There are many health conditions that women suffer from that just do not seem to be talked about much in the mainstream, even among medical professionals or patients who have gone through them. One such issue that is surprisingly common but rarely discussed is a condition known as pelvic floor prolapse. If you have been suffering from pelvic discomfort, urinary incontinence, or even protrusions from your vaginal canal, you may be surprised to learn that you are one of the many women who has been diagnosed with pelvic floor prolapse. The good news is that this condition in which the organs in the pelvic area shift due to improper muscle support, can be treated. Get to know some of the pelvic floor prolapse treatment options available to you.
Monitoring and Incontinence Treatments
Assuming that you do not have a severe pelvic floor prolapse in which your organs or tissues are protruding from the body, the most common initial treatment of the condition is to monitor your health and wait to see if your prolapse is resolved on its own. In the meantime, your doctor may focus on helping you manage and treat your incontinence symptoms.
Great strides have been made in the treatment of incontinence. One of these newer options is the use of Botox to treat an overactive bladder. The Botox is injected directly into the bladder muscle to reduce the intensity and frequency of its contractions. In the case of pelvic floor (pelvic organ prolapse), the use of Botox will depend on the extent of the prolapse and the exact positioning and condition of the bladder in relation to where it should be. However, if your doctor does opt for this treatment in can provide excellent relief for your incontinence worries
Physical Therapy
Physical therapy is also an option to treat pelvic organ prolapse. The initial causes of the prolapse have to do with weakened or poorly functionng muscles in the pelvic region. As such, physical therapy may be prescribed to help strengthen and rebuild those muscles.
Sessions with a physical therapist will focus on specific exercises that can help you to learn to better isolate and control the muscles in that region. The ultimate goal, of course, is that those muscles become strong enough to support your organs and move them back into place.
Pessaries and Surgery
The next step up in the treatment process for pelvic floor prolapse is either the use of a vaginal device known as a pessary or surgical intervention. A pessary is a plastic device that is similar to a diaphragm. It is inserted into the vaginal canal and will help to support your uterus and other pelvic organs preventing further prolapse progression and giving your muscles a chance to heal themselves.
Surgery, on the other hand, is the last option in treating pelvic floor prolapse. Surgery is designed to provide extra support to muscles that cannot heal on their own and/or to reposition organs that have shifted a great deal. Surgery can be performed vaginally or laproscopically in most cases to make it as minimally invasive as possible.
Now that you know more about treating pelvic organ prolapse, you can be sure that you talk to your urogynecologist, such as at Women's Health Associate - Gilbert A Shamas MD, about the best option for you.
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