Oprah

Yes, I would imagine if Ophray picked Christine’s work up there would be one hell of a ride for Christine and her family. When it went off it would be fast. Another crowd pleaser would be a young celebrity, say one post partum, who used Christine’s Wholewoman approach to return her mild prolapse. (If I am going to do something as bad as wish prolapse on a celebrity it would have to be a mild one.) The ultimate, as we discussed on another thread, would be a politically powerful woman, for then we would have not just panache but dignity.

Oprah would certainly be a good choice.

Meryl Streep
Julia Roberts
Ellen DeGeneres
Whoopie Goldberg
Madonna
Marlo Thomas
Uma Thurman
Liza Minnelli
Barbara Streisand
Lady Gaga
Hillary Clinton
Michele Obama
Katie Couric

If we could agree on a text, we could mail them. Shooting arrows is not always a waste of time; as I relearnt recently. Then, if no response (although I doubt that if we do it right) on the well founded assumption that the busiest people are the best ones to ask. But if there is no response then we could look closer at the twelve degrees(?) of separation concept.

Dear Prolapse and fab....great idea! Think of all the women who could be helped and isn't it time for some major recognition for all of Christine's work. How does this get off the ground? Maybe it is us who need to bring this to Oprah's (or above list's) attention. I believe this forum of women is lengthy and committed and ever-so-grateful. Yes fab, lets get a text going and see it happen!

Here's something to get the fangs and editorial scissors into, or it might inspire someone else to get in with something infinitely better. Have a whack.

Spreading the word

Dear Hillary,

Our purpose is to draw to your attention a secret universe including many millions of women throughout the world who have retreated into their homes and accepted a narrowed life, even forfeited their normal daily activities; simple things such as walking, socializing, playing with their children, attending church and performing exercise. They have all developed a very common condition which you possibly have never heard about.

It is a secret universe because women do not talk about it. Embarrassment, fear and shame inhibit them. It is the universe of pelvic organ prolapse; this occurs when the pelvic organs: bladder, uterus, urethra and rectum fall into the vaginal canal and further. Its effects are disabling.

Estimates in the western world are that one in four women have pelvic organ prolapse.

When in desperation women do talk about prolapse, it is not to their husbands, their families, their friends, but to their doctor in the privacy of their doctor’s surgery. Here, unfortunately, they can be offered few options. They are in some cases offered a permanent cure, through surgery, which in at least one third of such cases fail. These failures lead to further suffering, surgery or worsening symptoms in those who cannot be offered, or refuse further surgery. Other remedies such as Kegels (pelvic muscle tightening) and pessaries again, are stop gaps and do not help prolapse in the majority of women in the long term. The only other option is to just carry on, albeit within a limited life.

It is in the interests of carrying on well, as opposed to just carrying on, and so discarding many of the limitations caused by prolapse, that Christine Kent has pioneered a new way for women to manage their prolapse. She calls it Wholewoman. It is a whole, well-being approach which enables the individual woman to pursue her own cure, in a prescribed, yet privately self taught and self-paced way, based upon exhaustive research undertaken by Christine and which has been proven time and time again to be beneficial to women with prolapse.

What we women who have benefited from Christine’s advice and mentoring seek by writing to you is to inform our fellow women of the possibility of managing their prolapse according to Christine’s method in a self-managed, safe and pro-active way. In this way, ultimately they will be able to reinvigorate their lives and make possible their re-engagement with society. And, what is more, we hope to show women that it is possible for many of them to avoid the slippery slope of repeated surgeries.

In the interests of safe and harm-free management of pelvic organ prolapse for women, and the real possibility of their re-emergence back into a fuller life, we need to spread the word. The more women who can learn about the natural way of managing prolapse, the more they will talk about it to other women. This is a whole world problem. We seek your assistance in the publicizing of this condition and its management.

Yours sincerely,

Women managing prolapse with wholewoman

Awesome, dear Fab. Now let's sit back, fold our arms across our relaxed bellies, and wait to hear back! ;)

you can find me there @ whole_woman. tweet-tweet-tweet.....

