PROLAPSE SELF EXAM

Christine,

Wow! Instructive and useful, yes indeed! This helps to clarify for me the distinction among the types of prolapse - now I can feel it for myself and understand what I'm experiencing. Your graphic descriptions and photos are wonderful. I'm sure there are many gynecologists out there who would not want women to have access to this sort of information. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Jean

christine- yea!!! can I give this to my midwife to use in her homebirth folder? can I ask for more information? B

Thank you Christine!

This just adds to my ever increasing belief that this is all quite "normal" in us women, and that we needn't be afraid.

Michelle.

Yup - my ancient computer hates PDFs

Coudl you email me a normal copy please :-)

Sue

that's fantastic, christine. i read it and know i'll be reading it frequently.

it's fascinating to see those pictures, too! and so reassuring. i was just thinking to myself last night that i didn't have any real sense of what it looked like -- my rectocele doesn't come out out of my vagina at all and even with spreading the labia, it's pretty impossbile to see. so now i get it.

this is all so informative. what a great way for me to start the day.

thank you!

xusan

Christine

This is soooo helpful, I can't tell you. Part of the devastating impact of prolpase I think is the unknown and I for one have been relying on the medics to tell me where things are. And this causes a lot of fear and a loss of control. This will rectify that - just to see the photos was reassuring in a weird sense if you know what I mean. Thanks and thanks too to the models x

I wish I knew what a non prolapsed vagina feels like-
In the self check position when I feel the anterior vaginal wall it is very soft and I can feel all the way around it - but I don't feel one specific bulge - just the whole thing all the way as far up as I can reach. Does anyone remember what a non prolaped vagina feels like?B

I actually do remember what it felt like, Jewish orthodox married women do monthly self checks (mostly for any blood but you feel all around the vagina with a finger wrapped in a soft white cloth).
vaginal walls were soft but firm (make any sense?)and if I rotated my finger around, it was a circle with no bulges anywhere. about a year before I really noticed my cystocele I realized I was no longer able to go in a complete circle, there was a slight dip at the top of the circle (the anterior wall) but I didn't think anything of it at the time.

Thank you so much for this post! I didn't have a baseline from which to assess the inside of the vagina before prolapse. I feel empowered by the information I have learned today from this post and the self exam information the Christine has put on the site. It's a good day!!!

I finally got it to open and read it (Lovely pics lollll)

It is kinda like the test I was talking about but with pics lol

Lovely - And a great way for women to know where they stand in this Prolapse thing...

It also lets you know yourself whether your Dr talks rubbish or not :_

Sue

thank you so much for the description- that is amazing that women have been conducting self exams for ages- I wish I had been raised to do that- was it something your mother taught you when you started your monthly? I would like to teach my daughter to do that someday.
I have another question - when you check is the area cavernous or does it kinda swallow your finger(s)?B

women in my circles are taught this before marriage. some by their mothers (not me, my mom can't say the word "tampon" without turning beet red)or by women in the community who teach such things (comes along with a whole bunch of laws that pertain to 'family purity' much too much to go into here).

before I had kids the area was tight and squeezed my finger all around. after each baby it got progressively more, shall we say, spacious? but I wouldn't say cavernous, not yet anyway. I was kegeling to keep things tight but stopped since I felt it was worsening my prolapse (still up for debate, I know)

Hi Christine,

I can't open the RESOURCE Page. I've tried for several days but it doesn't seem to work for me. I think someone else mentioned it took several times for them also. Can you help figure out the problem?

Thank you,
Grandma Joy