Episode 56 - Pelvic Organ Prolapse

[Music] Welcome to GenX Adulting and today we are going to discuss pelvic organ prolapse. I'm going to share my own personal journey so far. With that I have pelvic organ prolapse and I think it's important to discuss it because again as a GenX woman or girl that grew into a woman no one discussed this with me. I knew nothing about this until it happened to me. It's such a disservice to women. I do know that the younger generations are way more educated on pelvic floor therapy and keeping the pelvic floor strong especially after childbirth but all that we were told to do was kegel exercises and then you should be good to go. And for anyone who doesn't know what a kegel exercise is basically where you kind of tighten up your vaginal area and you're supposed to hold it for kind of as long as you can I think and then release and you do a series of kegel exercises you can do them in the car anytime sitting you can do kegels anywhere anytime and we were pretty much told do kegels and you're good. Is there is there any merit to that because I do recall you being told that and being you're like oh I'm gonna do my kegels is there any merit to that or is that just nonsense? Yeah no no I think kegels are definitely part of pelvic floor therapy but they're just one part and so we were given just one tool and we should have been given a lot more tools one of them being educated and not going into so many things ignorant especially after having children. So I'm gonna do my part here and as just like we talk about very openly about relationships marriage parenting menopause perimenopause I think we should be discussing pelvic organ prolapse and going through it myself I felt it was important to share my story. I have two questions off the rip that you can weave into the

think we should be discussing pelvic organ prolapse and going through it myself I felt it was important to share my story. I have two questions off the rip that you can weave into the conversation one is how did you find out about it and I'm sure you're gonna go into that and is there anything they could have done when right after delivering say our last child or any one of our kids is there anything they could have done that would have helped prevent it and you know yeah yeah as opposed to the journey around now. So preventative care would have been pelvic floor therapy I personally think that every woman who has a child vaginally I don't know about cesarean I can't speak to that so I'm speaking of vaginal birth should automatically receive pelvic floor therapy it should be automatic and maybe it is now I don't know maybe some of our younger listeners can pipe in on that but for I can speak for Gen X women no. I do recall Grace talking about it one of our previous guests around there was there's some something more proactive. She spoke about it and she's a Gen Z she's the oldest Gen Z so I think they're gonna those moms are gonna change the narrative for sure but for us again it was do your Kegels and take care of the baby and that was pretty much it I mean don't even get me started on there was no discussion really of postpartum depression and all that but that's another episode but I'm talking about as far as pelvic floor therapy Gen X women weren't told anything about it and I know boomer women weren't so I don't need people coming in talking to I know women before us were not it was not discussed with women before us it was not discussed with us so speaking as a Gen X mom of three three vaginal births I never heard the words pelvic floor

know women before us were not it was not discussed with women before us it was not discussed with us so speaking as a Gen X mom of three three vaginal births I never heard the words pelvic floor therapy and we actually have three kids who range in age and even on the last right nothing right nothing was said yeah so we have 97, 2,000 and 20 10 yeah so even though they're all Gen Z I've got the youngest Gen Z and I've got the oldest Gen Z and then one kind of in the middle and in all those three vaginal delivery experiences and all those years that span no one said anything about pelvic floor therapy so again this could be something that's changing I hope so and you just reference grace a previous guest if anyone's interested go check out her episode she talked about it like that was just normal like probably how people said to me Duke Eagles now they're saying pelvic floor therapy I don't know me or maybe she may just be you know very proactive of her own health and has searched that out but for me and for I think most Gen X women pelvic floor therapy was not discussed well I think it's not just the younger generation of women but it's also an evolutionary thing right women do get better health care today than they do 30 years ago now you still probably you know yeah I don't want to go down that whole rabbit hole but it's evolutionary thing where it'll just your issues will still you know get tended to a little better than they have before because women are gonna talk about it yeah and because Gen X women are talking about it especially so what's happened here is as Gen X women are hitting midlife we're talking about all the things and we're changing the narrative so because we're going to shout it out and then the younger generations certainly are

as Gen X women are hitting midlife we're talking about all the things and we're changing the narrative so because we're going to shout it out and then the younger generations certainly are shouting it out so I think the combination of us bringing things to light or at least getting it out there and then the younger generations just kind of demanding it in some ways because we've raised them that way I think that there's gonna be a complete change of narrative but it's gonna be because of women it's like it's gonna 100% be because of women there's no question this all kind of started yes when I had children but I didn't know so having children and then lack of pelvic floor therapy is really the root but then during perimenopause during my 40s I developed fibroids or I had always had them but they started being symptomatic in a way of the symptoms were bleeding I just was bleeding all the time I was having like two periods a month sometimes like ten days of bleeding each time or longer horrendous cramps like it almost like if you're start the beginning of labor pain cramps now when I was younger and had my period I had horrendous cramps but then after I had children my cramps less than significantly but then once I hit perimenopause and I had these fibroids and the bleeding the cramps were horrendous again and it did affect my quality of life I would feel weak I actually it made me anemic at times and I would feel like I didn't have energy or I'd be bleeding so heavily that I didn't feel like I could go and do things like for any length of time because I was afraid I was gonna bleed through my tampon and even though I could bring extra tampons with me there was always that feeling of you could put a tampon in and within 30 minutes you

because I was afraid I was gonna bleed through my tampon and even though I could bring extra tampons with me there was always that feeling of you could put a tampon in and within 30 minutes you could be gushing blood again and if you're out like I had situations where I bled through my pants and that happens to young girls teenagers but as an adult woman that was shocking to me to be dealing with that where all of a sudden I would have this gush of blood and I'm in a I'm in a store and I'm like bleeding through right and I'm rushing to the bathroom and the type of bleeding it was also had clots so there were times it was like you it was it was almost like a murder scene it looked like it was just bad it was what it would be like you're cleaning up a murder scene almost that's how it felt right and imagine being in a public restaurant gonna say you're at Publix and just yeah and that's what women can go through whether they're dealing with fibroids and bleeding or just horrendous horrible periods you can end up in a public restroom and feel like you need a hazmat suit and gloves because you have just you're bleeding everywhere and it's it's horrendous it's absolutely horrendous so this went on for a long time and it got to the point where I said to my gynecologist I can't do this anymore it's affecting my quality of life it's affecting me participating in life I don't feel well and I don't have energy my blood count was low like I said I was anemic she suggests in an ablation which is where they burn the lining of your uterus they cauterize it so you would still ovulate and your body would still go through all the normal stuff but you would not shed a lining of a uterus which is what the when you menstruate that's the blood I so I

