Does it ever really heal?

Yes, it does heal completely sometimes! My uterus did anyway! It was right at the vaginal opening a week post partum and is now waaaay high and does not move at all when I bear down yeah!!!!! However, a word of caution, (of course), I am left with a small cystocele and rectocele that don't bother me, but are still there when I bear down.

I also had MAJOR checkerama/ checkermania at first and went through the whole good day/ bad day thing depending on my organs. Not a great way to live one's life. I STOPPED checking eventually and felt much better as others have said.

Things really did improve over the course of about two years, and it was rather a subtle thing except for the uterus which seemed to improve much more quickly during the year post partum.

Don't worry, I am sure things will get better. Whether they will completely resolve I don't know, which I know you don't want to hear, but it is the truth. It is so hard this soon post partum. Please try to stop checking and enjoy that little one. I spent far too much of the precious time worrying, but again I know it's easy for me to say that now! You will be OK, I promise!

xxx

I had the same experience as UKmommy. Over the first year my uterus when way back up to the point that I couldn't even reach it! However I was left with a cystocele and rectocele. The cystocele never when away but it became asymptomatic with the posture work. The rectocele was very stubborn though and continued to make me uncomfortable. I didn't get to try all the different diet changes etc. because I was nursing the whole time and on a restrictive diet and then I got pregnant again! So this time I am hoping over the first two years to see more improvement with the symptoms of the rectocele. I don't expect them to go back physically though.

Just to add another thought to Mommynow's, I think that when this first happened to me I thought that I could only cope if it was TOTALLY healed. (I also had a Dr who said to forget it, and it would go away which was kind of dumb, but I think she was just trying to make me feel better).

Total healing is unrealistic as once one has a weakness of any kind in the pelvic area, it will never be quite the same. (That goes for a lot of things with our bodies after babies I guess!:) Anyway, now I realize that the most important thing is that the prolapse may still be there, but that I am mostly fine with it all, and that it doesn't rule my life like I thought it would. That now is more than enough for me. I wouldn't have believed I would feel this way back then.

It makes me so sad sometimes because I see us all going through, or having gone through such similar stages of grief, and then gradually moving towards acceptance eventually in our own ways. I wish that I could say magic words to REALLY let everyone know who struggles so much with this post partum that it WILL be OK...... one way or another! It may not turn out exactly as we hope or plan initially, but it will more than likely be good enough. Could be a metaphor for my life perhaps??!! :)

Are you really a runner girl? I've noticed from other posts that there are some very active women on this forum. Alas I am not one of them although to be fair to myself I do walk a fair bit, and my lovely Russian doctor is happy with that amount of exercise for me. I feel a rambling spiel coming on, so will try and focus. You ask does it go back to normal or does it just become asymptomatic. That is interesting. After my two babies I would say I was asymptomatic because I don't think you ever go back to a pre-pregnancy state in fact. Asymptomatic is good though, very good ihmo. I developed some symptoms after a bout of constipation and I am really mad that it happened as I should have been looking after my bowel health a lot better, and of course I was horrified that I suddenly had these prolapse symptoms. However, after a long time, like over a year, things got better. But that was kind of gradual, and involved lots of ups and downs (literally!!). At this stage, things are good but I'm not ruling out more unstable periods. I'm very proud of my body for healing itself so well over the last two years. Really, I'm totally over the moon about it and having escaped the surgeon's knife. I just cannot think of anything worse than letting a surgeon loose on my pelvic organs - let them cut off their bits and see what it's like!!!
But seriously, the women on this forum are a testament to our bodies healing themselves, and with something as downright precious as your sex organs, isn't it totally worth it??
Cheers,
Wendy

Hi Arunnergirl

Once you have given birth there is a lot of extra tissue in your pelvis because the uterus is such a big bag at term. I think it goes down to about the size of a fist within a couple of days, but all the connective tissue needs to shrink back and the organs need to get back to normal position, as well as the body getting rid of all that fluid as well. No wonder the vulval area feels a bit saggy for a while. Some of the healing happens in days, some in weeks and some takes some months. Allow at least a year.

So some of the initial prolapse does seem to heal. However, that next year is a little unpredictable. After that year you will know what sort of longer term prolapses you have to manage from then on. You may have another pregnancy, and it *may* fall a little further, especially if it is a rushed labour and/or there is medical intervention that can cause further damage (It can also save lives). Other things that can precipitate further prolapse would be an episode of constipation, an injury that prevented you from using WW posture, some abnormally heavy lifting or physical work, other unrelated pelvic surgery that may damage the endopelvic fascia and leave scar tissue in place which may 'warp' the fascia or reduce freedom of movement of the pelvic organs within the pelvic cavity, chronic coughing etc. If you get several of these factors together I would think the risk would become higher. Wear and tear is a part of daily life anyway. It is not possible to avoid *every* potentially damaging factor.

Once the endopelvic fascia are damaged, it is thought that they cannot repair themselves back to normal. Some bits may heal, but it is a bit like a spider web, and just gets worse the more it is damaged. Neither is there a cure for prolapse. The fascia cannot be repaired, because the surgery itself would cause further scarring and damage. Repair surgeries on offer do cause this type of damage, as well as moving and removing parts of the system, which makes the whole system structurally unstable and likely to prolapse further.

Each trauma will potentially cause some more damage, so further prolapse may occur once the process is started. Mine started with a slightly dropped cervix when my first baby was born with labour on my back, forceps, epidural causing lack of ability to push, and large episiotomy. That was in 1982, and I have a history of childhood constipation, so it could go further back than that. It was not until 2005, and another two babies later that the symptoms of cystocele and rectocele became serious enough for me to investigate further the options for stopping them from getting worse.

Three years later the symptoms are not as bad, quite manageable in fact. My pelvic floor is firmer as well. All this in spite of the fact that my uterus has now descended further, but my cervix has not peeked for months. Touch wood, it all seems to have stabilised. Much of that is to do with the way I carry myself, the diet I eat, the exercise I do, the way I modify the heavy tasks I have to do, the non-belly-compressing style of clothes I now wear. I don't see myself disabled by it any more than any normal mid-50's woman, and I hope it stays that way, though I am prepared to revisit my doubts when I finally stop menstruating and my body goes through further changes of its own.

So for me, if I don't notice my symptoms I may as well not have prolapses. That is the reality I work with, and I work pretty hard to keep it that way, but technically speaking, I still have all three prolapses. Go figure.

Mind you there are probable more than a few Members on these Forums who would go nuts living in my body, as their expectations may be different from mine. Maybe I am more comfortable living with limitations that I don't regard as limitations than they are. A lot of it is attitude. I think a lot of how we see ourselves is in our heads, because we really cannot walk in another woman's shoes.

Cheers

Louise