Prolapse

Pelvic Organ Prolapse

Being diagnosed with pelvic organ prolapse can feel overwhelming. You may feel like you can’t so much as sneeze without risking making the prolapse worse. You may not know what can help. But the good news is that often, prolapse is treatable with physiotherapy, without the need for surgery.

A pelvic organ prolapse occurs when pelvic organs move from their usual place down into the vagina. This can happen due to changes in the vaginal wall following pregnancy, menopause or surgery.

Prolapse usually causes symptoms of heaviness or bulging in the vagina, but can also make sex feel different or make it difficult for a tampon to stay in.

There are three main types of prolapse:

Anterior vaginal wall – aka cystocele or bladder prolapse, where the front wall of the vagina allows the bladder to fall in.
Uterine / vaginal vault (if hysterectomy) where the cervix sits lower in the vagina
Posterior vaginal wall – aka rectocele, enterocele or rectum prolapse, where the back wall of the vagina allows the bowels to fall in.

There are different degrees of prolapse – mild (prolapse is inside the vagina), moderate (the prolapse is as low as the vaginal opening) and severe (the prolapse comes out of the vagina). Pelvic organ prolapse symptoms vary greatly and do not necessarily reflect the size of the prolapse.

Prolapse symptoms can be impacted by how you move your body, the time of day or even your hormones. That’s why we, at Thrive, help you to manage your prolapse symptoms by taking time to understand your body’s journey.

We’ll take a full body approach to assess your prolapse to understand how your muscles, posture or other tissues may be impacting it. Through this detailed approach, we’ll help you to understand your symptoms and create a bespoke therapy programme to manage and improve them.

At Thrive, as we assess you as a whole, we will never offer a vaginal examination on your first assessment. Instead, we’ll start by assessing how your pelvic floor is working with the rest of your body and what other muscles may be impacting your pelvic floor’s ability to support your bladder.

If, at a future appointment, we believe that a vaginal examination would be helpful to further assess your pelvic floor and optimise your treatment, we will discuss this with you; and the decision will always be yours.

If you are experiencing feelings of heaviness, bulging or ‘something coming out’, you do not need to live with these symptoms!

Testimonials

"I was so pleased to find a physio who really knew her stuff, looked at me holistically and cared about getting the treatment right for me."

Rosie D.

"I can highly recommend Thrive Physiotherapy. After experiencing daily pain for two years, and after numerous appointments with physiotherapists at my GP, my pain was gone following my treatment at Thrive."

Ellen C.

Roisin has been absolutely amazing throughout my treatment. She has been very thorough and attentive to my requirements

Linda J.

Roisin identified exactly what the problem was after a very thorough assessment. She treated the pain and taught me a couple of exercises to do before my next session. After 3 sessions I was pain free in all movements, even when lifting weights.

I felt listened to, respected and understood during my appointments. It was really easy to get in touch to ask questions and I was sent videos to remind me how to do the exercises, which was really helpful.

Roisin is the first female physio I have ever seen and I feel I have achieved more in 2 weeks with her than I have in 6 years with other physios

Laura E-H