Rectocele questions

Hi Meli and welcome! I don’t believe that obesity makes you more at risk for prolapse, but a sedentary lifestyle certainly will. The more time spent slouching into soft furniture with that lumbar curve flattened out, the more your organs will want to fall back from the lower abdominal wall and towards the outlet. You also need gravity and belly breathing to make all this work. So consider lots of walking in mindful WW posture as a good approach for you. WW posture is a wide-radius curve, not really a sway-back although some people don’t make any distinction. Study all the posture elements one at a time. Make sure to lift your chest up strongly when your belly is relaxed. Keep your shoulders down, and your chest opened up, but don’t pull the shoulders back military-style. If you are concerned you may have something other than prolapse causing your symptoms, hopefully your doc can clarify this. You mention pain, but it doesn’t sound like it is associated with the prolapse. A garden-variety rectocele isn’t generally painful, though I suppose there are always exceptions. Let us know how it all goes! - Surviving

Meli,

I've heard of great success with the Blood Type Diet in terms of many diseases, including weight loss for the obese.
I have followed the blood type diet for about 8 years and found it to have helped me avoid many health problems associated with being over 50, although I've never been overweight.

Before you discount this "diet" please understand that not only is scientifically founded, at its bare minimum all it requires is that you avoid six (6) "red-flag" foods that are considered to adversely affect your digestive system based on your blood type. For instance if you are frequently consuming peanut butter or chicken and you have "B" blood . . . upon discontinuing these 2 foods you may find it suddenly easier to lose weight, no joke.

Each blood type has 6 foods to avoid . . . so, if you know your blood type (there are 4 different ones),
simply get online, if you're able: www.dadamo.com where the food types are listed as how they pertain to each blood type (avoid, neutral, etc.). Hopefully your public library has the "Eat Right 4 Your Type" book so that this costs you nothing to investigate. The website doesn't list the 6 red flag foods, I don't believe. However, these folks do answer their phone, as I've found in the past & are information friendly. Dr. D'Adamo and his doctor father before him discovered this diet & have helped millions regain their health.
I've only known those who are anti-meat eaters to discount this way of assisting the body's digestion. I, personally, was once a vegetarian from age 32-43 & became weak & didn't feel so well, when I turned it around & began to add red meat to my diet I recovered my strength and still feel great having done so. So, please judge for yourself and I hope this turns out to be an option for you.

Interestingly, the AMA sends us home from the hospital as newborns with information that we can figure out ourselves by simply looking between our legs (it's a boy! or girl!). However, they keep a key piece of information from our parents & us that can help keep us healthy. The AMA is founded on making sure we, Americans are as sickly and dependent upon pharmaceuticals as possible (I've never taken a prescription med in my life).

Personally, I don't agree with anything that says "diet" behind it. And, I have read about the blood type diet, another restrictive plan for weight loss. I have veered away from all diets and just started looking to how I felt eating certain foods. It all started with severe peri menopausal symptoms that I turned away from dieting. I cut out caffeine, alcohol, sugar, and processed foods for the most part, and started feeling better. I still had a lot of bloating though, so ended up cutting out dairy with great relief to my body. According to my blood type I should do well on dairy. This just isn't true for all people. And, I can't imagine being a type O and having to eat all that meat. Talk about a highly acidic condition.
I still believe that each person should really just listen to their own bodies and let it tell you how certain foods make it feel. It is certainly cheaper than buying into diet plans, as I have done plenty of in my past. Feeling healthy should always take precedence over any weight loss plan.

Sylvia always comes to the forum with her own agenda. Her tracking history indicates that she does not even have prolapse. Meli asked for help with her prolapse, not weight or diet. - Surviving

Hi Meli and welcome,
Additional to Surviving's advice, particularly as posture is the foundation we work from, a consultation with Christine would be helpful, as she can help you with your individual issues with her holistic, whole body and lifestyle approach and resources.
As for rectocele - I have been managing mine for 19yrs+ ( 2+ years with WW), and see it as a blessing, for finding Christine and her WWoman work. I view my rectocele as natural pessary, helping keeping other organs supported. WW has afforded me so many other benefits for quality of life, that I will never look back...
Best wishes,
Aussie Soul Sister

As such I was threatened with a hysterectomy once due to a fibroid
I have completely survived this situation intact & still have a 28-day
Cycle with no problems
I think it's beneficial to others to know some of what helped
Heal my condition.
If a person's digestive health is good then meat is fine
Digestive health is key.
What do people who don't have prolapse do to stay afloat?
I'd want to know instead of negate their habits And further, maintaining healthy
weight may have some positive effect on pop.
I'm a whole woman too.

Hi Meli,
Welcome to the WW community. There are absolutely loads of resources and support available to you via WW one way or another - and I hope you find lots of things that will help and support you.

