Is this normal for a prolapse?

if you haven't already done so, read the 2 doors article under readers write section.

prolapse seems to be pretty common, you only realise how common when you get one yourself!

hysterectomy is a bit drastic! try self help first. conservative treatment should be favoured over irreversible butchery.

http://www.wholewoman.com/readers/two_doors.htm

also you may wish to read

http://hersfoundation.org/anatomy/

which is what every woman should know about hysterectomy if she is to give informed consent.

OK this really makes me MAD

No1 - You do NOT need a Hysterectomy to fix this - In fact it could make things worse!

Prolapse is VERY common!

Heavy periods are part of being female and Hysterectomy is not the be all and end all of life - He is a man and knows very ittle!

Blood in the bowel movements can mean many things - If it is bright red - could be a cut in the bowel - Which means - Less constipation means less bleeding on bowel movement.

My advice is - READ this site - Learn the posture - Forget about the Dr - He talks outta his rectal portal

I had a 2nd deg prolapse when I got here - Now i hardly notice I even have it - Did I get surgery - NO! - I did the posture and stopped Kegelling myself to death.

PLEASE. Do not have surgery until you have read this site - ALOT!

Email me and I will tell you everything I have found over this past year or more.

My own Gynae said he wouldnt advocate surgery for this - And he is a great Gynae.

There are so many happy people here who all have prolapses and have not given in to surgery which cannot be undone

Please - Take your time and read :)

BTW - I also have all 3 prolapses ;-)

Sue

Look into the eyes - They hold the key!
http://www.bringmadeleinehome.com/img/maddy544x150Banner.jpg

the first thing you need to know is that prolapse is not fatal. so there is definitely no rush to have any sort of surgery. and that's great, because that means you have plenty of time to read up on your condition and learn about the surgical procedures that are being done so that you can make up your mind.

I don't know about blood in the stool, I'm a bit surprised your dr didn't check that out. just wondering though, you say you have blood in stool and urine during your period. how do you know the blood is in the urine and not flowing out from your uterus while you're on the toilet? seems that it would be normal, especially if you bleed heavily, to see blood in the toilet during your period.

I don't *know* how to tame the bleeding, but I suspect that its connected to your overall health. I know that once I started taking better care of myself (after I found my prolapse and then this site) my cycles regulated (I've always been irregular) and I haven't had any menstrual cramps (I've always had awful cramps).

take some time and read as much as you can here. and ask any questions you may have. you can always have surgery later, but once you've gone down that road there is no going back.

Hi mommyintx
I think you will find that the blood is not actually in the urine, but kind of flows back into your urethra when you get a big flow of menstrual blood. Then when you pee it comes out with the first flow of urine, especially as prolapse positions the urethral opening right down low, and maybe even sloping backwards (downhill), especially if you slump when sitting. I wouldn't worry about it at all as long as it only happens when you menstruate. It is just one of the things that happens when you have pelvic organ prolapse and heavy bleeding too.

Just learn as much as you can. Get Christine's book and keep an eye on this Forum. Don't under any circumstances use surgery as your first treatment, as it cannot be undone if results are not satisfactory. I would consider getting a second opinion too. Not all doctors are like yours.

Did you know that one of the common causes of prolapse is hysterectomy? Christine tells us this and I have read it in many documents that I have dug out myself, both books and Internet research.

If you eventually choose surgery, just make sure that you know all about exactly what will be done to your body, and the risks and potential complications of the surgery you will be having. Christine's book is a great reference for all the stuff about surgery. It is all referenced from well-respected medical journals. She has not made it up.

Take it slowly, and keep coming back.

Cheers

Louise

my mum had to have a hysterectomy due to a cancer scare.
we are now nearly 18 mths post op and i hear her complaining constantly of bloating, dragging sensation and trouble with her bowels. she is not from a generation who complains, which makes me think the after effects of the op are not easy to deal with.
as the two doors and louise has said, there is no way back from hysterectomy, and you may find it just worsens your problems or substitutes other problems on place of it.
if you trawl the forums you will see there are quite a few post hysterectomy women on site who have developed further prolapse.

take your time and think carefully. try living with it first.

Hi Rene

As the other's have said there is a lot of information on this site as regard's hysterectomy and the many serious problem's associated with it, there's also a great book on the topic by lise cloutier steele but i can't remember the title.. perhaps amazon would have it.

It is a tough time finding out about 'cele's and as you said makes us ofter fearfull and 'scared', but the more informed you become the more in control you will again feel.... I can't think of one of us that didn't start out to some degree desperately fearfull about the situation.

Christine's book and this site are amazing reasources to help.

As for the heavy bleeding, this can be definately be changed through approaches such as diet/herb's/supplement's/acupuncture. You could also go to a good naturopath or acupuncturist for help with normalising you're menstruation if you have the opportunity and the finances to do that.