You guys are awesome

I would feel a certain amount of is it vindication if Ontario Canada would simply remove surgical interference with prolapse issures from their deficit running health care system and show they can really care

Hi Fab,
Love your letter, you certainly have a way with words. Wouldn't it be nice if this idea can get off the ground. I have heard it said that it will be women that will save the World!
Daphne

You must be totally delighted with the enthusiastic take up of your idea.
What I thought we could possibly look at next would be to consider in what way we would want one of these ladies to help us in her role as ambassador.

We need to state our goals, and then have some idea to put to our ambassador just how she can help specifically in them.

Would our goals be?
1. To raise awareness of pelvic organ prolapse generally by
Widening the understanding of the Wholewoman self-management approach to prolapse to women with prolapse.
providing educational advice in the prevention of prolapse to women without prolapse.
2. To work for the general acceptance of the true female anatomy model.
3. Encourage research to be carried out specifically into remedial treatment for prolapse apart from surgery.

Once we have settled our goals, we can look at ways of achieving these things and then we will be in a better position to know what we want from our ambassador.

What do you think?

Best wishes, Fab

Hi prolapse2012, you don't have to reduce the letter to 140 chars - just add a link to fab's letter to your tweet e.g. Dear @HilaryClinton, please help us spread the word on female pelvic organ prolapse: http://www.wholewoman.com/forum/comment/35160#comment-35160.

Or whatever wording you like. If you paste a long link into twitter it will shorten it for you.

Hope this helps!

Once you master twitter’s sharp angles, you can decide which way you would rather go. Ms Nightingale’s suggestions are always helpful.

If you get a bite or a few, we can ask them to be patrons. We can have multiple patrons. Just a thought. That’s how it would be done here in the southern hemisphere. But please do it the American Way, everyone admires that.

Best wishes

I so love what you are coming up with. I ponder whether the letter might be the best way to go...more mindful and personal and allowed to be lengthy. I know nothing of twitters or tweets and suppose that the immediacy of it is attractive. I love fab's letter and the opening statement is great for drawing in the attention. In the simplified version you begin with "Many millions of women throughout the world have all developed a very common condition which you possibly have never heard about." I do not think that will bring their hearts into the matter, it is more like telling them something that we are assuming they know nothing about. Maybe 70% of them actually have some form of prolapse. I love the idea of engaging them with our purpose, which the first letter does so eloquently. Yes, I do think we need to personalize each one just a bit so that they do not think that it is just a mass-sending out. They personally are being contacted for what they might be able to do. As for Oprah, let's ask her to host a show with Christine in hopes of bringing this subject forward. I also love the idea of the goal list. Lets maybe add a 4th on that list...to begin research for surgery that could actually prove beneficial to the woman (not that I would want it, but we do have sisters in very bad prolapse conditions) and maybe a 5th...to see a sizable grant donated to the Whole Woman site (Christine Kent) for her continued research in honor of all that she has done and all that she is now embarking upon in her quest to "Save our Hips". You ladies are so wonderful and I am honored to be here with you. This will happen and it is up to us. How many of us are here on this forum? Does anyone know? In amazement, I see new women coming on every day. Love and Best Wishes!

I plan some reading up on it for the weekend.

We'll certainly include your goals 4 and 5 Ms Nightingale.

Thanks for the link suggestion, curiosity.

Prolapse2012. Sorry for misunderstanding. I meant I did not know how that type of thing was arranged in the US, and that most people would be comfortable with what was the normal procedure.

Yes, we will just do this. What’s next?

Hello again fab and Prolapse2012 -- I am wondering about numbers. We have percentages of women affected by prolapse from Christine's book -- they should be stated. (I think it was more than 50% of all women somewhere in their lifetime-?). I am thinking that possibly the number (rough estimate, that maybe Christine or Lanny could get for us) of women that have joined the forum, and/or ordered the book. If we could spit out the number, must be in the thousands, who have already been guided here, that might be a wake-up call for Oprah (and the other women) to see the reality and success of what Christine is doing. Please let me know if I can help you in any way.

job well done Prolapse2012, No flies on you. This show is on the road.