Do browse around this website - a positive treasure trove! It includes the blog has many relevant articles. Check out ' the new keels'; there's a youtube link there which demonstrates some key exercises for helping to rectify symptoms and manage/recover from pelvic organ prolapse (pop). The forum also has an archive of past posts you might find informative.

There's also the book 'saving the WW'; (the pop bible!), dvd's for all abilities, (if you have significant health issues which impact on your flexibility/strength/energy levels you may find the dvd for elders helpful; (it's basically a very gently exercise programme which is wonderful ), there are now also a number of WW teachers &/or Christine who are a wonderful source of support and advice if you're lucky enough to live near them, there's also the fabulous on-line course which consists of 5 lectures + bonus exercise programme which you can stream whenever you want to and includes a WW teacher consultation.

Re emotional effect of pop. You're not alone. Many, if not most of us have felt devastated by pop. It somehow goes straight the core of us! However the thousands of women who have felt better and benefitted from the WW approach are testimony that WW works for the vast majority of us who have accessed this website.

Good luck and warmest wishes,
wholewomanukx

I have a serious problem and I am scared. An antidepressant I was taking made me constipated and it was so bad I was straining and even trying to dig it out. (Sorry tmi). Since early March I can't have a normal bm. It feels like a prolapse and a fissure at the same time. I have tried everything and nothing works. At best it may work one time only. It feels like the sphincter muscle is sideways and part of it hangs down which gives me the urge. I have had soft and liquid stool not come out. I have missed over a month of work when you add all the sick days since early March. I am scared to get colonoscopy and doctors frighten me. I did tell my Dr I had constipation and he prescribed lactulose and it does help. But I can't always take it. I have a squatty potty but it hurts to squat. I feel quality in life go down and I already suffer depression. I thought of colonics but I was told they were dangerous. I want to find a way alternatively to at least fix it 50%. I am 57 and I did have a child at 19. She is 38 now. I live alone and have to support myself and can't miss any more work.
I am at my wits end. I don't want to face surgery. I am frightened. Thank you

oops trapped in comment field

she described herself as "morbidly obese." That's gotta have an adverse affect on her pelvic organ prolapse.

Sylvia, this is a common misconception that Christine says has no basis. An overweight woman who is holding her organs towards the front is experiencing the same dynamics. Weight and gravity actually enhance this. Losing weight too quickly can aggravate prolapse because of loss of the fat pads, and being extremely thin can rotate the pelvis backwards.

Of course overweight is not a healthy lifestyle, for many reasons. We do not know what Meli's other health problems are. - Surviving

Thanks for the update
I guess I was thinking that the connective tissues
would be adversely affected by so much extra weight

Hi Dear LymaBeane,
It can be very scary with bowel issues.
Have you had time to search the forum as there are many threads on constipation and management of it, from exercise to diet for most of the issues people have.

Christine also has great exercises and indeed the posture is paramount in freeing up the abdominal organs which are literally squashed and sometimes prevented from functioning properly, due to the common practice of constant tension while sucking in the stomach, tucking in the bottom, tight clothing, chest breathing instead of belly breathing and slouching posture, while sitting etc.

The squatty potty places the internal organs in a position where there is inward and downward pressure on them, also squashing them and if you read around here the best way is, in whole woman posture to tip yourself forward on the toilet seat, you can touch the seat but put no weight on it, when & if you need to increase pressure to push and do not strain.
I had a fissure and did not know until I asked that it can take 6 months for one to heal - if I had known that I would have been more hopeful & patient as it had taken that long for mine to heal- you can have a good bowel movement and still annoy it, though eventually it does heal. I'm not sure if I had any cream to help - I don't think so but having a bit of lube may help a lot with comfort - I now use some if I have problems getting one out which thankfully is much rarer now.

I have rectocele so management of constipation is important to me, with diet, and also I have found WWPosture, looser clothing, belly breathing and the exercises so strengthening and helpful that I am now strong enough to semi - stand to do a BM if I wish.
It is a journey, & I have realized more and more just how very holistic, Christine's work is for the whole body and soul.
Best wishes,
Aussie Soul Sister

Hi Lymabeane. As Soul Sis says, there have been many posts written on the forum about things to try for constipation. Here is just one of many:
https://wholewoman.com/forum/node/6225

I'm curious about your suggestion that you may have a fissure. Don't those cause extreme pain when passing stool? You don't describe that type of pain anywhere in your post. - Surviving

Meli, this discussion has sort of gone on its own way since you originally posted your issues. That happens sometimes, and it's not the worst thing. But we hope you'll come back and let us know how it's going and if you have other questions. - Surviving

Sylvia, you've been a member of this forum longer than I have, but you seem to only come here when you have something to tell us, which may or may not be related to prolapse, and which may or may not be something we consider good advice. You don't appear to have a very deep understanding of Christine's work, so don't be offended if we comment on your posts whenever we feel it's necessary. For better or worse, what you say here might be construed by any newbies as representing WW teachings. You should probably look into it. You'll be better for it, and your posts will be less "Sylvia-centered". - Surviving

it's a huge part of why I don't have pelvic organ prolapse. I had never heard of this health issue (pop) before until I met Christine in person. I was fascinated & frightened out of my mind once I understood what it entailed. Since then I have devoted as much of myself as possible to trying to understand why some women suffer & some do not.

