bleeding

Hi Vicki
It is very disappointing when you think you have it all figured out, and suddenly it all goes wrong again. Sadly, that is sometimes the way of it.

I just had a look at your first post a few weeks ago. You had an ulcer, presumably from the pessary pressing on vaginal tissue, and it caused bleeding. The ulcer healed with the help of antibiotics after the pessary was removed. Do I understand correctly that you no longer have the bleeding, and the prolapse has returned, and is making your everyday life difficult? The doctor has offered oestrogen cream but you are not keen on using it.

Is it possible for you to put the pessary in and remove it regularly yourself? How do your vulva and vagina react to your putting it in and taking it out? Using a good quality lubricant can make all the difference in helping you to do this. If you can remove it yourself at night, clean it, and re-fit it again the following morning, this may keep your vagina happy, and solve the problem. A pessary is a foreign body after all, and your body may continue to make inflammation as a reaction against it. But if you can give it a rest at night you might come to an agreement with your vagina that suits both of you well enough to work.

What organ is coming down? How are you caring for the resultant irritation?

Have you done any changes to your posture to help your body to support its pelvic organs more effectively?

Re the oestrogen cream issue, you might find other things that will alleviate the irritation. A good lubricant will reduce the friction of tissue on tissue, and help to prevent irritation of this sort. You can use a water or oil based lubricant. Oil-based lubricants tend to stay around for longer, but water-based lubricants are less of a laundry problem. You might also find that a tiny dob of unprocessed honey in your vagina a couple of times a day will feed the microflora in your vagina that keep the pH in a range that keeps the vaginal tissues happy. Vitamin E cream can also be helpful for healing any irritated areas quickly. You might get a few seconds of stinging with either of these, but it does go away quite quickly. Raw coconut oil makes a good base for an oil based lubricant because its melting point is approximately body temperature, so there it simply melts when it comes into contact with your tissues. No rubbing required. A little beeswax added to hot oil in a saucepan will make this balm more solid at room temperature so it is more user friendly.

But Whole Woman posture is the main factor that will help your body to support your pelvic organ further forward, so they don't rest on your vulva, but on your pubic bones. By allowing your body to assume normal female posture, you are giving your pelvic organs a safe resting space, supported on bone, and stabilised by the relaxed lower abdominal wall at the front, and by the pelvic floor (really a horizontal stabilising wall at the back. You are also allowing your intestines to literally tumble forward, out of your pelvic cavity, and stop squashing your rectum. These adjustments can take a while to take effect, but it does work.

Go to the Resources Tab and find the Video about pelvic orientation in the Library. There is also an FAQ's tab where you will find a lot of answers to questions many women ask.

You might not even need the pessary if you can optimise your posture and do appropriate Whole Woman exercises to strengthen the muscles that are needed to make the posture effortless. As many of us have found it is worthwhile putting your energy into this for a few months to see how far you can improve, before trying more invasive treatments.

Louise

At the risk of sounding like a snake oil saleswoman, my ragged lumbar disc issues have basically solved themselves since I have been doing Whole Woman techniques. I am not the only Member who has experienced this, either. It makes sense to me because I was previously trying to straighten my lumbar curve for all those years. Women have three wedge shaped vertebrae at the bottom of the spine, to a man's two. By trying to straighten this part of my spine, to overcome so-called "sway back" I was putting uneven pressure on the discs between them.

There seems to be a lot of back pain among women with prolapse. I wonder sometimes if some of the pain that is put down to lumbar spine issues is actually related to prolapse.

As WW posture helps pelvic organ prolapse symptoms, then it would be likely to help other health problems as well. After all, our posture determines the way we carry all our organs, and will change the way pressure is applied to those organs while they are functioning.

Just some thoughts for you to ponder.

Louise

Hi Vicki

Cervical vertebrae are of course at the top of the tree, so fusion of these might not affect your lumbar spine too much. I can understand your not wanting to be too optimistic about this work. We learn to build our disabilities into our daily movement, sometimes unnecessarily. We'll see.

Do you think the angle of your neck has changed since the fusion op? ie are you carrying your head further forward or further back than previously? Do you have any neck related problems now?

Louise