Please keep us all posted! wow....and you learned to tweet in no time! Great idea and great job getting it out there!

wow. what a thread.

this is what community is for and bless you all for it. christine and i are so heads down trying to get more quality product out in more hands and keeping it all together (some days easier than others), that i just can't tell you how moving this kind of energy and passion is.

you are right. we do need women of stature to lend their voices to this effort. however, i would raise a question about madonna and lady gaga, lol. madonna has said some pretty off the wall things lately and lady gaga did wear a dress made out of meat which i don't think is either in diet for the whole woman or christine's approved clothing for the whole woman!

six degrees of separation is a real phenomenon. work it ladies!

regarding numbers...there are about 6,000 registered forum members. book sales to date (both editions) is about 25,000 world wide. DVD sales i don't have as good a feel for but certainly over 10,000. christine's first video came out in 2005 but the current version was only since 2009 and all the others came later, so the book has been out much longer, since 2003.

regarding twitter, it's an amazing vehicle, but using it well (and we're just really starting to learn) requires some education. i recommend the tao of twitter by mark w. schaefer. social media have taken over so fast and so completely that very few businesses have really wrapped their brains around the paradigm shift involved. but all of you are demonstrating exactly what social media is about: getting together to get something done.

i think i can speak for christine to say that we are delighted and humbled by your commitment, enthusiasm and willingness to reach out to other women. i can't tell you how much this means to us and how it will help further the work and make a difference in the lives of thousands of more women. bravo!

in schaefer's book he says the whole social game boils down to three things: 1) target people of influence and carefully nurture a relationship with them. 2) deliver great content and 3) be genuinely helpful. social media is what women do naturally, reach out and support each other. no wonder men are having so much trouble understanding it!

let us know what we can do to help. you know it's been a long hard road for us and we've put everything we have into whole woman. we dream of the time when women don't even consider surgery as an option for the conditions christine has historically and continues to address.

thank you thank you!

all love,
lanny (the DH)

Thank you so much for those numbers. They are impressive and a real validation of the lives so touched and helped by Christine's work. We are all so grateful to this site, to the dedication, compassion and knowledge of Christine and to you, for all that you do in helping to make this possible.

Regarding percentage of women affected, I think in the one video she says "75% of women, and eventually it's almost all of us".

Dear fab and Prolapse2012 -- many of the women mentioned already are TV figures, celebrities and political figures. How about getting the NPR show hosted by Diane Rehm? Her show is wonderful, diverse and has a lot of integrity. Also, it will access all who never watch TV or read newspapers. She is on Twitter but I do not know how to tweet yet so....Prolapse2012, can you send her one? I think if she knows we are a forum of over 6,000 women being helped by WW, she will publicly want to interview Christine on the air. Millions of listeners for this show !

Would I wish prolapse on Julia Gillard?

Howz about Angela Merkel (sp?)

Re Lady Gaga and Madonna, hey, nobody's perfect! It is all about celebrity, isn't it?
Having a 'good' Matron, as opposed to Patron, is another matte all together!

Just a thought. Perhaps some of these women are already among our Membership? If any of the esteemed women on the above list would like to contact Lanny or Christine, I am sure you would be welcomed with open arms and treated with the respect due to you, as any woman.

Louise

I don’t have to agree with someone’s politics or policies, but I do admire these women for their courage, strength and purpose. Julia Gillard and Angela Merkel are rare, intelligent women operating under immense pressure in a man’s world. They have both been under constant, prejudiced attack for daring to be women doing a "man’s" job, as well as for their political ideology and policy decisions, by both men and women. Shock jocks, businessmen and gutter press have said the most atrocious things about both, including wishing them physical harm. These things would not be even spoken or countenanced if they were men. I would not wish any physical harm upon either of them including prolapse.