I like to see what's said on here to see if I've missed something. Other than that, I do faithfully devote to the blood type diet (years before pop entered my consciousness), organic food since age 25 including red meat, parasite cleanses (Dr. Hulda Clark), and some ayurvedic herbs for the uterus.
The end result, in part, is I have a regular cycle at age 52. I swear by a trampoline, a hula hoop (30 min at a time), and high-end water filters, etc., etc. My fibroid diminished considerably in size with the help of Dr. Will Foster, DOM who practices in Tennessee. He used Chinese Herbs and advised me to eat real food including real fat like butter, and meat (no canola oil, it's usually rancid!)
I cook real food as prescribed by Sally Falon and Weston A. Price. My fibroid diminished & reproductive health resumed (thank you, Dr. Foster).

So criticize away; attack my posts, opinions, health habits -- knock yourself out. I've read Christine's book, watched her DVD (the yoga one too). You can drive a truck under my lumbar curve when I lie down "flat" on my back in Yoga class, thanks to Christine's teachings I don't tuck my tail bone anymore.

Women on here with POP are in serious trouble and deserve to read/hear all that's available and works for others. It's best to not keep information hidden especially if it is stuff that's working for someone who doesn't have POP but was faced with some of the trouble signs (fibroid alert) & I've birthed two children in the regular old hospital with an episiotomy both times.

All of that is awesome and you should indeed be proud of yourself. But you have no sense of what a newly-prolapsed woman needs to hear, that's all. A good example of this, would be encouraging someone to jump on a trampoline when she does not even know what proper posture is. When she does, and when she gets those organs forward, jumping will be great for her. It's not a good suggestion for a newbie. Just keep your postings focused on the person you are talking to. - Surviving

I also have a regular cycle at almost 52, and I don't do any of the things you have listed. Actually my periods have gotten easier on me just by eating cleaner and fully adopting Christine's work into my life. I agree with surviving, this is the whole woman site, and any advice given here should have whole woman posture and practices in mind, first.
I for one, have a severe prolapse that I am managing quite well, simply from following Christine's teachings. I would have hated to have that watered down or misconstrued with other outside sources.
Anything can be found on the internet these days, and people are welcome to look elsewhere for that information.
I like that surviving keeps the integrity of whole woman practices and information on this site focused on where it should be.

I too still had periods at 52, and no hint of prolapse until 60. Prior to that time I pretty much did everything wrong. But I was still "fine" despite not taking particularly good care of myself. So don't be too smug, Sylvia my friend. - Surviving

which it is known to cure.

women supporting women, hard to beat. and i understand that it's a whole woman site. i am a whole woman.

A newly prolapsed woman should not be jumping around on a trampoline in bad posture, with gravity pulling her organs into her vagina with every jump. WW posture is the proper course of action for management of prolapse AND incontinence. Let her learn and understand the posture first, and when she has gotten to a certain point, she can (in her own time) decide whether or not jumping helps her symptoms. - Surviving

Yes I have pain. It feels like I have jagged rocks in me. Maybe its not a fissure. I do have hemorrhoids from straining. I take Welbutrin for depression and I always felt constipated taking it. It helps me but the side effect is too much. To make things worse I strained too much and it feels like I am bent up inside like I am pooping sideways or something. At work I can't go at all because its too many people coming and going and I need it quiet for me to relax. I have always hated public restrooms because of that. Sometimes olive oil helps but not all the time. I get frustrated because I keep reading: eat more veggies, drink more water - I do that. Fiber makes it worse. It feels like a dry pinecone stuck in me. I can't eat meat or wheat or bread. I feel hopeless about this. I am seeing my Dr on Monday and I am going to ask if I can wean off Welbutrin to see if its the cause. Exercises sound good. Don't know much about posture thing.

Hi Meli - I never heard of the bagua circle walking but I pulled up some YouTubes - it's so beautiful, graceful and spiritual - very dance-like. I love it. And a great alternative to treadmill walking if you can't walk outside or have limited space. Thanks for introducing this and broadening my world today. I'm so glad you came back on to give us an update. It sounds like you are doing great and your post will help inspire others to learn to live in harmony with their bodies - that's what this is all about after all. Thanks Meli - Surviving