so you would still ovulate and your body would still go through all the normal stuff but you would not shed a lining of a uterus which is what the when you menstruate that's the blood I so I still don't understand how that works but that's that's what they do I'm just curious like so when you ovulate like how does your body like shed if you're a blaze so I never looked that up I'm sure somebody knows there's a risk though that that would work but then like a couple years later or three years later or five years later I it would stop working do you know because that's yeah you've piqued my curiosity there the fibroids do they open additional say holes in your uterus which then causes these additional bleeding and then that's what they would cauterize or no it'd be like a full-blown let's cauterize you and chill you up because that doesn't make sense either right yeah so I don't know I don't know how they I think I just would have so fibroids are like benign tumors right so that's how I describe them that's how I understand them if I'm wrong someone definitely correct me but so they would have still been there but I would not have been bleeding anymore hmm so I still would have had the fibroids in me and that's where it's like how was my how was would my body continue to function I never went down that road so I didn't research it you can have fibroids removed yeah I remember that you can yeah you can have fibroids removed well that wasn't an option for me they didn't give me that option but I I know you can the only options I was presented with was ablation and then I didn't want to do that because there was a risk of if it doesn't work and it stops working after like two years three years five years you're gonna have to have a

was ablation and then I didn't want to do that because there was a risk of if it doesn't work and it stops working after like two years three years five years you're gonna have to have a hysterectomy so I went and I got a second opinion and he right away was like and I love my original gynecologist but she was very much pro-ablation I went for a second opinion and he was like no let's just get this out let's get this out of you like why let's just get your you know and I don't I still don't know go right to the hysterectomy he's like let's just stop this I feel like actually now that you say it you could have the fibroid removal or suture or cauterization or whatever was an option but it was like that's a terrible option let's skip right past that and that's why I don't think you're an expert in it right then you did the ablation might be it was officially recommended it was like mmm doesn't sound great either and then it was to the hysterectomy so there was sort of that bump down in choices yeah I don't remember them presenting me with an option to even just have the fibroids I think because it was so they were too far too far gone it's not worth it because yeah so I went with the hysterectomy because I kind of thought because when you've been bleeding that long and going through this subtle trauma of bleeding out in like public places and in your own home and not being able to function it kind of gets the point we're like that sounds great the ablation but I don't want to be back in this place I don't want to do this again I want this done well there's an age component too right it's not you were 25 and this is happening right it was when we were done having kids this is true so if somebody was younger and they still want to have a family

age component too right it's not you were 25 and this is happening right it was when we were done having kids this is true so if somebody was younger and they still want to have a family ablation totally makes sense yeah I was done with my uterus you know we I was so I'm 54 and so I would have been this was in 2020 I'm gonna be 55 so this would have been five years ago I was 50 and so it's obvious that I I was not having any more children and so they could just take the uterus so I chose to go with the hysterectomy and I do not regret that now I did they took my uterus my tubes and my cervix they kept my ovaries I said only take my ovaries if it looks like there's issues with them but I wanted to keep them because I didn't want to be put into medical menopause and they were they were still fun they were still functioning producing hormones at that time so you didn't want to just jump right into an unnatural path I guess right although now that I know about HRT I do wonder if I would have been taking some hormone replacement during perimenopause maybe some progesterone if that would have helped shrink the fibroids I look back now because I've learned some things and I wonder now I don't know but I wonder if I could have taken some HRT if that would have helped with managing the fibroids and the bleeding I don't know yeah but I still didn't want to be put into medical menopause so they and even though I was had some PCOS polycystic ovarian syndrome meaning I would get cysts on my ovaries and there's other stuff that goes along with it I told him if if everything's fine leave them and he didn't feel what he saw that they needed to be taken out so I kept my ovaries and five years later they're still fine I mean they're not functioning anymore but they're not

he didn't feel what he saw that they needed to be taken out so I kept my ovaries and five years later they're still fine I mean they're not functioning anymore but they're not problematic correct yeah and I have gone through for annual internal ultrasounds every year to make sure that they're not problematic so I showed cysts I continue to show I continued to show cysts on my ovaries up until a year ago but they would just I would go in they'd see it they'd have me come back two months later and it would have ruptured on its own but it's mainly to keep make sure that it's not leading to ovarian cancer so anyways had the hysterectomy I was happy with that decision that was life-changing for anyone that's going through that my biggest piece of advice is rest after the surgery there is no rush to start getting back to doing all the things you can only heal once I can't tell you how many women's accounts I read about that they started doing things too soon and they ended up back in the hospital to repair the damage from doing things too soon you can only heal once correctly stop doing the things insist on help and reach even if you don't have family like reach out to friends like I need help for the next 10 days you know you you shouldn't be doing anything at the minimum 10 days I was just gonna ask you that do you recall the length of time I think for me I was down for about that long or so like where I wasn't doing much and then for another week or two I still was taking it pretty easy and then I like even now I still won't lift certain the things are too although I've gotten over I have started I started lifting pretty heavy stuff but it took me a long time anyways life was fine everything was good I rested I healed correctly didn't

things are too although I've gotten over I have started I started lifting pretty heavy stuff but it took me a long time anyways life was fine everything was good I rested I healed correctly didn't have any issues didn't have any bleeding everything healed up sex life was normal like having the hysterectomy didn't affect that and then I want to say three and a half years in I noticed something different I was in the shower and I was like I feel like something has fallen and I in my perineum area like it felt lower so the perineum area probably perineum perineum the perineum area felt like it had gone down a little bit and I was like that's weird but I didn't know about prolapse that's weird yeah so I was just like maybe this is just aging and just like so many women are my age and older we didn't say anything to anyone and kept it to my I kept it to myself and I was just like I don't know what this is totally but I don't even I didn't know how to even approach it and so I think I finally at my gynecological kind of my G Gino appointment I said there I think I have prolapse and she's like oh yeah man a little bit like she didn't really take me totally seriously like yeah maybe a little bit and still didn't say anything still didn't say like well you said something but what else would you say be like hey this thing fell no nothing yeah I just said it feels like I just said I feel like I have some prolapse going on and and I might have said like I feel like something's gone lower and she's like yeah you're a little weak down there yeah it was something like that but even then it wasn't like we should get you going on pelvic floor therapy even then how long ago that was like a year and a half ago okay maybe almost two years ago now probably almost two years ago

