Feeling like surgery is inevitable

After almost 1 1/2 years with WW, I can see a common thread with pop. We all have hormone issues. Either with a recent birth or menopause. I feel the younger women improve because their hormones return to normal levels, and the older ladies' uterus shrinks causing the discomfort to be reduced. If you can possibly wait another few months for a full recovery after your birth, I believe surgery can be avoided. You have been very brave. Wishing you better days, soon.
Melly

(((hugs)))

I know it is soooo hard, living with POP everyday, and taking care of 2 kids and a husband and a house and you are left with no time for yourself...and the worries never go away.

I just came to encourage you: @ 10 months PP I started to have some better days, but I still felt bulgy and heavy throughout the month, great heaviness around my period.
Now I am 2 years postpartum and just recently I considered myself healed and decided to move on. I still have bad days when I think: Why me? I am only 30 and have to live my life with this. But if I look back and see where I came from I see the huge improvement. And now I am wise enough to know that every woman has her own cross. Yeah, I have POP, this is mine.

Well, all I wanted to say: please, consider waiting until at least 2 years PP. I healed tons during the second year PP and you are not there yet.

What about reconsidering surgery at the end of the PP healing route (which is 2 years, as far as I know)? Give yourself some more time, please!

((((hugs)))) to you,

Liv

To echo clavicula . . . At 10 pp I still used a sponge and had to do periodic "adjustments" throughout the day like nauli. Now I am 22 pp. Spent 10 hours on my feet working at a hospital yesterday ( without sponge or nauli) and got my period today and no bulge at all! I think you still have a lot of healing ahead of you. Believe it.

Melhop, I'm confused by your assertion that POP is generally caused by hormone issues... I am neither postpartum nor menopausal and yet have experienced a general worsening of my symptoms over the last ten to fifteen years and a sudden worsening just recently. I'm 44 which would seem early for menopause and I'm not experiencing any other signs of it. My two children are 18 and 20. Can you elaborate on your thoughts?

Hang in there. I know what you mean about this thing between your legs as a constant reminder. Ever since my diagnosis (uterine gr.2, bladder and rectal) I am so aware of the bulge and I hate feeling this way. My kids are all older (10, 12 and 14) so I could only imagine how hard it is for you having such young children. I was always carrying my kids around on my hip. Don't despair I find when I am laughing and having fun with my kids I don't even think about it. Enjoy your lovely children and keep reading and watching the dvd. One step at a time and do what ever you can to help yourself get through this. I'm starting accupuncture because I heard it helps with prolapse. Apparently this doctor has helped women who have had their uterus hanging out of them. So I am not that far along and I hope it will improve things so I don't feel that feeling all the time. Let us know how your appointment with the Urogynecologist goes. They suposedly have better skills then a regular Gyn and can do an MRI to see where everything is sitting with your pelvic organs. Good luck and enjoy your babies!!

Namaste

Hormone imbalance is not always related to menopause. I was diagnosed estrogen dominant, and probably have been most of my adult life. Go to zrt.com and read about symptoms and causes and solutions for this disorder. ZRT is an independent laboratory with many test results in their database to support the effects of hormone imbalance.
Melly

Just a few points.

1 Hormone issues. Melhop, I agree that there are other causes of hormonal issues than having babies and menopause, but hormone level fluctuations are also a normal part of the metabolism of any woman of childbearing age. It is what makes us women! I would imagine that a high percentage of female health problems would be connected with our menstrual cycle directly or indirectly. I wouldn't get too hung up on the connection between POP and hormone issues. If your hormone issues are causing you a problem, then getting on top of that is important for your health, but it may or may not have much to do with your POPs. ;-)

2 Acupuncture. Angel2me, if you search acupuncture using the search box you will see what our members have found about acupuncture. If acupuncture frees up your body so you can do WW posture, then acupuncture will definitely work, but if you want acupuncture to do magic you might be disappointed. See what our other Members have found about acupuncture.

3 Breastfeeding. k8g, I asked the Australian Breastfeeding Association's information service about breastfeeding and prolapse and discovered that there is no clinical evidence that stopping breastfeeding will improve POP. It just doesn't happen, even though it seems logical that it would. Your hormone levels have returned almost to normal by the time you wean, if you wean gradually. Getting periods again is the very last thing to happen. Yes, there probably is a connection between breastfeeding and prolapse because you cannot breastfeed a baby if you have not been pregnant and given birth by some method or other. I am being flippant, of course, but let's keep it real here. ;-)

I think that low oestrogen during breastfeeding and peri/menoapuse have similar effects, ie dry vagina that can prevent prolapsed pelvic organs from repositioning themselves because a lack of lubrication makes the vagina 'stick' wherever it is instead of its surfaces gliding over each other, that is about where the similarity ends. During perimenopause and up until several years after menopause it is not only oestrogen decrease, but also other reproductive hormone fluctuations that happen, causing all sorts of weird things to happen in the uterus department. There is also general tissue thinning, loss of collagen and decrease in muscle mass happening, so the whole body becomes prone to changes which are not comfortable. Prolapse, heavy bleeding and bladder continence problems are often among those changes that produce problems. It sometimes feels like your body is being invaded by aliens, and sometimes for fifteen years or more. That makes it all sound like hell on earth, but it doesn't always happen that way. Many of the odd things that happen only happen for a few months, and it all settles down in the end. Red clover tea and black cohosh are my current weapons of choice. Some women only ever report that their periods stopped. I am very happy for them. (grins in anguish).

What I am getting at here is that the cause of pelvic organ prolapse is damage of some sort to the fascia that form the framework for all our organs to sit in. The fascia prevent the organs from getting out of position. This damage allows the hypermobile pelvic organs to move around. If they are held by your posture directly over the vagina gravity will take them where it will, sliding backwards and downwards. If your posture holds them directly over your pubic bones, resting against a relaxed lower abdomen, and the bottom 'rails' of your pelvis (the inferior rami of the pelvis) slope forwards slightly, your bladder and uterus have to go up hill to move backwards and downwards, and your pelvic floor is quite tight with your pelvis in its normal position, so it is easier for them to stay forwards. It is only when the pelvis is tipped back (tucked butt and 'sucked-flat' abdomen) that the pelvic floor muscles loosen (except in a postpartum woman). It is wrong posture that tips your organs back into a vulnerable position, not breastfeeding. Fix the posture and a large part of the problem disappears. Training your posture is not a short term task. It can take years to get it really sorted, although the improvements in posture, and POP, happen a bit at a time, and are often not without temporary setbacks. The sooner you start with WW posture, and the more hours of the day you can use it, the sooner you will see improvement.

It is not like stand in posture for an hour a day and your POP symptoms will go away. It is more like good posture 24/7 will keep your pelvic organs safer from prolapsed positioning. The more you do it, the better you will get.

Thanks I will look into the accupuncture more thoroughly when I get a chance. I think I will keep trying it for a little while longer and see what happens.

It can be really hard at 10 mos. pp. The first 18 mos. pp were hardest for me. I've been living with this for 5 years now - not here often because life so full and kids getting older - but, take heart, now I barely notice it, run 6 days per week, am more active than ever. Know I wouldn't be at this place if I'd had surgery. I just give thanks for Christine and her groundbreaking work; otherwise, I probably would have had surgery because everyone said it was what you do.

Thanks Melhop and Louise for your pointers. I do have an underactive thyroid so will keep alert for any other signs. Hopefully my new-found interest in improving my general health will help here.