Being diagnosed with a prolapse is often a very worrying experience.
Common concerns include, will I need prolapse surgery?
Will my prolapse get worse?
And will my partner notice?
And unfortunately, there's a lack of emotional support for women and men with prolapse.
The social stigma and shame associated with prolapse often results in silent suffering,
and also to prolapse anxiety.
Hi, I'm Michelle.
And today we're talking all about prolapse anxiety.
I'm going to take you through six strategies to help you manage your prolapse diagnosis,
or after prolapse surgery.
Now, this video applies both to women who have prolapse including bladder, bowel, or
uterine prolapse, but it also to applies for men who suffer from rectal prolapse and women
who suffer from rectal prolapse conditions too.
So we're going to, first of all, hear from two of my patients that have really kindly
offered to share their prolapse anxiety experiences with you.
And after that, we'll go straight into our six strategies.
So here's what two lovely ladies have had to share with you today.
When I was first diagnosed with my prolapse, I had no idea what it was I understood a prolapse
but I didn't really understand the full extent of it.
All I knew is my symptoms were debilitating.
It scared the hell out of me, I had no idea how I was going to function.
I had a young family, I was active, I was really struggling to see life.
As I knew it had changed forever.
Fear seemed to really take over.
And the anxiety got the better of me.
I couldn't think about anything, but I had to manage what I was eating, how I was having
bowel movements, how much I was drinking, how often I was going to the bathroom making
sure was around a bathroom.
It was something that I don't wish upon anyone that moment where you can't reach out you
feel somewhat ashamed because you feel broken, but you're not broken.
But in that moment, your anxiety has completely controlled your every thoughts.
The fear of how do I manage my symptoms?
How do I get on with life?
How will people look at me differently?
How do I manage a pessary?
Do I want to use a pessary?
Am I seeing the right doctors?
Do I need surgery?
If I have surgery, the recovery of surgery, and then if I have surgery in the surgery
fails, and then life post-surgery, there was so many things to absorb and consume.
Whilst if dealing with the physical sense of a prolapse, I think is such an anxiety
and depressed moment because you tend to internalize because of the fear.
For me, I feel that that really sort of took over my clarity and being able to think rationally
around things and making appointments with doctors and trying to source help for something
that I was really struggling to accept was happening to me.
At the time my prolapse was diagnosed, I was worried about how to deal with all my symptoms.
It affected every aspect of my life.
I was embarrassed and upset that I couldn't carry out everyday activities without discomfort
and pain.
I couldn't pass urine easily and easy bowel movement was a long-lost memory.
I couldn't enjoy recreational activities with my family and friends.
I felt apprehensive about exercising and making my symptoms worse.
I was frightened about needing extensive surgery on what my recovery would be like it was always
on my mind.
So as you can hear from those two women, that prolapse can actually really affect your quality
of life caused a significant amount of worry, anxiety, depression, and fear.
So as we've already said, these issues aren't often addressed.
So here are some of the strategies that you can use.
The first strategy is to really know your condition.
Now a prolapse is a little bit like an abdominal hernia that you can see here.
Now when a hernia occurs, it means that there's a gap in the abdominal wall, and the intestines
can bulge through and that's the organ pushing through behind.
Now, this is really similar to a pelvic prolapse, it means it's been some weakening in your
pelvic tissues.
And so this is the pelvic floor here.
So this is the sitting bones and this is where you'd be underneath.
So if there's weakening in these muscles or the tissues that hold everything up, then
the organs can bulge down through those weak spots, and when the tissue but when the organ
behind either the bladder, the bowel, or perhaps the uterus bulges down, it's a little bit
like this, bulging through tissue bulging through so it's very similar to that hernia
that we just saw.
So I think it's really important to understand the condition.
First of all, and know that it's a weakening in the tissue walls, and also to knowing that
it's not life-threatening.
Now, there’s a lot of things you can do to manage your prolapse.
And this is one of the second strategies for reducing prolapse anxiety, know that there
are a number of things that are under your control.
And I'm going to go through five things now that can help you manage your prolapse better,
and reduce your anxiety.
Now the first thing to need to remember is to never strain.
If you never strain to empty your bladder or bow, then you're going to reduce the forces
downwards.
And I have a video here on how to empty your bowel without straining for that information.
The second thing is, to manage your abdominal weight.
So I have got here, five pounds of fat, or it's about two and a half kilos of fat.
Now, if you're carrying a lot of abdominal fat, okay, in particular, it's going to sit
directly on your pelvis, you can see that there and load down your pelvic floor every
time you're standing upright.
So if you can imagine if you can then really well manage your abdominal fat, then that's
a really good way you can reduce your risk of prolapse, worsening, or recurrent prolapse
after prolapse surgery.
Now I also too happened to have a video on how to reduce belly fat.
It's linked above and also below if you want further information on that.
But that's one of the really good ways of reducing your risk.
Another thing you can do is do pelvic floor-friendly exercises.
Now, pelvic floor-friendly exercises mean exercises that don't load your pelvic floor.
Exercises like walking, exercises like cycling, and also to appropriate exercises in the gym.
And you can read all about those here in this book, my ebook, and it's linked below as well.
So it's really well detailed, lots of pictures that you can look through with exercise programs
that you can look through as well.
So that's fully outlined below.
I also do have quite a few videos on those two aims on my channel.
The fourth thing you can do is use a pessary.
