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.

The Importance of Getting Your Prolapse Information from Professional, Scientific Sources

Make sure you are selective when getting medical information from online sources such as You Tube

 

The internet is a great tool for managing your prolapse. Considering that many doctors still do not have a good awareness of prolapse, it is a place where you can find out more about your condition. Even though most people feel uncomfortable discussing prolapse in person, online you can find lots of people willing to share their experiences with you.

 

However, there is a downside to using the internet as your primary source of information, and that is making sure that the information is accurate, based on science, and that the person giving you the information has no ulterior motive.

 

A good example of this problem is You Tube videos about mesh surgery. A recent report presented at the American Urological Association 2014 Annual Scientific Meeting found that two thirds of all videos about mesh surgery for prolapse were posted by legal firms. Lawyers are not generally recognised as experts in women's health. It is more likely that they posted these videos, usually very critical of mesh surgery, to try and find women who had experienced complications from mesh surgery and would like to sue. You can read an article on this case here: Patient Perceptions of Vaginal Mesh From YouTube and TV.

 

When looking for information on managing your prolapse, think carefully about what the person who produced the information may be hoping to achieve.

 

A good place to start is here, at the Prolapse Information Project. I have no financial share in any prolapse-related products, and I strive to bring you only scientifically-backed information from reputable sources.

June is Prolapse Awareness Month

Share this prolapse inforaphic from the National Association for Continence, to help raise awareness of prolapse

 

June is prolapse awareness month. It was started by the Association for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Support (APOPS), which is an international organisation that raises awareness of prolapse.

Like all prolapse organisations, including the Prolapse Information Project, APOPS was only formed recently and still largely depends on the participation of supporters. So, while there are some official APOPS events for Prolapse Awareness Month, APOPS is encouraging women and health professionals to organise their own events.

Because the Prolapse Information Project is based online, I am encouraging readers to post the infographic above on any social media sites they use, such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. It provides basic information about prolapse, and explains how common it is.

Many readers would not have heard of prolapse before being diagnosed with it. Still others may have lived with their symptoms for years, thinking they were the only ones with those symptoms. While you may feel hesitant to raise awareness of prolapse because it may make people realise that you have a prolapse, you have the potential to really change the life of someone you know who is suffering in silence. Something as simple as sharing this infographic could have a huge impact on the life of one of your family or friends.

It is time for it to be as socially acceptable to say "I have a prolapse" as it is to talk about any other serious health condition. This change starts with each of us.

Prolapse After Childbirth: Common, Not Normal

 

Many women are told by health professionals - GPs, midwives, obstetricians, and gynaecologists - that prolapse after childbirth is normal. In the vast majority of cases, this is probably intended to be reassuring.

 

It's also true that prolapse after childbirth is common, but there is a subtle but important difference between common and normal.

 

Common means that something often happens. Women do often experience prolapse after childbirth, as a result of labour or of the pregnancy itself. The most recent data suggests that at least 1 in 5 new mums experience prolapse, and this figure is being revised up as more women feel able to seek help for their symptoms.

 

Normal has a different meaning. It suggests that not only is something to be expected, but that it is acceptable and perhaps even inevitable. To a pregnant woman, telling her that prolapse is normal implies that there is nothing she can do to prevent it happening, or to stop it getting worse if it has already occurred. To a mum with prolapse, it tells her to just accept what has happened, and not to bother anyone about it. It implies that prolapse is a normal, but unspoken, part of being a woman and she will just embarrass herself if she brings it up. It tells her that other women just deal with it, and that if she can't face just dealing with her symptoms (however distressing) then she is not a normal woman.

 

Telling a woman that prolapse is normal is giving her a life sentence.

 

If you are a health professional, consider carefully the message that your words give your patients, however unintentional.

 

If you are a woman suffering from prolapse, do not feel pressured into just accepting your condition as it is. Ask for help, and keep asking until someone helps you. A good place to start is the Getting Help and Resources tags on this website.

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.