Prolapse: (Not) In the News

The following statistics show how many news articles turn up in a Google News search for each of these major women's health issues:

 

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: 3,700

Osteoporosis: 25,200

Breast cancer: 903,000

 

How many articles are there on prolapse?

525

 

I am of course not suggesting that prolapse is equivalent to cancer. I merely want to point out that, as far as women's health issues are concerned, prolapse receives very little media attention, particularly considering that it effects a greater percentage of women than any of the other conditions listed above.

Perhaps, however, this doesn't surprise you at all. After all, many women have never heard about prolapse before they are diagnosed with it.

You can help us raise awareness about prolapse by:

• Talking to your family and friends about it, the way you would any other health condition
• Sharing our prolapse infographic on social media
• Seeking treatment, and being frank with your GP about your symptoms and the effect they have on your life (we need to raise awareness among health professionals too)

If you would like to do something about the lack of media representation of prolapse, contact newspapers and TV news programs in your area and tell them that there is a story that needs to be run about an issue that affects many of their viewers.

 

It is only through increased awareness that we will get better treatment and less stigma.

Mesh Surgery in the News

Elevate prolapse repair mesh

A common type of prolapse surgery currently being used involves using a synthetic mesh to support the pelvic organs. It is the alternative to the more traditional type of surgery known as 'native tissue' surgery, which uses the woman's own muscle and ligaments to do this.

 

Mesh surgery is controversial because although it has worked well for many women, it has a relatively high rate of complications. These include incontinence, pain during sex, and complications from the mesh eroding the vaginal walls. You can read more about this in the Cochrane Review of Prolapse Surgery.

 

The controversy about mesh surgery has been in the news recently.

 

You can read about the halt to all use of mesh surgery for prolapse in Scotland here: "Cheers and tears for brave mesh victims as controversial operations are suspended."

 

This article from the Wall Street Journal details the large-scale Embrace study currently underway in America, testing the safety and effectiveness of one the most common mesh products, following a recent FDA advisory on the topic: "American Medical Systems Enrolls First Patient in Embrace."

 

Links to news articles are provided only to keep you up to date with what is happening around the world with the issue of prolapse. These articles are from mainstream newspapers, not scientific sources, and are not intended to provide information about how to manage your prolapse.

 

The Cost to Society of Leaving POP Untreated

 

Women make up half of the population. Approximately 86% of Australian women will have a baby over their lifetime, and of those, roughly half will experience POP.

 

Many of these women have symptoms such as incontinence or pain that restrict them from doing activities they would like at home or at work. For some women it even prevents them from continuing work, volunteering, or caring for children or other relatives. The unsatisfactory nature of so many current treatments, and the lack of knowledge about the condition, really compounds this.

I have often wondered what the cost is to society of 1 in 5 Australians being so limited in their activity.

 

Deloitte Access Economics was commissioned in 2011 by the Continence Foundation of Australia to try and answer this question. They were looking at all incontinence, not just prolapse - but prolapse is one of the leading causes of incontinence among women, who suffer from incontinence far more than men.

 

The figure they came up with was that incontinence cost the Australian economy $42.9 billion a year, not including the cost of actually treating or managing incontinence.

 

Considering this figure, prolapse and other conditions that cause incontinence (many of them, like prolapse, often related to childbirth) need to be a much larger focus of research and public awareness campaigns. The economic cost, and the human cost, is too high.

Prolapse on "The Conversation"

The Conversation is an Australian news website on which specialists (usually academics) write articles about their field of expertise.

 

Caroline Gargett, one of the researchers in the Monash/CSIRO team currently working on improved prolapse repair surgery, has written an article about prolapse on The Conversation: What is Pelvic Organ Prolapse?

 

This article includes a good general introduction to prolapse, some thoughts about the impact it can have on a woman's life, and some of the developments in treatment.

 

She uses the following example to show just how common prolapse is:

 

"Considering these statistics, three generations of women in a family may potentially be affected at any given time – the new mum, her mum and her grandmother."

 

She also acknowledges the devastating and ongoing effect that prolapse, particularly if it causes incontinence, can have on a woman's life:

 

"...the impact of incontinence on the quality of life and daily functioning can be severe. Indeed, it’s comparable to the effects of having a stroke or dementia."

 

Gargett also speculates about why research in this area is just gathering momentum now, and why so many women still do not seek treatment:

 

"The reason so little is known about pelvic organ prolapse in the community is that these symptoms are incredibly embarrassing for women."

 

At the end of the article, Gargett mentions that she and her team are in the early stages of testing their new mesh and stem-cell combination surgery. As the article is from September 2012, this research has since been completed, and the results look very promising. The abstract (a short summary of the study) can be found here: Human endometrial mesenchymal stem cells modulate the tissue response and mechanical behavior of polyamide mesh implants for pelvic organ prolapse repair.