Sometimes the muscles and tissues that support your pelvic organs (the uterus, bladder, or rectum) become weak or loose. This allows one or more of these organs to drop or press into or out of your vagina. It’s a fairly common condition called pelvic organ prolapse
There are several treatment options for POP. The best one for you will likely depend on the severity of your condition and how much it bothers you. Urogynecologist Dr. William Rush explains.
What are treatment options for pelvic organ prolapse?
When I see a woman in the office for pelvic organ prolapse I always give them three options. The first option is to continue to monitor symptoms. If it's not interfering too much with her life or her symptoms aren't too bad that's usually what they choose to do. The second option is a pessary. A pessary is a plastic or rubber device usually made of silicon. We place it inside the office and it helps to support the vaginal tissues. It can really help relieve a lot of the symptoms from prolapse of the pressure and feeling like things are dropping down. The third option is surgery. For surgery, there's a few different ways that we can do it. But no matter how we do it the patients usually spend just one night in the hospital and are able to leave the next day. We will be able to perform it in a minimally invasive way, either laparoscopically, through a very small incisions in the belly about the size of my fingertip or, through the vagina. And so either way it's not too invasive usually and not of a large incision incision on their belly with any kind of huge recovery, although it is surgery, and that's the downside of surgery. Pessary the advantage is it's not surgery, but sometimes it has some limitations to getting the right fit.
The first treatment many doctors recommend is a pessary. It’s a removable device inserted into the vagina to support the pelvic organs. Pessaries come in many different shapes and sizes. Some pessaries can treat both pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence.
Ask your doctor if your POP can improve by changing your eating habits, or with pelvic floor muscle therapy. These approaches can make a difference for some women.
If surgery is a recommended treatment option for your POP, you may wonder: Am I too young for surgery? Too old? Is there a risk if I wait? All are good questions. Dr. Rush answers, and helps you decide when surgery may be best for you:
What is the best age to have surgery for pelvic organ prolapse and is there a risk to waiting?
With pelvic organ prolapse a common question a lot of women have is whether waiting and monitoring symptoms is going to make the treatment worse or the treatment options more difficult. And the short answer to that is no. It’s fine to just wait until the symptoms are bothering them enough. This is not things we do prophylactically and as things worsen the surgeries are necessarily worse. There’s no real danger to a woman’s health with waiting either, as long as she can empty her bladder completely. That’s the biggest risk factor that can happen. As things fall down, it can make it more difficult to urinate, more difficult to empty the bladder, which can cause other issues. So as long as a woman can empty her bladder well, I feel ok just waiting and seeing if any other symptoms arise. And if they do, we’ll treat it and if they don’t, she’s ok with just going on with her life and being reassured that things are going well.
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