By the way - "don't swim because everything is closer to the outside." is it just me that thinks that's a really odd statement:)
As a woman if i open my legs swipping a metal grill never shut down so that my inner bit's an pieces were waterproofed during the process? And infected from what - chlorinated water? Sea water?

Lot's of us love swimming here, i'm pretty sure there's some post's on it too from a while back. Life doesn't have to end with our re-arranged architecture.

Best wishes

xxx

Anne-helen

Hi Ann-Helen and others

No, you are definitely not the only woman who thinks the ban on swimming is simply stupid. I agree that there is little to fear and also a lot to gain.

As I understand it you can only get infection if there a means of entry for the germs. In a simple prolapse, there is no broken skin, so how can any infective agents enter. The uterus is self cleaning and puckered up pretty tight (water tight?) when it is not open for fluids to flow outwards, so how can germs get in.

Bladder infections may be a different matter though, where the entrance to the urethra may rub against soiled knickers and germs may make their way up the urethra, or chaffing may result in inflammation and broken skin. Good attention to personal hygiene will mostly prevent this. Not wearing knickers will prevent faeces germs and stale urine stains from being held against the vulva.

On the positive side I find that the weightless environment of water allows all my organs to rise high inside me, and by exploring the vulval area and vagina with my fingers while in water gives me a good idea of what it all used to be like before any prolapses changed the positions of everything.

I really don't know where doctors get these ideas. I can only think it may come from the old wives' tale about not being allowed to swim or bathe during menstruation, which I think comes from one of the books in the Old Testament of the Holy Bible, Leviticus I think, where all that stuff about cleanliness, and sacrifices and the rituals surrounding them, are described. This is all ancient, ancient stuff, and certainly has its roots in culture and religion, not in science. If I am wrong, would somebody please correct me?

Cheers

Louise

I LOVE swimming and feel, after years of no swimming, that my body has developed a bit of the rigidity of a reptile rather than the smooth and suppleness of a fish. Don’t many mammals swim when they can? I know porcupines and coyotes probably don’t, but surely the big cats, elephants, wild horses, and even some reptiles do. I have a friend who grew up in the high desert of southern New Mexico in a place intersected by three rivers and have been told that even rattlesnakes love an occasional swim! My only issue is chlorine, which seems very harsh on my low cervix and tender vulva.

In the ocean and it was wonderful. I even rode a wave in! And no problem with the prolapses either. - Now I will say- When I am in the bathtub and I get out I definitely have to wait a little while to get dressed because water seems to get trapped inside- but with position changes comes out with in a few minutes- funny this didn't happen at the beach- I guess swimming is different from bathing.....

Odds are, water isn't going to come into contact with your cervix because if you have a bladder prolapse, it may well be tucked up behind that. Unless you actually feel water flowing into your vagina, you're pretty sealed off down there. In all my years of swimming, I've had water actually enter the vagina only on the very rare occasion - but I suppose different women are shaped differently and it could happen.

Even if water did come into contact with the cervix, it is pretty much sealed off against invasion. During ovulation, there is a mucus that admits sperm, but I daresay is pretty protective against pathogens, and during your period the cervix opens to emit blood, but you likely either don't swim during your period, or plug up the vagina with a tampon.

Think about it.... even if you have NO prolapse and your cervix is well tucked high up inside, you have sex where a man's penis - which I daresay has all sorts of germs on it - is bumping and rubbing all over it. If the human body was so flimsy as to not be able to handle the bugs that come into contact with the cervix then, or any orifice you have, we would not be able to survive normal living, because you come into contact with all sorts of horrible organisms all day every day... that is why you have an immune system.

The vagina is not an open wound. It is barriered against infection just like your mouth or any other part that is MEANT to interact with the outside world. The man's penis is of the outside world. The inside of the vagina is not so delicate it can't handle a little dirt.

You would think doctors would know this. Sheesh.

Hi Anne

My sentiments entirely. I think of all the times my children as toddlers and youngsters ran around starkers all day, bathed in mud in a sheep paddock, splashed around in sheep water troughs, and even (shame, oh shame!) sat in their own excreta-filled nappie until I or somebody else realised they needed a wash down and a change.

Call me a bad mother if you like, but they are all alive and very healthy, with immune systems that work very well thanks.

The point is that penises, fingers (our arms are long enough), tampons, pessaries and all sorts of other less than sterile things and substances always have found their way into vaginas. The human race would have died out long ago if vaginal secretions were not able to cope with these microbial invasions.

My experiences tell me that that infection resulting from simple prolapse is utter rot. The doctor needs to go back to medical school before s/he gets themselves into some horrible bother caused by their own ignorance and feeds this nonsense to more women, who feel vulnerable enough without it.

All that most prolapses need is a little TLC, good hygiene and some Wholewoman commonsense.

Cheers

Louise