then it wasn't like we should get you going on pelvic floor therapy even then how long ago that was like a year and a half ago okay maybe almost two years ago now probably almost two years ago and and then every time I would go in I would spring it up like I think I have some prolapse yeah yeah you're kind of weak and that was it and finally I said I want to go to someone to have a specialist to have this looked at and she was like okay and then she recommended someone and so I went to your gynecologist and that's a whole thing I had no idea what to expect going to your gynecologist I had no idea what they were gonna do I thought I was just going in for like an appointment to talk about what's going on what really drove me to finally be like I want to go see someone is they it just felt a heaviness more and more and eventually it felt like something was kind of starting to press out of my vaginal area it's not like something separate them from me was coming out it was almost like the tissues were being pressed out I think we talked about that's like not a like a like a hemorrhoid that's like a hemorrhoid no no you're saying you had additional pressure on that area they kind of like yes it's like it's like almost like weight was on that area so the inside was being pressed out it's not like a thing that was coming out if that makes sense going back to the to the gynecological review I guess maybe I don't know what you call that your gynecologist and her saying oh yeah you're a little weak what was that like how would she know is that during like exam time yeah like where they use the spectrum now once I had a hysterectomy I didn't have to have pap smears anymore where they take a swab of tissues from your cervix with like a long q-tip they

exam time yeah like where they use the spectrum now once I had a hysterectomy I didn't have to have pap smears anymore where they take a swab of tissues from your cervix with like a long q-tip they put the speculum in the metal thing they open you up I have no idea yeah I know I'm telling you they stick a long q-tip take tissue off your cervix and they send it in for testing to make sure you don't have cancerous cells that's why they do it and then they do a visual to make sure everything looks okay for me it became just a visual mm-hmm and then I think and then they do insert sometimes a finger to feel the inside part of your vaginal wall and I that's when I think she was like you're weak okay she could feel that my that area was probably very pliable if that makes sense it was I'm almost I'm almost equating it to like if I flex my bicep there's you know you get a little tighter right as if you don't it's right is it almost like that it's I well I mean I don't know what is the inside of my vaginal wall I I think it's like it probably knew she's a doctor give probably that it was supposed to wasn't as firm or tight or strong and so in the perineum area it was probably very weak she could feel it was that's what she meant she could physically feel okay there's probably more give here mm-hmm and that's where I'm like and maybe by that point I would have been too far gone for pelvic floor therapy so there wasn't a point even recommending it I don't know but but there was almost no recommendation it was almost like a you know yeah yeah and I don't know and I like her a lot so I'm not faulting her but I think it may be just as a cultural thing in that we the medical industry does not focus on pelvic floor health of women enough

so I'm not faulting her but I think it may be just as a cultural thing in that we the medical industry does not focus on pelvic floor health of women enough I wonder which blows my mind because our bodies are being used to produce the next generations if it wasn't for us life would stop right we produce the next generations out of our bodies wouldn't our pelvic floors be something that the medical industry should prioritize in women but it's like just now really where it's normal that people are talking about well it's still not prioritized by the medical industry I don't think I think it's driven by women yeah but it's like all health care both men women children seniors cancer patients whatever you have to drive your own health you have to be your own advocate you have to be your own advocate especially as a woman yeah because so we don't have this stuff you're talking about us guys obviously obviously yeah this is not a thing this is some wild stuff well no and so many studies have been done on men too and then just trying those results are just transferred over well it's good enough for men in other areas of medicine so it's a whole thing but um so I went to the your the urogynecologist and it wasn't just hey this is what's going on it was oh while you're here you're gonna have a procedure done it was called a video cystocope I think I'm saying it right says cystocope it's where they put a camera up your urethra to look in your bladder to make sure there's no tumors she had to clear that first so they spend time getting a baseline before they do anything oh interesting is it is the concept there maybe if there's a tumor in your bladder it'll create the pressure that may be a false indicator of the prolapse possibly or let's make sure we're not dealing

interesting is it is the concept there maybe if there's a tumor in your bladder it'll create the pressure that may be a false indicator of the prolapse possibly or let's make sure we're not dealing with a bigger issue like cancer yeah they have to rule that out basically I cannot that cannot be comfortable not at all yeah so they do some latikin on the outside latikin gel yeah no it's like having a catheter put in that's insane no it's like well literally I think how when is the catheter went in and then she put the camera through the catheter so I think that's how it went I don't know I was literally like when I made the appointment no one let's here's another thing no one said by the way there's a chance you're gonna have this procedure done at this first appointment so I'm thinking we were gonna sit in chairs and talk I'm now laying back like I'm at a gynecology a gyno exam looking up at the ceiling thinking okay what the fuck so breathing because it's a lot of that for women and gyno appointments there's a lot of pain and just like with having birth there's a lot of breathe through it breathe through it it's like okay mind you if this was men there would be pain medicine there would be I know there would be 100% no so I did so they did that it was all clear and then she I don't know if it was through that or her exam I'm trying to remember now but they came to the conclusion that a lot of prolapse can be going forward in your body or it can be going backwards or coming straight down so for me it's going back it's called like a rectisil I'm probably saying it wrong but it's where it's a prolapse of the posterior compartment so the anterior compartment would be where it's going forward towards you mine's posterior so I'm getting

