In an ideal world, the organs in your pelvis are all where they’re supposed to be, but this often isn’t the case, especially for women. The reality is that pelvic organ prolapse is incredibly common — the issue will develop in about 40% of women around the globe.
But does it have to? Is pelvic organ prolapse really an inevitable part of aging and being a woman? Not so fast.
In the early stages of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), there are steps that you can take that can halt and even reverse the condition. And Dr. Fernando Otero and the team here at Women’s Clinic of the Rio Grande Valley get into three of these great practices below.
The cause of POP is simple — your pelvic floor has weakened, often due to pregnancy, childbirth, and aging.
Your pelvic floor is a band of muscles and connective tissues that form a hammock-like structure under your pelvic organs, keeping everything in place. So, when these tissues weaken and sag, your pelvic organs can shift out of position, such as your bladder slipping down into your vaginal canal, which can lead to incontinence.
Going in reverse, it makes sense that spending some time strengthening these tissues is time well spent. The one exercise that targets these tissues is called a Kegel, and they’re simple to execute once you know how.
To perform a Kegel, you should isolate your pelvic floor and squeeze, like you do to cut off a stream of urine or to hold in gas. We want you to contract your pelvic floor for 1-2 seconds and do three sets of 10 each day. You can also try longer holds, as well as short and fast contractions. However you engage your pelvic floor, the object is to engage it and keep it strong.
While pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause can really weaken your pelvic floor, another culprit is carrying excess weight, which places more pressure on these tissues.
If you consider that nearly three-quarters of Americans are either overweight or obese, you can see that millions of women in this group are increasing their risk for POP.
If you want to improve your POP, as well as many other areas of your health, we strongly suggest losing any excess pounds you may be carrying.
If you have a chronic cough or you routinely struggle with constipation, these are both conditions that can weaken your pelvic floor. So, if you have early-stage POP, make sure that you clear up any condition that leads to coughing and constipation.
With a little early intervention on your part, we have every confidence that you can improve and even reverse your mild POP. We would also like to point out that these steps are great prevention tools for POP, so don’t wait to take action.
If you have more questions about POP or you’d like to be evaluated for this common issue, we invite you to contact one of our offices in McAllen or Edinburg, Texas, to schedule a consultation.
