Pros and Cons of rectocele surgery?

replied in another thread

I have been dealing with a stage two rectocele for several years now. As long as I do enough pelvic floor exercise, kegels, it keeps it at a point that I don't need any other interventions. I have been using pelvic floor electrical stim for exercise. Very nice, I just sit back and read while it exercises...And it works! Maybe you should try something like that before surgery.

i do not wanna scare you - But looking at other sites the complications can be many. I alo have a rectocele (I have em all lol) as does my mother and a far worse rectocele than mine - She has found the pessary ring is so very helpful.

I would if it were me - Put off the surgery and try the posture on here...

Good luck

Sue

What is pelvic floor electrical stim(ulation)? How is it available?

Hi BJ,

Every once in a while a post comes along that sort of raises my antennae and yours is one of those – I hope you won’t mind if I bring up a few points and please feel free to clarify or elaborate.

First of all, very few women find e-stim comfortable enough to sit back and read while being vaginally zapped. Secondly, if rectocele responded that well to e-stim doctors, therapists and scores of women would know about it and the kegelmaster would include batteries. E-stim is very old technology and the reported results are very poor. If you are an exception – hooray! And that leads me to my last point…if you’ve been so successful treating such a minor condition so pleasantly why are you searching on the Internet for prolapse sites?

Humbly,

Christine

wondering what exactly it does to help prolapse? In my understanding e-stim can in theory help bulk up the muscle. but it doesn't really train the muscle work in a functional way (unless you're getting FES or Functional E-stim therapy but as far as I know that doesn't work so great either, aside from training you to identify the muscles).

so lets just say the muscle is bulkier, how does that better position your pelvic organs?

if its keeping surgeons away from your body, hey, go for it I guess. I'm just trying to understand its benefits.

just wanted to check in with you, verynervous, and see how you are.

i know women have already commented to you and, well, my own suggestion, like others here, is if you are so nervous, you should postpone the surgery. and you CAN do that, you know, though i do also know sometimes it's hard to remember that it's YOUR body and you can make whatever choices with it you want. i know i felt a little steamrolled into have a d&c and endometrial polyps removed in october even though deep inside, i really didn't want to have it done. there's something about that authority a doctor wields that can be really intimidating as if THEY know what the very best thing is to do to/for OUR body. and that simply is not the truth.

everyone has to make their own decision with going a surgical route with prolapses or looking for other ways. i seriously respect any choice each individual woman makes. i can only suggest that, should you decide to proceed with surgery, you have done your homework. and thoroughly. there is a site called hystersisters where women have gone through these very procedures and, well, the outcomes have not been great. for me, ultimately, the anecdotal information is really necessary, along with actual statistics. and i do believe there are statistics somewhere on this site that you can look at. i know about the ablation procedure because my d&c/polypectomy was done to stop EXTREMELY heavy menstrual bleeding. it didn't work at all. and six weeks after that procedure, my prolapses became symptomatic. but there is a thread on that particular procedure on another site called power surge. again, it doesn't sound quite as much of a "slam dunk" procedure to women who have actually been through it as doctors will sometimes tell patients.

here's the thing. you sound terrified. personally, i think you should listen to that inner voice and at least postpone the surgery. were you having the ablation for very very heavy periods? is that problematic for you? (i have had the crazy heavy periods going on two years now. though i am monitered by a gyn when i need to be, i am also going an herbal/homeopathy route with it now...and i will tell you my period last month was dramatically different.) as i have said plenty of times here, there is NO expiration date on the surgery. you can decide to schedule it any time...the doctor will be only too happy to oblige. however, once you DO have the surgery, there is no going back from that. and, again, when you start to do the research, you see that the problems that occur from the surgery -- pain from adhesions, painful sex, needing to catheter, setting yourself up for further prolapse, mesh erosion with the rectocele "repair." if you're on the fence, you still have time to really inform yourself. please please do that.

whatever you decide for yourself, it is YOUR body and YOUR choice. the women here are an amazing group who will support you whatever you choose. i think we all respect the fact that the specifics of each of our lives is very different indeed. this work, though, is pretty amazing and very powerful like i can't even really articulate. i would think you have NOTHING to lose by givng it a try, maybe 6 months? then you can reassess where you are and see how you feel.

anyways, just wanted you to know i was thinking about you. it's really bold for a woman to decide to take her body and her health into her own hands. i'm really seeing that first hand right now. but, i've got to tell you, i also love this feeling of boldness. it's very powerful. and i realize the deep innate wisdom that my body has, if i only take the time to focus in and hear it. and this point, i feel almost lucky to have these prolapses. i am pretty much asymptomatic (and that's in less than 3 months!) with my rectocele -- the cystocele is more of a work in progress for me right now, though it is improving quickly. i feel amazing. i do. and i have christine's work and the support of the women here to thank for that.

please let us know how you're doing.

hugs to you.

xxsusan