I'm probably saying it wrong but it's where it's a prolapse of the posterior compartment so the anterior compartment would be where it's going forward towards you mine's posterior so I'm getting more pressure on my bowels whereas for women where it's anterior are getting more pressure I think on their bladder and they have I think end up with incontinence or where they're leaking urine or they pee when they laugh or cough or sneeze I don't have that so it's hold on I have a thing here it's called stress urinary incontinence I don't have that I'm not leaking urine so my lot of times when you say thing yeah a lot of times when you say prolapse people automatically think it's related to bladder and you're becoming incontinent and that is true in some situations but in my situation that's not it it's going backwards and that's why I felt like something in that perinium area fell because it's leaning back and then the way it was also described is from the middle it's kind of going down so where it was like flat the middle part is now of my body is now coming caving in on itself a little bit caving in and then going back as opposed to forward and so that can cause issues with like constipation right so for me like I have to have celery juice every morning if I don't I am constipated like I'll go but I'm not like it's not how it should be or I have to have like smooth move tea and I didn't some type of laxative but I won't do like the pills but a natural laxative right fiber yeah I I thought that was just maybe like perimenopause because that's a symptom of menopause and it could be also I think that's the challenge right because yeah you've got this whole biological chemistry lab experiment ecosystem happening yeah and there's a lot of

of menopause and it could be also I think that's the challenge right because yeah you've got this whole biological chemistry lab experiment ecosystem happening yeah and there's a lot of crossover and hell at least from what I've learned right it's either perimenopause just some random shit from child birth now the prolapse right yeah exactly and so I didn't totally understand it's probably it's physically affecting that so so that's part of that too I do think that's an important part though you just brought up especially obviously for any women listening there's the anterior the posterior I think it there's the straight down yeah but they all present themselves with slight what you touched on it they all have slightly different symptoms yeah but they could ultimately be the same thing with the same resolution yes and it depends on the severity so I think it's graded like zero to five and I'm a low four yeah I was gonna ask you that because you'd mentioned that the other day when you're looking at your option my prolapse and that could be when you go back to like when you were doing the the gyno exam and she's like it's a little weak maybe you were staged to zero or one yeah fast forward now you're four and it's like well shit yeah I can't imagine five right no no so now I'm so okay so they they I leave that appointment and not knowing what my results this was this was like a year ago or no it wasn't that long ago right yeah okay and then they said okay now your next thing you have to do is a euro euro dynamic testing again I had never heard of this before in my life and I couldn't get into that until I want to say August or something it was like a few months and so euro dynamic testing is interesting and maybe we'll put a

of this before in my life and I couldn't get into that until I want to say August or something it was like a few months and so euro dynamic testing is interesting and maybe we'll put a picture of the chair I had to sit in on the video part of some people could see it looks like a torture device chair it's almost like if when you lean back and you put your legs in the syrups for an annual exam but you're sitting straight up so your legs are in stirrups kind of knees up you're sitting on a chair that's open has a cone open and then there's like a container underneath there right it's like medieval I bet I bet anything it was designed by a man of male engineer okay so I walk into that room and look at that chair and I was like I bet anything they have a nickname for it right the letter here in Florida they call it Sparky I bet there's some random I don't I can't even it's one of those things women go through where we're just like really so they say arrive with your bladder pretty full which is interesting because then they you sit in there and they fill your bladder hold on I actually have it here I want to say it correctly wait they say you show up full bladder it's like all right drink it go on a water fairly full like comfortably full okay but then I okay so then I think what they do is if I remember correctly I think they had me go they had me go I think and they it's a thing the thing underneath was measuring how much I went just on my own I think that's what it was and then they did it's called a filling systematry and they put a catheter into into my bladder and they filled it with sterile water I'm reading this it almost this sounds like a vaginal enema yeah they filled it yeah and it says this measures how much your bladder can hold

into my bladder and they filled it with sterile water I'm reading this it almost this sounds like a vaginal enema yeah they filled it yeah and it says this measures how much your bladder can hold your sensation of fullness and how your bladder muscles behave after your bladder is filled you will be asked to urinate this test measures the flow of urine and the pressure in your bladder during urination you will be asked to urinate into a special toilet that measures how much and how quickly you urinate that's the thing that was underneath me sometimes small electrodes are placed near your pelvic floor muscles to measure the electrical activity in these muscles as you try to hold and release urine I had that they put the electrodes on me so I had that now during it there's a picture and maybe we'll put the picture up but it's like the sensation stages like you don't really feel like you have to go stage one kind of feeling like you might have to go stage two stage three is like yeah I have to go in stage four is like I'm gonna pee my pants type of thing and so she basically filled I don't know how she measured how much to fill me up maybe until I said I don't know I can't remember now but she filled me up and then I just had to hold it and tell them when I when I was at each stage and then well so there's some arbitrary thing that they're filling you up and you're like oh I'm a little full I'm up you know then you get to that final phase you're like I'm about to piss my pants that that was that yeah I was supposed to say and then I think they stopped and then she they wanted to make sure that once they do the prolapse that I'm not gonna be incontinent meaning is the prolapse kind of like when you oh maybe it's working what do you call it when

then she they wanted to make sure that once they do the prolapse that I'm not gonna be incontinent meaning is the prolapse kind of like when you oh maybe it's working what do you call it when you do do a hose you crimp it you crimp it so is the prolapse actually crimping my bladder and once they fix it will I be incontinent they wanted to make sure my that they're getting a true read on my bladder so she actually would like put an instrument inside of me and like lift the prolapse during this procedure as I'm sitting in this chair and then could you feel it like rolling around inside your body or is it more like no almost like that you're pressure pressure pressure and then I would pee and then stop peeing so and then she with the electrodes and stuff she would gauge was I able to stop peeing on my own or not and we did that a few times because they're trying to make sure the prolapse isn't crimping the bladder and so through that testing if they did confirm I don't have incontinence I can stop now I can't stop like you know you don't know but like women when we have to go pee in a toilet at the doctor's they give you a wipe and they want you to pee like for a little bit like two seconds three seconds and then take the wipe clean yourself and then pee in the cup because they don't want any outside bacterial going in the cup I used to be able to do that no problem not anymore there is that's not happening more so I can I don't have incontinence but if I start I'm not stopping so when we were doing it it was weird because I would I would maybe maybe I didn't pee she had me just bear down I think she had me just bear down and then not bear down and I during that's what it was and I think during the bearing down I didn't

would maybe maybe I didn't pee she had me just bear down I think she had me just bear down and then not bear down and I during that's what it was and I think during the bearing down I didn't have any urine leakage so they knew okay you're not incontinent so I was just what is bearing down women will know but I'm the only guy in the room right how does that even though like I mean I mean you're pushing so bearing down would be almost like if you're trying to push out a bowel movement or a baby you know you've heard that with labor when you when you go to push a baby out of your vagina you're supposed to use the same feeling as if you're going to having to push out a bowel movement and then the bowel movement cancels the urination event no no just so she's having me bear down to push my pelvic floor muscles down well to make sure that when I bear down I'm not leaking urine I'm not peeing so she's making sure them all right women all understand women all understand yeah so through that they confirmed I don't have incontinence and then they were like okay now go ahead and pee and they're all in the room mm-hmm I and I couldn't pee with them in the room I just sitting in that chair mind you my legs are spread and syrups okay so my legs are up on like not insert like over this contraption and I'm sorry and I'm in a public open room and I'm supposed to just now relax and pee and they they left pretty soon after because and I'm sure it was pretty I could tell was normal a lot of women I think I've issue and I had to just like focus and be like you have to just be I mean I've never peed like that in my life where I'm just sitting there spread-eagled in a room air-conditioner blasting I can hear people in the hallway talking and I'm supposed to just

