rectocele and scoliosis

Hi Mims,

It is possible that the two are connected, because scoliosis would put
the direction of intraabdominal forces off centre, and that would put undue pressure on one side of your pelvis. But your intestines and other organs are not symmetrical either.

Many people have scoliosis. It probably depends on the degree of it. I have yet to meet a person, who has been to a chiropractor, who doesn't have scoliosis.

If you accept the WW posture model as being valid then you can see how trying to make the spine as vertical at the bottom as possible, by straightening the female spine from its base, will create scoliosis further up. Try taking uprooting a woody plant whose pot has fallen over onto its side, and subsequent growth has created a sharp curve at its base as it has grown vertically again. Stand it up again. To stake the plant to grow upright again will bend its main stem in three dimensions, rather than two dimensions.

This is how I see a lot of scoliosis happening. If you allow the base of your spine to come off the sacrum more horizontally than vertically, then it is easier for your spine shape to be only two dimensional (heading up and down with curves to the front and back, rather than having to add sideways curves as well).

Constipation and straining on the toilet are the two main aggravators of all pelvic organs. Do whatever you have to do to get on top of the constipation, prevent it recurring, and most of the problem is solved.

1 There is not so much bulk, often quite solid, pushing your organs around in your abdomen and pelvis.

2 You no longer have to strain to get poo out, so you are not pushing your pelvic organs and endopelvic fascia out of alignment.

3 More room in your pelvis will allow you to progressively move your organs back to where they need to be, which is forward for the uterus and bladder, up for all your intestines, and back for your rectum. I think much of the problem stems from intestines full of stool getting caught under the sacrum and compressing the rectum downwards, which pushes the top of the vagina forwards and down, and the intestines get jammed in a convoluted shape behind the vagina, stretching the back wall of the vagina and pushing it outwards into into the vagina.

Once you can make the intestines more malleable you can use inversion type exercises like nauli and firebrreathing to suck the intestines back out of the pelvic cavity and allow the vagina to lie back again and be squashed shut by the bladder and uterus, with the uterus flopped forward at the cervix. They will then press hard against the front vaginal wall keeping it shut, and pressing the rectum flat, so it cannot fill until the intestines send some stool down for emptying.

All this means that the vagina is no longer vertical with intraabdominal pressure pushing it down into the vulva. It is now lying back with the bladder and uterus clamping it shut and intraabdominal pressure acting on its front, rather than the top. Your pelvic organs are all neatly folded up. Allowing the pelvis to tilt forward by lifting the chest maintains the position of the uterus and bladder leaning forwards against the relaxed lower abdominal wall.

OK, that's what you work towards, and it might take you a year or more to get it all to stay there spontaneously for most of the time. These problems don't happen overnight, and it is often a longer term task to get your body to get a new memory, but with the correct posture and exercises you can do it. Many of us can prove this with our own experience.

Backache does seem to go with rectocele. We don't know why. There are a lot of significant nerves that come out of the sacrum on its underside and weave their way through muscle and ligaments to get to their destination. When there is a lot of intestine and stool stuck under the sacrum it will put pressure on these nerves. Maybe that is what causes the pain? The spinal cord actually stops at the second lumbar vertebra, which is at about waist level. Below that it becomes a bundle of individual nerve fibres, but they still have to fit inside the vertebral canal. If several of these become annoyed and inflamed they will all press on each other. That's my take on it, anyway.

The other factor is trying to consciously lift the tailbone and tilt the pelvis forward, which might make your lower back muscles spasm. It is important to develop upper body strength, particularly in the shoulders and back, to enable you to lift your chest and keep it lifted. This will automatically give your spine the right curve and tilt your pelvis forwards without any lower back effort. It is a whole body thing.

Hope this gives you food for thought. Don't be scared of the gyn. He doesn't have to do the exercises. I challenge him to tell you what is wrong with them! He is only a human. Just mentally undress him if he starts to look scary. The vision of a ranting gyn wearing only a bow tie and a stethoscope would have me giggling uncontrollably in the consulting room.

Louise :-)

Hi Mims. Don't know how long you've been dealing with prolapse. Mine surfaced two months ago. I also have scoliosis. I read louiseds' reply with interest. I hate to think we created our scoliosis--that's kind of depressing. But maybe so. I have been practicing WW posture for almost two months and understand your backache issue and the pressure sensations. My back was sore for about five weeks, just from the effort of maintaining the posture, which was very different from the "excellent" posture I had been working on for years trying to control the back attacks caused by my scoliosis. Yikes. The things we think we're doing right! I also have a lot of pressure in the anal and vulva areas. Now I sometimes develop more of a backache than soreness, but I've also noticed that often it seems to be connected with over-exaggerating the lumbar curve. When I relax it a bit, the aching seems to subside. I can see what louiseds means when she suggests focusing more on the chest lifting. That in itself seems to relax the lumbar curve a bit. louiseds' posts are always so informative--thanks, louiseds! And, Mims, best wishes for healing. And don't be intimidated by your gyn. It's your body. --keh

I am sure this is not the only cause of scoliosis, and some of us are probably not very symmetrical in the pelvis anyway. I think we have great potential for developing it with one spine and two legs coming off a circular pelvis.

Having the spine come off the front of the circle, rather than the top means that it is easier for the body to compensate for different height of our hip joints. A *tiny* rotation of the lumbar joints will have a large effect in getting the lumbar spine in correct alignment so the thoracic and cervical spine can line up straight.

Wholewoman exercises have a large component of strengthening and stabilising the muscles around the pelvis and upper legs, inside and out, the sacrum, the spine, the abdomen and the shoulder girdle. These are the muscles that keep your legs, pelvis, sacrum and spine in proper alignment and stable. If you have some scoliosis that is congenital or as a result of trauma it is essential that you keep these muscles strong. If they are all being used, as in Wholewoman posture,every day, they will strengthen themselves.

I used to have scoliosis, evidenced by the one-sided muscle spasms I used to get, and the sacroiliac pain. I have hardly had this at all this since starting WW posture. I don't know if I still have scoliosis or not. I probably do, as I have stretched ligaments in my right ankle, which means my right foot collapses further down and spreads out more when I stand on it, making my right pelvis lower than my left. But there is very, very little evidence of my rectocele. I do have orthotics but I don't wear them a lot of the time, cos I only wear shoes when I have to for warmth, prickle protection and social convention when I am out and about.

L