So I pessary device looks like this or they all different shapes and sizes.
And basically, your doctor or your pelvic floor physiotherapist can insert this for
you fit you insert you.
And this helps to hold up the prolapse tissues and it can reduce symptoms.
So for some women, there's a really effective way of reducing your symptoms and also to
helping you to manage much better during the course of the day and helping you to reduce
your anxiety.
Okay, now the final thing I wanted to go through was your Kegel exercises, make sure you do
your Kegel exercises because your Kegel exercises are critical for holding everything up.
We know that pelvic floor exercises or Kegels can help reduce prolapse symptoms and also
to actually lift the prolapse slightly higher.
So that's a really essential part of managing your risks and reducing your anxiety.
And again, refer to my video above all linked below on how to do your Kegel exercises for
women and for men.
Alright, let's move on now to our third strategy.
I think one of the most important strategies is to talk out your issue with someone.
It's true, isn't it a problem shared is a problem have.
In terms of talking, you might feel that you can't if you feel really embarrassed, there's
many support groups available online.
And maybe you can get involved in a support group or just watch the conversation.
And I've got international support groups linked below, both in the US and Australia
if you'd like to access some of those support groups.
I also think it's really important to open up to your partner about your feelings.
You'll probably find that your partner will understand.
If you can't open up to your partner, then maybe there's a trusted friend or family member
that you can also talk to at this issue about.
It's interesting because a 40% of women aged 45 to 85 years have some form of prolapse,
yet we just don't discuss it do we?
So the more openly we can discuss this with people, the better that we're going to be
able to manage relieve our anxiety and also to you'll probably find that some of your
friends or maybe even family members have prolapse problems as well.
The other thing you can do in terms of talking it out is seek professional help.
And that might be with a counselor, with a caring doctor, or with your pelvic visit physiotherapist,
your pelvic floor physiotherapist, we see these conditions all the time, and we can
really help you manage your prolapse much better and help you reduce your anxiety about
your prolapse.
Now, I want you to think about this is a fourth strategy.
I want you to think about two worst-case scenarios.
And I'm going to give you some examples that I commonly see.
So one of the worst-case scenarios that women often think is my prolapse is going to get
worse and I'm going to need surgery.
So I want you to think that that happens to you consider that being one of your worst-case
scenarios.
Now, what do you do?
Well, what you can do is, first of all, find a really appropriate surgeon, someone that
you really relate to will or you get on with well, and if you have the choice of a surgeon,
that is, of course, and you can ask the surgeon, the risks and the benefits of your surgery,
and then you can weigh up those risks and benefits for yourself.
You can also ask your surgeon about their personal success rates with this particular
type of surgery.
And also to this gives you an element of being able to control your outcomes and I've already
talked about the risks so you can bring into play reducing your risks, before your surgery
and after your surgery to improve your overall outcome.
So that's one of the first common fears.
The other common fear that I really hear from women is that their partner will notice, and
they'll feel shame or feel anxiety, that this is going to be an issue in their relationship.
So, I want you to think about the worst-case scenario for you.
Or let's say you, your partner notices.
What happens then?
Well, my thinking is that your partner will probably not think anything less of you will
actually only want to support and care for you and comfort you in this situation.
But let's say your partner doesn't react this way.
I think that you need to then be thinking about is it worth actually being with a partner
who won't accept you for who you are?
And for your body?
Would you accept your partner, if they told you that you had prolapse?
Think about that, too.
I think these are really important things to think about.
And think about in thinking of the worst-case scenario, will you survive, or will you not?
So there are two examples, there are two common examples on prolapse and anxiety.
Now the final thing or one of the final things I want to mention is to reduce your overall
anxiety.
And things like just self-nourishing activities might be like having a warm bath, going for
a walk in the sun, reading a book.
Think about those types of things that can help you reduce your overall stress, also
to other strategies that we all know about and to readily pass over things like mindfulness,
meditation, deep breathing exercises.
So all these things can help you reduce your stress, and in turn, reduce your anxiety.
Now, the final thing I want to mention, and this is a really important thing is to show
yourself self-compassion.
Now self-compassion means treating yourself with the same kindness, care, warmth, and
understanding that you'd show someone else.
So I want you to, for example, picture someone in your mind's eye, perhaps a close friend,
or a family member.
Just think about that person for a moment.
And now, imagine them telling you that they've got a prolapse and they're really worried
about it, they feel guilty about it, they feel ashamed about it.
Now, how do you react to that person?
Do you feel critical towards them?
My guess is that you feel really caring, empathetic, and understanding towards them, and you want
to reassure them.
Now, this is the same way or the same approach that we really should treat ourselves with.
You couldn't have foreseen your prolapse occurring.
A prolapse happens from life events, from having pregnancy and having a baby from menopause.
So you can't have foreseen your products occurring.
So you have no reason to feel shame or feel guilt.
You only have the reason to feel caring for yourself, warmth, and kindness, and understanding.
So in closing, I really hope that one or more of these strategies today that I've gone through
help you manage and overcome your prolapse anxiety.
Don't forget that there's the links below to the support groups that I've talked about.
And if you found this video helpful, I'd be really grateful if you could give it a like
below, because then this encourages YouTube to share that video with other women and men
that are suffering from prolapse anxiety, too.
So thanks so much for watching today.
I'll see you next time.
Bye for now.