I mean I've never peed like that in my life where I'm just sitting there spread-eagled in a room air-conditioner blasting I can hear people in the hallway talking and I'm supposed to just pee it was the it was actually it felt humiliating but it wasn't meant to be that way but it just felt it felt I was so vulnerable and I was and again I was like I cannot believe this is happening you got to get into like camping or like concert mode or something yeah but even then you're bent down it's just different I was like leaning back oh true so it wasn't even like a natural hose no I'm kind of back a little I was kind of back so I wasn't even like sitting up yeah so I finally peed but I did so they did say that I'm probably not getting rid of all the urine and the prolapse should when they fix it should help with that were so we went through the Eurodynamic testing got all that done and this is like some medieval shit really it felt that way but but it's I until they figure out a different way to do this check off the electrodes and you know getting what you were describing us like why the hell did they need to do this just let's fix it but but it makes sense the way you check everything like in the beginning the first thing was to make sure we're not dealing with bladder cancer the second thing is to make sure she could fix everything and then I'm incontinent so if that's gonna happen she's like I want to fix that while I'm in there so then we talked about what are my options and women have a few options when it comes to prolapse one of them is it's called like I think a pest passary it's where they actually you put it up inside of you to like hold the prolapse up it's something that you would get fitted and I think you would have it not it's not

called like I think a pest passary it's where they actually you put it up inside of you to like hold the prolapse up it's something that you would get fitted and I think you would have it not it's not like a diaphragm concept but kind of I think and I think you would have to have it replaced like you'd have to get a new one it's like an object that would hold you up I think the next one is to use your own tissues to lift everything up so kind of like cut and stitch cut and stitch I think is what they're talking about and hope that your tissues will heal up and hold you in place the next one is to use like a mesh to lift everything up and it attaches to the back of you almost like near your tail bone and then in extreme cases for women who are no longer sexually active in their life at all they'll just close you up which I had never even heard of before that part of your body yeah because if you're just let it go to the floor but it'll stop yeah it'll stop right so what you're describing then it's holding in your abdominal cavity right your vaginal your pelvic organs your vaginal your your your vagina your uterus if you still have one your rectum okay all right like that whole area it's not your intestinal cavity and your stomach that's like no no no no so it actually says it what is pelvic organ prolapse this condition refers to the bulging or herniation of one or more pelvic organs into or out of the vagina the pelvic organs consists of the uterus vagina bowel and bladder okay so it is the bowel yeah pelvic organ prolapse occurs when the muscles ligaments and fascia which is a network of supporting tissue that hold these organs in their correct positions become weakened so symptoms include a heavy dragging feeling in the vagina or lower back

fascia which is a network of supporting tissue that hold these organs in their correct positions become weakened so symptoms include a heavy dragging feeling in the vagina or lower back feeling of a lump in the vagina or outside the vagina urinary symptoms such as slow urinary stream a feeling of incomplete bladder emptying urinary frequency or urgent desire to pass urine and urinary stress incontinence bowel symptoms such as difficulty moving the bowel or a feeling of not emptying properly or needing to press on the vaginal wall to empty the bowel or discomfort during sexual intercourse but yeah the the pelvic organs are the vagina the uterus the bowel and what was the last one I said the bladder which I didn't know that I didn't know those were considered the poll I didn't know that which makes sense duh the rectum is connected to the intestines that's part of your pelvic floor yeah but we all oversimplify that it we we pictured as being like the end of the tube type of thing right there it's all connected there yeah and it's not like free-floating this shit sounds like it's all free-floating I think so because yeah no there's nothing that's like holding it so then when you were so I did ask like why did this happen like and they she said you've had three vaginal bursts and that's the main reasoning and I asked did the hysterectomy have anything to do with it and she said maybe a little bit because without the uterus there to maybe kind of hold some things up but she said it's not the cause she's like that's it's just all kind of went in together so she says it's mainly from the three vaginal bursts yeah so again pelvic floor therapy after you know and if you're predisposed like genetically I don't know I've because none of the women in my family

it's mainly from the three vaginal bursts yeah so again pelvic floor therapy after you know and if you're predisposed like genetically I don't know I've because none of the women in my family have talked about this so I don't know because they say like one in three women experienced some form of prolapse but only one in nine women will need surgery mm-hmm I need surgery there is no fixing this without surgery and so wait wait what were the what were those stats again one in three women have some form of prolapse but only one in nine will need surgery it's actually a high percentage yeah one in three one in three women will have prolapse and out of those one out of nine it's a lot of women I think so yes mathematically a lot yeah no one's talking about it it's interesting so for me because of my age I'm still young and still and because God willing have years still to live here right I hope the mesh is what she recommended to bring everything up because there's a concern if I use my own tissues we may be back in doing the surgery when those give out again and then I'll just need a mesh it's kind of compared to the ablation if that fails I'm gonna need a hysterectomy anyways if the using my own tissue fails I'm gonna need a mesh anyways so I so and then I did go to get a second opinion I did not with my hysterectomy but I've learned in my old age to all no matter what you're having done get a second opinion and I went to a man and he was recommended to me by the man who did my hysterectomy the the doctor who did my hysterectomy doesn't take our insurance so I couldn't go to him even for a second opinion which was unfortunate because I liked him he recommended this other doctor I like that doctor a lot he agreed with what she was saying he didn't he gave his

