Pelvic floor
As with any illness, prevention is better than treatment.
This means appropriate antenatal and intrapartum care and regular postnatal pelvic floor exercises to reduce the risk of childbirth damage.
In postmenopausal women, oestrogen cream helps maintain tissue strength. Where prolapse is severe, symptoms are troublesome and conservative treatment has failed, surgery is the next option. Vaginal surgery is the usual method of repair. Abdominal surgery, on the other hand, is usually performed when there is urinary stress incontinence or when vaginal surgery has failed. The choice of technique will generally depend upon the type, the severity of the prolapse and the surgeon’s experience.