Redheads more prone to prolapse?

Body: 

I just read on some website (that is probably not reputable!) that redheads are more prone to postpartum prolapse and don't heal either. I know I must be crazy to even think my prolapse happened because I'm a redhead, but my midwife also told me that redheads are more prone to bleeding - hence my postpartum hemorrhage and uterine/cervical tears . Is there any validity to this opinion?

Christinabf, I am not quite sure what you are getting at here, but I assume that you are a redhead, and that you want the answer to be that it doesn't make any difference.

I remember reading that too, but I haven't found any other references to it, so I imagine it is just one of those bits of research that has very little else substantiating it. It is all very well being able to identify which people are prone to different medical conditions, but there are so many causative factors that we know about already, that adding being a redhead, or having a long index finger, or a gap in your teeth or whatever, would be probably totally irrelevant.

Re redheads' prolapses not healing, I would be very surprised if that was true because prolapses are basically there for life. They cannot be healed in anyone. Even medicos would agree on that. They say they can repair them, but they cannot take the damaged tissue and make it come back together, or shrink back to its original size.

We Wholewomen can utilise our bodily structures to keep our pelvic organs in as good a positioning as is possible by using our bodies differently, but even we cannot heal prolapse. The potential for falling back and down will always be there in my body. There may be some spontaneous healing that happens because we are no longer straining the fascia by standing and moving wrongly. Time will tell. Christine has only been researching this since 2002. None of us guinea pigs has been doing it long enough to know what will happen in 30 years from now, but I am keen to know.

I am reading a book called The Golden Bough, by JG Frazer, which is a history of magic and religion, written in the early part of the 20th century. Being a redhead has had special status in different parts of history and redheads have often been singled out as being distinctive in different ways. Some of them have a base in fact, eg usually having skin that freckles and burns easily, but redheads have also been labelled as having a quick temper, having a special relationship with the gods, being witches, etc, just because they are different looking from mainstream. I would probably eventually get sick of being told I was different and 'do the block' in the end!

There do seem to be differences between racial groups with the incidence of POP. Hair colour has something to do with race, so that is another factor? There may be an elevated incidence of connective tissue disorders in redheads? That might include POP?

The reality is that if you have POP you have to work out what to do about it so it affects your health and everyday life as little as possible. If you are a redhead I wouldn't be too worried about it. I think it will be a long time before scientists start wanting to identify the hair colour of embryos with a view to aborting them. Heaven help us all if that happens. I think society will be in big trouble, and not only redheads!

Let us know where the research is if you stumble across it again.

Louise

I have read some interesting things about red heads- like they have a higher tolerance for pain, they respond differently to anesthesia and other stuff like that. I figure it's probably true- some of it.
I think the whole race/connective tissue/prolapse connection is interesting. But I would want to find a few medical journal publications- assess the data myself- and decide if there really is a connection.