go to him even for a second opinion which was unfortunate because I liked him he recommended this other doctor I like that doctor a lot he agreed with what she was saying he didn't he gave his own diagnosis of how it should be resolved and it matched hers so then I felt okay like he felt yes mesh it's I think you also researched it right yeah yeah AI that whatever yeah robotic laparoscopic robotics so which was my hysterectomy it's where they do small cuts in your abdomen and they do it robotically and I don't know how I don't know anything about that but he even said that he could probably use the same scars for my hysterectomy scars I haven't even talked to her about that so I'm gonna have that done I'm gonna I'm going to have the surgery done so there and then she so where I'm going it's all women it's a women's Center she's obviously the director of the Center not obviously but she's the director of the Center but then her whole staff I think most of her staff is women there are men there but it's mostly women very female centered she did say to me towards the end of our appointment do you want me to just remove your ovaries so it eliminates any risk of ovarian cancer in the future since they're no longer producing hormones and I was like yeah and I said how do you do that she goes we just cut and cauterize and then you don't have to I said I thought once they are done they just kind of shrivel up and you don't have to worry about ovarian cancer and she said no you still have to worry about ovarian cancer so she added that and then she did say when she was examining me she said do you feel loose during sex and I made a joke like I've had no complaints from my husband and I laughed but they didn't laugh because they're being serious and they're

examining me she said do you feel loose during sex and I made a joke like I've had no complaints from my husband and I laughed but they didn't laugh because they're being serious and they're they're women-centered so they don't give a shit about you and so then I was like well yeah it's looser from having children and she's like do you want me to know I she goes it I'd like to fix this up like she could she's gonna do a I wrote it it's a parion I'm gonna say wrong Perinea or off a fee yeah it's a tightening of the perineum so she's gonna do laparoscopic robotic I believe for the prolapse and the ovaries but then she will be working on the outside of me and she said basically she does like a cut and then re-sews everything up and restructures so she's gonna kind of like tighten up the area close it up more basically from the outside give me more support you know what I mean like she's gonna close things up a little bit to give my pelvic floor areas more support so in the healing it won't just be internal healing it'll be external which will be interesting because I didn't deal with that with the hysterectomy it was all internal healing so this should be interesting now what's funny not funny but a few days ago I got a call well like a last week from what her nurse practitioner well no this was from her nurse practitioner she has more and more of an official name I feel bad but saying that even though my insurance has deemed everything medically necessary they are denying part of it and I didn't know what part they were denying so she's like I have to ask you some questions so she just asked me stuff like you know has this affected your quality of life what do you feel anything kind of coming out do you feel a heaviness like just kind of

to ask you some questions so she just asked me stuff like you know has this affected your quality of life what do you feel anything kind of coming out do you feel a heaviness like just kind of reiterating like my symptoms and then she goes okay I'm gonna go now meet with the peer-to-peer review board and fight for you and then a few days ago I get a call from someone at the hospital and all she said was your surgery was denied your insurance denied your surgery is what she said which completely upset me and I was like what what do you mean and she's like yeah they're not gonna take your uterus and they denied taking your uterus and ovaries or something and I said I don't have a uterus and she's like well they denied taking your tubes and ovaries and I'm like I don't have tubes and I said could you pull up my information so you know what we're talking about and then she pulled up the codes and she's like yeah so they're denying your this code is ovaries and then the other one surgery and I'm like so are they denying my entire surgery and she's like yeah and so I said can you have someone call me that knows what they're it's like she was just spouting information in such a way she was ignorant to what she was saying and it was so upsetting to me because it sounded like you can't get your prolapse fixed and then the nurse practitioner I had spoken to last week well you're you're under selling it a little bit because you did try to find out from her but she wasn't she had no clue what she was doing she didn't know this is good and I mentioned it because it goes back to you have to advocate for yourself yeah because you were ready to if you would have just been like okay yeah and then walked away I don't know what you know the outcome would be

back to you have to advocate for yourself yeah because you were ready to if you would have just been like okay yeah and then walked away I don't know what you know the outcome would be different instead you kind of lit her up pretty good but I rightfully so I was sitting here in the next room thinking oh my gosh yeah I wasn't like mean to her not at all it was no it was business like I I need to know what's going on but I was just to be clear I wasn't like boomerish with very respectful but I was like no no we're finding out because you're right if if I was a different personality I would have thought my entire surgery was canceled yeah so again be your own advocate ask questions my dad was a doctor they're just regular people don't have this whole like their God complex with them you have to ask questions of these people so I said could you have someone call me that knows what I'm doing wait about my case and so the nurse practitioner called I actually there's a portal and you can message them and then I messaged her people and I said look this just happened could someone please call me and so she called me and she's like I don't know who called you like she was flabbergasted over that and she goes but we did have the peer to peer review and it was a man and he wouldn't even tell me his name and it was a doctor and he denied it and I told him this denied what well that's at first in it now and she's like he wouldn't budge and I'm like wait what is he did not what's being denied is it my whole surgery she goes no no no the prolapse is good and I was like okay I'm thinking okay fine because really that's all I care about he's denying the removal of my ovaries and they're saying we're already in there and for her health for

good and I was like okay I'm thinking okay fine because really that's all I care about he's denying the removal of my ovaries and they're saying we're already in there and for her health for women's health like justify why we can't remove the ovaries and he's just felt it wasn't medically necessary but he was a GP towards the end she's like are you a specialist so I near a gynecology and he he's no he was just a general practitioner like a primary physician and she said I'm gonna appeal this and he goes you can appeal it because when she asked his name he's like I'm not giving you my name you can look it up on the file and it's just offensive it was such such a dick such a dick and you know honestly unnecessary I honestly I'm I think if it was she would have been talking to a female doctor I don't know about that happened I did I was just about to say I don't think it was a guy versus male versus female I think he's just an asshole he's had whatever maybe having a bad day just a dickhead whatever but that's just human I don't know I I think that when it comes to stuff like that though it's easier for men to thousand percent associate about certain things because they just they can't relate with half a brain knows medically cancer is a cellular event why leave things in your body that are dying or dead and just sitting there that's a potential landscape to attack and ovarian cancer again you don't have to be the smartest person but it's one of the most lethal right you don't want to get ovarian cancer the survival rates not great right and I think that's why so then she said we're gonna appeal to a specialist and I'm dr. Babb my doctor is going to go is going to go head-to-head with them I think directly so I they're determined so I said listen I appreciate

