Prolapses are something that most commonly happen to women after childbirth or during/afer menopause as the muslces lose some strength. They can unfortunately be very debilitating, mess with your sex-life and impact self-esteem. A lot of women are too embarrassed to talk about their prolapse but they are actually quite common. The good news is there are some easy things you can do to help.
Why do prolapses happen?
During pregnancy you have more of the hormone relaxin in your system, so the muscles holding everything in place lose tone. When this is coupled with the extra weight of a baby and the extra strain from giving birth, this can result in a prolapse. There are different kinds of prolapse and it is not only vaginal ones that can occur.
With perimenopause the muscles also lose tone creating a weakness in the pelvic floor, which makes a prolapse more likely. This can happen even if someone has had their womb removed or not had children.
How to help…
- Firstly – no heavy lifting! This is a big one. Extra strain can make things worse. It’s also best to avoid impact sports such trampolining or horse riding. It is also possible other vigorous exercise can have an impact if the prolapse is bad. Always listen to your body and take things slow to start with if you have recently found you have a prolapse.
- Womb massage. Abdominal massage that works on the womb and surrounding area in a lifting motion can really help improve a prolapse. As long as the prolapse is not so severe that is protruding out of the vagina, this kind of massage can have a very positive, lifting effect. It helps encourage everything into a better position, whilst strengthening the area too. It can still have a positive impact with protrusion, it just might not be quite as effective. This massage helps pull up the area that has prolapsed and during a session you can learn how to do this kind of massage on yourself. Regualrly repeating this motion at home improves things even quicker. Massage also helps relieve tension in the area and any pressure that may not be helping. Women struggling with prolapses find this helps symptoms fast and doing the massage at home really helps to speed up the progress. In a session you also look at other techniques that might help you in more depth. Click here to book a session. For more information contact Jo Medhurst
- Full set pelvic floor exercises. Correctly done pelvic floor exercises help to strengthen the area and hold the improved position from massage in place. It also helps to lift a prolapse. You have 3 sets of pelvic floor muscles…one around the anus, one to squeeze the vaginal walls and one to lift. If you are only doing squeeze and release (usually called Kegels) you will only work one set. This can leave one set too tight and the other areas release off to compensate so the overall effect is not helpful. It’s crucial to make sure you are working all sets when doing exercises. Pull in your anus (take 2 breaths in and out), squeeze your vaginal walls together (take 2 breaths in and out), then lift everything and hold (take 2 breaths in and out) then do the same in reverse is the best way. Do this either on all fours or in child’s pose for best results. It’s also important that your core is strong for pelvic floor to stay strong. Your pelvic floor attaches to your core. Make sure you don’t have diastasis recti and work on your core strength too in order to maintain a good pelvic floor.
- Good toilet habits. Don’t strain when you go to the loo. Take your time and try and do some deep breathing instead if you are having trouble. Any extra strain in the area can make things worse. It’s also a good idea to use a toilet stool. You have a muscle that hooks round your colon when you are stood up. We evolved to go to the toilet squatting and when you squat this muscle releases. When you are sat down this muscle is still engaged This creates a kink in your colon that your body has to push the faeces around rather than a nice straight path for it to leave through. With more pressure on your pelvic floor it’s harder to pass anything – particularly if it is hard not soft. Using a stool that lifts your knees above your hips gets everything in the right position and makes going to the loo much easier. You can get special stools designed for this purpose pretty cheaply but any step-stool you have lying around will usually do the trick. As long as your knees are above your hips this will relieve extra strain on the pelvic floor.
These methods can get really positive results for prolapses so don’t feel you have to just live with it.
For more information or to book an abdominal massage for prolapse click here or Contact Jo Medhurst – jo-medhurst@live.co.uk – 07973 186288
Treatments available in Biggleswade, Bedfordshire and Oxford, Oxfordshire.
Accessible from Bedford, Biggleswade, Ampthill, Cambridge, Huntingdon, St Neots,
Milton Keynes, Woburn, Hitchin, Letchworth, Stevenage, Royston, Cambridgeshire,
Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Luton, Hemel Hempstead, St Albans, Hatfield,
Welwyn, Harpenden, Leighton Buzzard, Aylesbury
Oxford, Bicester, Banbury, Witney, Abingdon, Didcot, Wantage, Newbury,
Swindon, Reading, Thatcham, Wallingford, Wheatley, Thame, Lambourn, Burford,
Chipping Norton, Cotswolds, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire,
Gloucestershire, Hampshire.