Elly's Story

Where to start? Well, I'm 35 and noticed my prolapse (uterine) about 3 weeks after the birth of my second child although I have a feeling the damage was done during my first delivery.

Anyway, I was picking up my oldest child, 2 years old, and felt something move/shift down inside my vaginal cavity - when I got inside to check out what had caused the feeling, I noticed an odd, smooth looking piece of tissue near the opening of my vagina, the introitus. There were also a few other pieces of vaginal tissue right around the introitus as well. Initially, I freaked, quietly of course, but I knew this couldn't be right!! (I must admit at times I wish I had ignored the problem and not looked..you know, the feeling it might not exist if I didn't acknowledge it. I know that's not reasonable, but after having noticed something, I feel inclined then to recognize it...much to my chagrin). I made an appointment immediately with my gyn - may I add that the receptionist had the gall to ask if my uterus was in my lap! Good grief! Apparently, prolapse occurs although until then, I'd never heard the word uttered.

I went to the gyn who checked me out - standing - first time ever she did this. She did not examine me standing after the birth of my first child. She confirmed my fears and proceeded to tell me to do a gazillion kegels a day. If you've got a mild prolapse by the way, this may work, but not a stage 2 out of 3, or a 3 out of 4, though it might help w/bladder control. Sorry, I digress. I went back for my 6 week checkup - where she then decided to outfit me w/a pessary, a hodge to be specific. If you've done any reading on pessaries, the hodge is more for incontinence - which at this time, I don't have (knock on wood), rather I've got to concentrate to relax enough to urinate - my urethra tends to be kinked. What gets me is that my gyn did not ask me if my cystocele was bothering me - she merely assumed it was. I'm not trying to put down my gyn , but I think it's important that we make certain that we ask a million questions and inform our doctors if we think what they are doing isn't helping/correcting the problem. Oh, and I did ask her if there were procedures to put the uterus 'back up'. She said yes. I asked her if she did that type of surgery, again, she said yes. After I got home, I thought and thought about it, and the next time I saw her, I asked how many of the resuspension procedures had she done, she said 4. I'm thinkin' - "I better start looking elsewhere!" I wanted to find a doctor willing to do the surgery AND who had a lot of experience as well as success!

So, I got the pessary (uncomfortable for me at the time) and decided to cruise the net for any and everything I could find! I evened thumbed through the yellow pages to find 'specialists'. I would call doctors, oncologists, urologists, etc.. I must admit, I found my current urogynocologist this way. There was a tiny title under one of the doctor's names in the book - it said pelvic repair. I called and found out that is what they specialize in. Actually --there are only two urogynie's in my area of Northern Virginia, not a place w/a small population so I'm guessing this is still a relatively new specialty. May I add, while calling and talking to a large number of doctors, the prevailing answer I got in dealing with prolapse was to have a hysterectomy. After researching this quite a bit via web and discussing it with others, I tend to discard that belief due to the amount of vaginal prolapses that occur to women after hysterectomies, even women who never had prolapse prior. Just a note, that is not a medical observation, just a personal one.

Right now, I'm waiting to have abdominal surgery done to correct my uterine prolapse (2nd degree out of 3), my cystocele (grade 2 I think) and my rectocele (grade 1) - seems prolapse comes in groups b/c of the close proximity of the organs in the pelvic region. I am also using a different pessary, much more comfortable than the first b/c it addresses my specific problem better. Hodges are fine, but try to get your doctor to treat your symptoms with the correct pessary. Mine is like a diaphragm, it's a hard ring w/covering in the middle, as one member stated, it's like a trampoline in the middle ;-).

As to what caused my prolapse - these are my thoughts. Since prolapse doesn't run in my family (it can be genetic) I'm attributing it to my first delivery. That delivery took 40 hours. I was induced 2 days early b/c my BP began to rise a little and my doctor was going out of town. She wanted to be there when I delivered so we decided to induce. I was gelled Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, and Wednesday afternoon. Things were happening very very slowly. (fyi - the gel is used to "ripen" the uterus/cervix so as to start labor.) She broke my waters on Wednesday night and started me on pitocin. Around 1:00am on Thursday morning, I called "Uncle" and they gave me an epidural - things were still uncomfortable (to say the least ;-). Seems I could only dilate so much and the baby hadn't even dropped by that date so I have to wonder if we all should've let nature takes it's course. All 20/20 hindsight of course. I had problems w/the "lips" of the uterus. Anyway, by Thursday afternoon, my temperature was beginning to climb and my baby was basically being 'cooked' in utero. (2 and a half days in labor...) They were going to do a c-section but I must admit, I'm afraid of "the knife" and at the time, had no idea about prolapse. My gyn decided to use the vacuum and fundal pressure to get the baby out - if not, she would do an emergency c-section. For those not familiar w/the fundal method - that's basically where someone gets on top of you and shoves the baby out.

Well - the procedures work, along with a 4th degree episiotomy!! Poor husband saw it all ;-). Things actually healed pretty quickly and at the time, I thought things had gone pretty much back to where they were supposed to be. I did have a problem with urinating - it's more a trickle and I had to take longer to empty the bladder. I thought this was 'normal' after having a baby. My uterus at the time (now that I think about it) seemed lower on occasion but nothing registered as out of normal at the time. I used a diaphragm so had a rough idea of where the cervix should be.

I had another baby about 2 years after my first delivery (got preggo at around 18 months after the first delivery). Oh, may I add that my first baby was rather on the large side, over 9 pounds, which they tell me, is big for a first baby. I'm 5'5" and run about 116 to 120 pounds, I was all baby when pregnant ;-). This time, because of the complications of the first delivery, my gyn decided to induce me early. At 39 weeks, I was induced - and after a measly 12 hours ;-)...gave birth to another baby over 9 pounds. Only had a 1st degree episiotomy and one gel in the morning - nature was already about to begin labor it seems.

But, I think the weight of the pregnancy and the subsequent pushing brought the house down, sort, of speaking.

**Back to the present:

After finding my urogynie, I continued to research on the web to find more data on prolapse as well as any studies done on resuspensions w/the uterus. At that time, I found a few people off of older forums and emailed them to find out if they had found anything new or how they were doing. Eventually, I found this current forum and I must say - it's been great having a place to get and give very detailed information. The ladies I've met here are very supportive and together, we've put a lot of information on the site and hopefully, helped a number of fellow prolapsers.

I hope this helps anyone who's looking for answers, hope, or information!! Please join us in the forum, and Welcome to CUPS (Choices for Uterine Prolapse Society).

Elly