so then she said we're gonna appeal to a specialist and I'm dr. Babb my doctor is going to go is going to go head-to-head with them I think directly so I they're determined so I said listen I appreciate that you're fighting on my behalf thank you because honestly I really I'm more worried about the prolapse but yeah I would love to have the ovaries removed too and I love that they're fighting for me yeah it really means a lot so I have an appointment with my endocrinologist this week because it's my regular appointment with her but I also want to talk to her about like my thyroid and make sure everything's good it's kind of a pre screening before surgery and then I go to my primary care they have to do pre-op appointment to clear me for surgery then I go to the hospital and they do tests to clear me for surgery and then my surgery is next month and I think I'll be in the hospital I think she said two nights and three days something like that and then of course rest I'm pretty sure she said that rest I think she said you'll be ready to roll yeah yeah yeah I need your husband's help right yeah right but what I'm having done I actually have the paperwork here the actual surgery is called a sacral papexe it's S a C R a L C O L P O P E X Y a procedure to restore pelvic organ support by attaching the top of the vagina to the sacrum tailbone using a synthetic mesh this aims to correct pelvic organ prolapse and improve pelvic stability so and then I'm having the the tightening of the print perineum which I'm not even gonna try to pronounce that again but it's spelled P E R I N E O R R H A P H Y you're gonna need like phonics for medical term I know and then the removal of the ovaries so and I had to sign all this paperwork of all these

that again but it's spelled P E R I N E O R R H A P H Y you're gonna need like phonics for medical term I know and then the removal of the ovaries so and I had to sign all this paperwork of all these you know it's so involved but I'm scared you know I'm scared of surgery I'm gonna be honest the only thing that makes me worried is I want to wake up that's all I care about I want to wake up so and I know that people get surgery all the time but that's my biggest concern but I know that also this could be life changing for me for in so many different ways to have my pelvic floor repaired which is basically what's being done I don't think I'm going to realize how uncomfortable I've been until it's been repaired and then I'm gonna realize I've been living with this you know do you know what are the potential side effects or if it goes sideways like so the risks are you know yeah good so the risks are infection obviously the normal risks no no I'm thinking like will you have will you would you be incontinent would you you know if they fuck it up do you get the little bag type of thing I mean yeah there's always there's risks that yeah if they ruin if they damage organ yeah then we're looking at malpractice even though I signed stuff hopefully I didn't sign that away no if everything goes right this should be it let's say if something goes if it fails I think I'll be really elderly you know what I mean like I think it's this is supposed to get me I think and you're skipping ahead to like the meshes work and it's all good you're like I feel great it's wonderful where I'm going I don't think you've looked into it and I haven't we haven't talked about it but it's the or what if what if something doesn't go right does it mean now you

great it's wonderful where I'm going I don't think you've looked into it and I haven't we haven't talked about it but it's the or what if what if something doesn't go right does it mean now you are incontinent or that you can't have a bowel movement that well we haven't looked into that I guess that's probably have a look at I mean part of it's not that you got to do what you got to do right and I mean I think it gets the point where if you have to have something done at least for myself too much information is gonna give me so much anxiety I don't want to go into it ignorant I don't think I am but all the what ifs what's my other option not doing anything and living like this and then it just gets progressively worse and I get older so the older you get the more risk things are with surgery all right so then some of the more inherent risks would be if the rest of your you know they put this mesh in which is an artificial thing in your body object and the expectation is for your tissue and you're within your body to overgrow it you know and make it all part of the if it doesn't maybe those are complications yeah okay yeah but either way this is supposed to be a permanent fix pretty there could be some lifespan associated to it but I'm what I'm saying is you would expect to be able to have a normal bowel movement you're gonna urinate and maybe say they say stop halfway you probably do it type of thing that's the expectation or the hope maybe I don't know if they can strengthen my pelvic wall to that point but where I could stop mainstream that would be amazing I'd be shocked but um I think okay so one issue and they did prescribe me estrogen cream and I was supposed to be doing it twice a week but I'm on estrogen patch twice a week so they did

amazing I'd be shocked but um I think okay so one issue and they did prescribe me estrogen cream and I was supposed to be doing it twice a week but I'm on estrogen patch twice a week so they did have to lower the dose and I have forgotten to do it at different times I haven't been doing as much as I should I'm gonna start doing it regularly you really should I know but I know but the holidays it was just hard because you have to do it at night before bed and to be honest with you and it's only twice a week I get that but there were times I fell asleep without I just didn't mean to fall asleep right so it's now I'm more on it but you do that before to make sure the tissues inside your vagina are healthy but because I'm on the patch that helps with that and then they will up me up my dosage and I will continue to do it I think for like nine to twelve weeks after to keep the tissues healthy and then I think I may have to do it this is what I thought she said like for the rest of my life do some estrogen cream but because I'm on the estradiol patch I don't know if I will so I'll be curious what she says but part of the reason of doing the cream this is my point is there is a risk that if the mesh scar tissue doesn't grow around the mesh correctly it could end up coming through the vaginal wall the mesh could kind of almost wear down the tissues of the vaginal wall and come through and if that's the case I'd have to have surgery to repair that again but I think the estrogen cream is to strengthen that vaginal wall the tissues there so that they're strong you know they're not atrophied yeah because as you go through perimenopause as you go through menopause let's say if you're not on an HRT everything dries up and it starts the tissues can start to kind of

they're not atrophied yeah because as you go through perimenopause as you go through menopause let's say if you're not on an HRT everything dries up and it starts the tissues can start to kind of age and atrophy I've been on HRT because you're kind of I know you I just saw your eyebrows because that's your that has not been our experience right that's because I've been on HRT everything there has stayed normal but I so I think that's where the estrogen cream comes in for people that aren't on HRT my eye position was more at such a I know being like guy is just such a different thing it is you guys in here all this shit is nuts well because think about it with your reproductive area it's closed right we're open so we're more susceptible to to all kinds of different things it's just we're more vulnerable but so I've been doing the estrogen cream but not consistently but I'm going to be doing that and then I'm just hoping that scar tissue grows around it and becomes a part of my body yeah I know there's there's a lot of mixed opinions on mesh but it's not a sling she said that she goes you don't have it's not a bladder sling because I don't have incontinence I don't need a bladder sling it's mesh used it's like basically bringing the way or pulling everything up they're it's pulling everything up so so that's next month and so what I'm gonna do is I'm going to make a video after each of my doctor's appointments leading up to the surgery and just kind of inform everyone what happened in that appointment and what was said and then we'll I'll talk about the surgery you know after the surgery you make you may make a video while I'm in surgery just keeping everyone up to date who might be interested and then I'll talk about the recovery from the surgery and the

