Modifying floor exercises?

Thank you, Surviving 60, for your suggestions! I will try them.
I'm not sure what all would be helpful for you to know about my story, but I'll give it a try so see if there is anything useful in it.
First of all, I have never been limber or supple. I’ve always just accepted that that is the way I am, though ten years ago I took weekly classes in Viniyoga with a wonderful teacher for a year, but became discouraged by the fact that I couldn’t seem to improve my flexibility. Then other things took over in my life and I stopped. Six years ago I fell on some icy steps and suffered a T vertebra compression fracture. That brought an end to my daily habit of jogging. I did some physical therapy to help remedy that condition. I am rarely bothered by it, except when I spend more than a couple of hours a day playing my cello. Also, at age five I broke my coccyx and have been plagued all my life by pain while seated in airplane seats and other similar circumstances.
As for my prolapse problem: forgive me if what I have to say about it is far more than is relevant or useful.
When I first saw my gynocologist, he speculated that my condition had been provoked by a bout of acute bronchitis a month before. At a subsequent visit he said the fact that my first child, born 37 years ago, had been delivered using forceps, followed by an episiotomy, may also have been a contributing factor. Since then, I have also wondered if the fact that I had taken up a program of weight training a couple of months before I came down with bronchitis might also have contributed to my condition. I also recognize that two vaginal deliveries and my age are important factors.
When I saw him a second time, to assess the effects of doing two and a half months of Kegels, he seemed pleased that the physical therapist had reported that I had made progress in both the strength and endurance of the Kegels. He recommended continuing working with the physical therapist, and if my condition did not improve, to try using a pessary. He also described the surgical procedures to remedy the cystocele and rectocele. It was these descriptions that drove me back to the internet to find out more about these troubling-sounding procedures that luckily brought me to Whole Woman.
Also at that same appointment, I asked about the efficacy of using estrogen cream, something I had read about in the pamphlet he had given me at my first appointment. ( I should say that I am 69, started menopause when I was 50 and have never taken hormone replacement therapy. He prescribed a very low dosage of Estrace—1 gram twice a week for a month-- to be reduced to once a week after that.) I have been taking it for two weeks and have noticed that the bulge from my vagina is less pronounced more of the time.

Luckily my symptoms are not extreme. The pain in my left groin and hip that was a three week prelude to my discovering the prolapse has ceased. I do not suffer from urinary incontinence, though I sometimes feel that I don't empty my bladder completely (but then I have had that feeling for years). I do not suffer from constipation, though I have to strain and use splinting, suggested by the physical therapist, to get things moving past the 'blockade' at the outset of a bowel movement.

In reading about pessaries, I learned that they are least effective for rectoceles, the aspect of my condition that seems to be the most pronounced as that is what I believe I see protruding from my vagina most dramatically before and after a bowel movement. I believe that neither the doctor or the physical therapist have a very good idea of my condition because they have examined me only while I am lying on my back. They have not seen what I see when I check myself in a small mirror when I am standing. When I have described what I see to the physical therapist, she said I was seeing the rectocele. However the drawing in your book of a cystocele Fig. 3-4 on pg. 33 (of the updated version of Saving the Whole Woman) comes closest to looking like what I see. So, I guess I really don’t feel that I have received a fine-tuned diagnosis. I am considering getting a second opinion from another doctor. I’m wondering if it would make sense to see a urologist as well. I’m apprehensive about putting myself in the hands of more doctors who will propose the same old, standard, wrong-headed approach to this problem.

Thanking you in advance for any advice you can give in response to this rather long-winded account!

Dido70

I am extremely grateful to both Surviving 60 and wholewomanuk for your thoughtful responses to my situation and suggestions for sources of information to help me with adapting the beginning exercises for my inflexible body. I clearly have not exhausted the resources available on the Whole Woman site. It is a bit overwhelming, but your steering me to specific places should be a great help.

In addition, your comments about Estrace confirm my suspicions that it may be more potent than my doctor led me to believe. I had always been firm in my decision not to take HRT right from the start, almost 20 years ago, and when he prescribed it, giving the reason that you stated, I had misgivings about abandoning my resolve. I think I will toss the stuff.

Feeling far more empowered thanks to you...

Dido

Thank you again, Surviving, for your comment. It has helped me view my POP as parallel to my way of coping with the symptoms of menopause (without HRT). Having decided not to "treat" the natural process of menopause with drugs, I settled in to learn to cope with and adjust to the disagreeable aspects of menopause- severe hot flashes for years, vaginal dryness, etc.. by simply modifying minor aspects of my daily habits, like learning what factors prompted hot flashes (certain foods, environmental conditions or emotional situations) in order to avoid them or coping when I couldn't avoid them, like never wearing turtlenecks, like dressing in layers so that it would be easy to take the top one off when I suddenly heated up, etc.. And it took my family awhile to adjust to my strange behavior-- suddenly leaving the dinner table to step outside into the cold night air for a minute or two, opening a car window to catch a cooling breeze, etc..

POP poses more challenging and persistent forms of discomfort, but I am hopeful that by taking charge I will be able to handle them with in a similar way. Attitude is all important and fear is our worst enemy.

And thank you, Aging gracefully, for your confirmation of the wisdom of Surviving's words.

Thanks for the red clover information. Although at this point, 20 years after starting menopause, I have only the occasional hot flash, the idea that red clover balm might be a substitute for estrogen cream is very welcome. You two have been enormously generous in your advice.