I have looked up the show and what I see is this The Diane Rehm Show @drshow Could that be a twitter address? It's amazing how little I know but in googling around, that is what I came up with. I do think it might be of interest to her and she takes on subjects like this along side of all kinds of other ones. Nationally, it is voted one of the top 10 radio talk shows, if that means anything. You are amazing and I do hope that you hear back from a few of them. If you are unable to make this connection, I can always write her an email or letter. Thank you dear Prolapse2012!

Hi Prolapse2012, The URL http://t.co/fBnDwgy expands into some sort of facebook redirection. What is your twitter handle? I can have a look if you like. Or are you trying to tweet using a 3rd party app?

EDIT: I'm assuming since you're tweeting them about POP you are happy to publish your twitter handle here. But if I've got that wrong, then don't :-)

Further to what Lanny posted, I wonder what specifically you would be asking these celebrities to do in response to the contact. I can see in the case of Oprah and Diane Rehm that you would be asking them to do a show about Christine and POP. With the others it is not so clear. Perhaps it would be better to have a specific purpose for each contact. Otherwise it might look like a bulk mailout and may not get any result. One of the great things about twitter is that it is public and this can put some pressure on the person to respond (because their followers are watching to see if they will), unlike email, which can be privately ignored. But unless you are asking them to actually do something then your tweet can also be ignored.

That’s where I was hoping Christine would come in. Does she want a patron, someone to do a book launch, someone to open her next conference which we will eventually organize but probably not this year as November is almost upon us? Does she want someone to put their photo and recommendation on the home page? Does she want an introduction to International Health Org or similar Women’s Org at the UN? Does she want a sponsor? And what would the sponsor be sponsoring? Or, does she want a grass roots organisation of chapters, and so on.

Any ideas would be more than welcome.

I agree that it is important to know what we are asking for and to individualize it. In fab's first letter those goals seemed to give some clarity in that. I agree that Oprah and Diane Rehm would be amazing for Christine and in turn amazing for all women, in that this would open up the doors to publicly talking about women, prolapse, "real women's anatomy and posture" etc etc. The sponsor idea is complex, that is why I suggested a grant but that may not be so easy either. The publicity from something like Oprah or Diane would certainly be a first step while we are all brainstorming. With P2012's enthusiasm and twitter-talent, we are off to an amazing start. We can refine it all now for the future tweets (can't believe I am using this language and dont even know what I am talking about)

Wow, impressive everyone. I would only suggest that we should not leave out men, sooner or later, in our contact lists because they need to be aware and educated about this situation and many of them are in positions of power and influence also.

You have done a wonderful job in getting all of this off the ground! You are amazing!! Lets see how things go and if you get any feedback. If not, then we should personalize things a bit, with thought, and try it all again with some nice grabby introduction letters. It will be exciting to see if anyone contacts you.

I have just added myself to you on twitter as a follower. I clicked into your tweet to Julia Gillard and it took me to this page. It works like magic. What a great way to communicate.

Incidentally, the first line on my screen was "Here's something to get your fangs...." They might take us as for a bunch of vampires. But you can scroll back up and down the whole length of the thread. If nothing else it can be seen as a candid illustration on how web secret committees work.

Hey, it's a novel way of attracting attention to an important cause. Limited to 140 characters, you've taken it to the max and look still growing as I type. You've done tops

You wonderful ladies are just fantastic and this high profile publicity can't happen quick enough. Last night I was horrified to again see a women with a rectocele being "cured" on television. Viewers got to see the surgeon insert a strip of mesh, securing it in place with what looked like a needle and thread and a nail gun. No where was there any suggestion or hint of an alternative way to approach this.
Could Pink be added to the list, she's a strong voice and not long had a bub.....?

I'm not a big TV watcher, but I know there are so many talk shows on, including Dr. Oz. I would think he would be interested in exploring this. Of course there are lots of shows with women hosts like Ellen - my mind went blank about other names....but they are out there, including on small stations which may be a good place to start.
I do agree that any mesh would be bad for the body. I would think the body would reject this foreign object. They do it for men's hernias & I am very skeptical of that.

I was reading this Community/Activism thread, wondering what if anything happened with it ?
So much enthusiasm and good ideas here.. I dont tweet.. any updates to this?