know after the surgery you make you may make a video while I'm in surgery just keeping everyone up to date who might be interested and then I'll talk about the recovery from the surgery and the results I mean hopefully they're positive and it's life-changing for me but again I think I'm talking about this because this needs to be discussed because this does happen to women and I think for a lot of women it can be embarrassing and there's nothing women should be embarrassed about this is like a result of having children something a miracle we do and I think society needs to frickin honor that and be like okay we need to take care of our women and this part of their body that they've sacrificed to give life and I think pelvic floor therapy should be written like a prescription with everything else before a woman leaves the hospital like here's your Tylenol if they even do that I didn't even know they don't do Tylenol no more but whatever it is that they do and then also here's a six-week pelvic floor therapy that's covered by your insurance it's imperative it's almost like we need a pelvic floor therapy guest yes pelvic floor therapist yeah to talk about there's anyone out there would like to come on but I think Gen X women and women older than us we're we're not served in this area at all but I think Gen Z women and millennial women are definitely bringing it to light and things have changed so for a lot of us Gen X women though there's a lot of us that have prolapse and it's it's not being talked about so I'm talking about it and that's kind of where I'm at with this journey so far so I'm gonna keep listeners up to date I'm probably just gonna make like camera videos after my doctor's appointments I don't think it's gonna be a studio video and then

this journey so far so I'm gonna keep listeners up to date I'm probably just gonna make like camera videos after my doctor's appointments I don't think it's gonna be a studio video and then well you know but when we do a follow-up afterwards maybe we'll do a short episode just talking about the whole process because I'm sure there's gonna be more interactions with doctors with administrators just different things we encountered with the insurance hopefully they approve the removal of my ovaries we're still waiting on that we don't have an answer yet they're still fighting for that that may not be something I find out until literally the day before so but I'll include the the different words I said I'll include those in the show notes so everything I discussed I'll write out the official medical terms in the show notes so if anyone's going through this and is curious you can look up all this different stuff and for anyone younger if you're gonna have children please insist or look into pelvic floor therapy and that would be my advice so did you have anything else you wanted to say no no I mean it's all remarkable and just insane quite frankly I worry about far different things as a guy and none of it's related to thank God quite frankly I'm doing okay I'm pretty healthy here so no that's related to my abdominal or reproductive or bowel or urinary function sorry I mean it's crazy yeah I mean I think with you guys prostate right yeah you guys have a hell even that slow growing and I don't even know if it's painful you wind up finding out about it through a PSA test and now you don't they don't even do the they do it to your blood now it's an amazing thing so but even that's not painful or you know compared to what you're describing

about it through a PSA test and now you don't they don't even do the they do it to your blood now it's an amazing thing so but even that's not painful or you know compared to what you're describing and if you do it normally I mean you know from a well I guess from my perspective my dad had cancer he had prostate cancer then he had pancreatic cancer which then took over his stomach and it's colon or colon yeah so I'm getting checked I've do the colonoscopy starting at 40 I think I do the PSA or I so I'm I'm all over it as best I can and you hope the testing is effective and then if I show up positive with something I guess it's on but for now so far so good yeah you know and that's more like related to cancer that's just aging shitty diet things like hereditary genetic things right but environmental things all that but that it's not what you're talking about this is crazy this is just women being women and and it's you know no it's a full pelvic floor repair yeah because like I said she's not only going to be fixing stuff on the inside of me she's gonna be fixing stuff on the outside too yeah so no I I'm kind of overwhelmed I'm probably gonna ask for a Xanax to take the morning of because I just I have a lot of anxiety I have about it for a while well what's interesting too is easy whole opioid crisis debacle shit show yeah I know I'm curious to see how they handle your pain management because they're just not giving them out that's free and like they used to right it used to be candy here take this and now you're fucking addicted they're managing that better but it does come with the I don't know I'm curious to see how they handled that for you so in 2020 after my hysterectomy they prescribed me probably oxy was something yeah Percocets oxy

but it does come with the I don't know I'm curious to see how they handled that for you so in 2020 after my hysterectomy they prescribed me probably oxy was something yeah Percocets oxy yeah but I but I didn't get a ton but I got it I only took those the first day home and then I switched over to Tylenol mm-hmm but um what it wasn't like a huge amount so I think it was already starting but you're right I bet you it'll be even less which I'm fine I'm fine I don't want to get a never feel no finish one of those prescriptions no no and they use strong like on me they for the hysterectomy they use the strong stuff like fentanyl and yeah yeah ox any and oxy something I mean that was during the surgery con done coat code in it's not coding but yeah yeah but anyways they used all that during the surgery so I'm sure they do that still but as far as going home yeah it'll be I don't know it'll all be interesting we'll document it but again wanting to get it out there share it for any listeners any women that may be going through this or to educate younger women to help maybe prevent something like this the last thing I'll say I do think it's a remarkable thing that I think it's cool you're sharing this it's really putting it out there right this is very personal so I do think it's cool you're willing to share it and such a personal thing yeah but I do think there's a huge public service benefit for other women so yeah even if it's just one woman learn something or feels validated or maybe gives them the incentive to mention it to their gynecologist because like I said it at first I didn't say anything to anyone because it's like I didn't you don't know you're like what I had no idea I had no idea and I think it goes back

said it at first I didn't say anything to anyone because it's like I didn't you don't know you're like what I had no idea I had no idea and I think it goes back to that whole you've got a lot of air a cocktail of shit going on at once you hit 50s right or 40 or 40s and stuff there so there's a lot going on and I think it all co-mingles and you know you know it doesn't it's not clear it's process of elimination yeah yeah cuz I also have thyroid disease that I'm always like is this thyroid is this perimenopause is this menopause now no this is actually just your pelvic floor has completely fallen and you need surgery to repair it you know what I would say stop drinking everybody stop drinking so that it doesn't even get convoluted with either hangovers or anything like that too oh you mean like thyroid disease together so it's that's a whole nother level playing field I mean on that note I think what you have menopause it's so hard to drink like your body just does not process it at all like even if you want to I did there's something physiological at least for me and I I've I've seen other women mention this that their body just isn't processing the alcohol so but no obvious yeah not abstaining from alcohol is life-changing we've done a whole episode on that so anyways if there's any listeners as always that want to leave comments or questions we welcome them and feel free to join in on this journey if this is way too much information TMI and you are not interested we completely understand but we're putting it out there for the women even if it just helps one woman then this whole episode was worth it so as always thank you for listening and we'll see you next time bye