Delayed diagnosis
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Please don't be scared and try not the blame yourself The forceps may not have helped but are not necessarily the course I had a water birth and ended up with prolapse
Unfortunately with forceps you will almost definitely have a prolapse but it might not be apparent immediately (for some women it won’t happen until the menopause), so it’s not a late diagnosis, it’s a normal side effect of forceps (which you are not warned about). Obviously you can have a prolapse with any type of birth (or even if you haven’t given birth), it’s just guaranteed with forceps. It’s very common and the fact you are 10 months down the line won’t make a difference to the effectiveness of treatment. Unfortunately you won’t recover as there is no cure, but there are treatments that can help some women (this is the same regardless of when you are diagnosed).
@Alice I’m not breastfeeding and saw a private physio who said I’m strong but it’s the release I struggle with in kegels. I have a rectocele and a cystocele so the peasant can’t help either the rectocele unfortunately. I only started pelvic floor exercises last week when I was told I had one. What stage and type do you have and how far pp are you now?
@Alice I think I would have opted for a cesection had I known this could happen
@Melissa by late I just meant no one looked at me and it’s been there this whole time which is annoying as I’ve missed 10 months of being able to work on it. It’s not ok they didn’t warn me as I wouldn’t have agreed. I’m pissed. It’s good to know the time lapse won’t make a difference but I kept seeing people say the sooner the better so I felt really upset
@rach I have grade 2 cystocele and 2uterine. Second baby is ten months first is 3 1/2( prolapsed after first birth) Everything got much worse during second pregnancy but is almost back to "normal" now. weirdly I think I have finally accepted that I'm stuck with this during past few months. I have cube Pessary isn't great but means I can do normal activities like go playground and parkrun etc.
@Alice I’m worried because you can’t use pessary for rectocyeles so if mine gets worse I’m screwed
Can I please ask what your symptoms are? I think I have one. I’m 3 months PP and seeing my GP on Tuesday.. I don’t have anything protruding out but if I check, there’s a ball / bulge in the entrance which looks like muscle
@Bianca I can see 2 little balls (the cystocele and rectocele near the opening and a feeling of a ball, discomfort and irritation. When I sit down it’s like a deflated balloon is inside my vagina and when walking I get a heavy feeling down there and like there’s a tampon or something. I also have lower back stiffness and pain which is new for me since birth and can be prolapse too, and when I poo I can’t fully get it all out sometimes
In regards to late diagnosis I don’t think it would have made a great deal of difference. I noticed mine at 6 weeks pp. I’m almost 1 year post partum now and had 18 weeks of physio and my prolapse is no different to when I got the diagnosis
After childbirth our bodies take 12–18 months to recover so please don’t worry. I had a grade two prolapse and recovered in full but you will need physio and to reduce heavy lifting, constipation and high impact exercise. I can recommend a free support group called the Pelvic Power Movement Community on Facebook x
@Charlotte I’m not on FB so can’t join the group but were there any exercises that you found particularly helpful in healing prolapse? I saw a pelvic floor physio and they just told me to do pelvic floor exercises which I had already been doing anyway and not seeing any improvement. Did you do any core work etc or just pelvic floor exercises?
Hi hun Sorry forgot to reply to this - the late diagnosis probably isn't going to have made much difference in my opinion- at 6 weeks everything is changed so much from birth they wouldn't be able to say if just post parting changes or actually something wrong. Unless you have been doing crazy weight training it's unlikely to have made it worse but could delay your recovery. Have you been doing pelvic floor exercises? If so start. Have you seen a pelvic health physio ? You can get an appointment via the nhs or go private if you don't want to wait. Are you breastfeeding? This reduces oestrogen levels and makes pelvic floor symptoms much worse. If you are then you can get vaginal oestrogen tablets to correct this. For me these have made the biggest difference of everything and I'm kinda pissed I struggled for about 6 months without being prescribed them. You can also get a pessary fitted, either from the GP or a specialist clinic at the hospitalagain would be much quicker private.