Pain and constipation after rectocele surgery

Body: 

I had surgery to repair a rectocele in November 2005. For the past 3 months, i cannot control the constipation feeling, only the stool does not seem like usual constipation stool, tremendous amount of pain and agony while trying to go to the bathroom. Is is possible for this rectocele to be back this soon? I lost my insurance and was not able to go back to the doc for a 6 week post op. I have quite a bit of pain with intercourse also. Anyone with the same problem, or advice on what i should do?

Hi slsloop,

Vaginal colporrhaphy is an ill-conceived operation fraught with extremely high failure rates. What is surgically addressed is not the source of the problem and what remains after the fact is a tender, unyielding vaginal wall fused to the rectum.

Unlike an abdominal hernia, where there is only an exterior wall of muscle to close, two organs – rectum and vagina – must remain independent of each other for proper functioning of both. It seems reasonable to just push the rectocele back by narrowing the vagina, but pressure from a ballooning anterior rectal wall remains and usually breaks through again.

I think you need to ask your doctor if he/she thinks something like visceral manipulation might help at this point. There are PTs who specialize in this procedure, which aims to break up scar tissue and mobilize fascia as much as possible.

Thanks for your timely post, which I hope Mommynow will see, and I so hope for a good outcome for you. If you could keep in touch and tell us how you are doing, we would greatly appreciate it.

Wishing you well,

Christine