Whole Woman Village Forum

Well, I have been really watching my diet and now I have a question....
Does anyone have problems with stools being TOO soft? Not diarrhea, just that they are much softer, which for some reason is making it harder to pass. I have actually been straining more and not less. What's up with that?! I guess what I need to a way to make them more consistently firm, but not hard. I know it sounds crazy, but I really feel like maybe a better diet is making this worse somehow..HELP!

I am looking into using a sea sponge for some gentle extra support for my bladder leading up to my menstrual cycle and maybe during exercise. Tothose of you who are using the sea sponge, I would appreciate your advice tremendously.

Do you find it scratchy/irritating? Do you use a jelly or cream with it?
Do you use it every day? If so, how often do you remove it to clean it?
Since it's not "sterile" do you worry about infection, or have you gotten an infection from it?
Does it help support your bladder during exercise?

Thank you so much in advance. I'm trying to avoid using a pessary. The hard plactic nature of it doesn't seem "right" to me.

A lot of times when things are going well, its easy to forget to thank people who have helped you. I just have to say thank you to Christine and everyone here, because my life is about 100 times rosier today than it was even 2 months ago. I developed some uterine prolapse and cystocele and rectocele after my baby boy was born on June 11. Since I found this site I have changed my eating, my posture, the way I pee (I squat over the toilet tilted slightly forward, even at home :P), etc., and I feel SO much better. Most days I can barely reach my cervix and my rectocele has not bothered me since I've become so regular. Now I can really enjoy my baby and I am ETERNALLY grateful for that. Nothing could ever replace this time in our lives, and so I have to say thank you, sincerely! Finding this website may have made an impact on my life and my baby's life that really cannot be measured.

After reading some information on the FAQ's page of this site, I find myself a bit confused. I have what I thought was my uterus completely outside of my body. But under the question, "What is uterine prolapse?" I read that "It is important to realize that it is not the uterus itself that becomes visible, but the top, or apex, of the vagina turned inside out." So, I'm wondering, what is this large red balloon thing hanging out of me? A couple of years ago, after the birth of my fourth child, the OBgyn said I had a severe uterine prolapse, cystocele, and rectocele. All of these terms confused me and I've just assumed that it was my uterus hanging out.

I was diagnosed with a stage one cystocele after having my son. Most of the time I don't have problems with it and wear a pessary only when I exercise. On three seperate occasions the cystocele has gotten worse for a couple of days at a time where I can spread the vaginal lips and see it. These episodes are not often. My son is almost for and this week is the 3rd time it's happened. It's been three days. For three days I have been laying on the couch and it goes back up into place but even from just standing in the shower it drops back down. I'm stressing that it will never go back to where it was.

Hi everyone,

I have recently had a terrible hacking cough which has I fear worsened my rectocele quite significantly. Where I only used to have a bulge when I bore down, now I definitely have one all the time. It is not causing any symptoms as such, but I am of course disappointed at this latest development to say the least.

I have been careful to bend over at the waist, and contract my pelvic floor each time I cough, but I can still feel the intrabdominal pressure pushing things down. I doesn't seem to matter whether I am lying down or standing up, the pressure each time I cough is the same.

Hello All,
This is my second post today and I'm very curious to know if any of you have a similar allergy to mine.

Shortly after ovary removal and uterus removal at age 37, I had to begin using vaginal estrogen to improve bladder function, and get some lubrication in the vaginal area, and to help pelvic floor heaviness. Anyway, I found that the vaginal estrogen "burned" and caused urethritis symptoms.

I have since discovered that I am allergic (tested by a real MD allergist) to parabens and glycols. Apparently there are about 7 or 8 different types of glycols (propylene glycol and others), and I'm allergic to ALL the glycols.

Greetings all. I'm new here and understand that the "Whole Woman" site only deals with those you have all their pelvic organs. However, I need help so I will ask you to kindly bear with me.

I'm a 41 year old endometriosis victim. Stage IV ovarian endo and endo everywhere else in the pelvic cavity, including rectum, and bowel. The endo grew into rectum, attached cervix to rectum, started growing out of rectum, plastered ALL my pelvic organs together and completely obliterated the pouch of douglas. I could go on, but I've said enough.

I have no children. Fertility treatments due to complete destruction of ovaries was impossible. Thus, my prolapses (which are unusual to say the least) were created by extensive, extensive, 8 hours of pelvic surgery during hysterectomy. The hysterectomy unfortunately had to be done. I had tried everything, acupuncture, osteopathy, homeopathy, vegan diet, lupron depot, depot provera, and on and on, without success. From ages 34 - 37 my life became a nightmare of pain, bladder problems, etc.

Hi everyone. I am 30. I had my son when I was 27 and had to have TVT surjery for incontineence four months after giving birth. The tvt procedure fixed about 80% of the problem but I was also diagnosed with a mild cystocele. My question is somedays it doesn't bother me at all but then there are days like today, where I can feel it bulging and pressing on my uretha and it almost feels like I have a bladder infection but it doesn't burn when I urinate, just when I am sitting in certain positions. I can actually see the bladder bulging sometimes and then it goes away....Does this happen to any of you? It hasn't happened to me in over a year but I think I did to many abdominal exercises or something because It is very sore today and lots of pressure.

Dear Christine - saw my Gyne yesterday, and took with me your information alerting us all to Trimo-San's non- approval by the FDA. He was genuinely surprised; had a copy made, & told me to stop using it, (which I had). He told me he was going to contact the current company and the FDA in his own investigation and would call me to let me know what progress he made. He was distressed with the news I know and thanked me for bringing it to his attention.Hope somehow I will have something else to report when he gets back to me.Ever onward! Jeanne