wonderful new, hardly ever been used husband, three years later. Got happy, gained about 50 pounds back over next five years. Went on an herbal cleansing diet and lost the weight, but unfortunately all the estrogen along with it. The last straws were a fall on the ice (breaking my tailbone) and my last menstrual period in 2008. May of 2009, I was taking a shower and felt my cervix at the opening of my vagina. Urogyno said I had urethracele, cyctocele, and rectocele (all 3rd degree). He said I needed a hysto, urethra sling, and sutures. His sale tactic was, believe it or not, I was in such good health now was the time for surgery while I could recover more easily. I was almost hooked. I went as far as getting my pre-surgery physical, which confirmed my good health. Something clicked, if I was so healthy, why did I need surgery. I decided to give every other possible solution a try for at least one year. I used WW practices, diet, exercise, chiropractic, and herbal supplements to balance all my hormones (estogen dominance, insulin resistance, and hypothyroidism). It worked. I believe, like all my health issues, I was predisposed to prolapse. I agree, it is probably easier to accept at 54 rather than 24 or 34 or even 44. I feel great, because I gave myself time and huge effort. I needed to put myself first! Easier for me as my baby is 32 years old.
Melly

:D I loved hearing about your granny and great-granny, Liv. I bet most of our great-great grannies had some level of prolapse. The literature is quite clear that gynecology was created as a surgical specialty to address prolapse. While we will always need such a specialty to deal with acute conditions, my hope is for gynecology to be replaced by a naturopathic women's health practice - in my lifetime (and for urogynecology to be disbanded!)

I dunno, perhaps naturopathy is more general than I perceive it to be. Can we just make it a 'health coaching practice for humans, male and female, baby, child, adolescent, and adult'?

I perceive naturopathy as still being about 'taking stuff', when we are talking about eating, drinking, doing, moving, birthing, balancing, digesting, supplementing, educating, learning, supporting, thinking, bodyworking, all of it. It is truly wholistic. It addresses all parts of the person.
It comes from many cultural roots.
The person at the centre of the treatment has to take responsibility for their own healing.
There is a sharing of knowledge, rather than an imposing of treatments.
It is a community, participant based, rather than practitioner-based, though practitioners will be a part of it.
It might even have doctors!
It might have separate, but interconnected, rooms/villages for expectant parents, babies, kids, teenagers, men, women, and grandies too.

I think it is called Wholewoman Village with bells and whistles. Might have to invent a country for Wholewoman Village, and all the other 'Villages' to occupy?

:-) :-) :-)

Louise