Pelvic Organ Prolapse Kim Vopni, Pelvic Health Coach, Personal Trainer

Duration: 3:09

Pelvic organ prolapse is becoming increasingly common as a pelvic floor challenge. And I like to give you a quick visual as to what's actually happening. If you can imagine that this is the vagina, so the vulva and the pelvic floor would be down below here. We have a bladder, we have a uterus and we have a rectum. This would be considered the anterior wall of the vagina and this would be considered the posterior wall. In a bladder prolapse, it's also called a cyctocele, or an anterior wall prolapse. What's happening is the bladder starts to shift out of its optimal alignment and will start to bulge into the anterior wall of the vagina. So an early stage prolapse would be just a little bit of a bulge. As it gets more advanced. It can descend and eventually protrude right through the vagina.

In a uterine prolapse, we have the uterus up above, the uterus itself can start to descend into the vagina and again in extreme cases come right down to the introitus and eventually bulge out of the vagina.

In a posterior wall prolapse, also known as a rectocele, the rectum starts to bulge into that posterior wall and again, in extreme cases can create a bulge all the way down and eventually out of the vagina.

When the bladder is out of its optimal position. You can understand that the urine can actually get trapped in a little pocket which can make elimination a challenge. Same thing on the posterior side, our stool can get trapped in a little pocket, making elimination difficult as well, that can lead to feeling like you need to push or strain to get it out. Some women may actually even need to push their fingers up in their vagina and push that little bulge away so that the stool can actually come out. But that chronic pushing and straining can be very damaging to the pelvic floor. Prolapse is graded in different parts of the world, they do it slightly differently.

Generally, in North America, we do stage or grade: 1,2,3, and 4. Grade 1 and 2 are typically just tiny little bulges, often asymptomatic. More extreme cases are when the bulge is just starting to get close to the introitus is and then stage four would be when it's actually protruding out of the vagina.

So, pelvic organ prolapse is not life threatening. But it certainly is life altering. But there is help many of the exercises that we have in the Kegel Mojo program, specifically the hypo presses. They are some of the most helpful and effective exercises for prolapse, and always make sure you see your pelvic floor physiotherapist.

Presenter: Kim Vopni, Personal Trainer, Vancouver, BC

Local Practitioners: Personal Trainer