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By Kimberly A. Harris, RN, MSN, FNP
As many of you know, Dr. Rebecca Ryder is a Urogynecologist who frequently treats women for incontinence and prolapse conditions that affect the female pelvic organs. This field, incontinence and prolapse, is now a board-certified specialty called Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgery.
Assisting Dr. Ryder in this field is our nurse practitioner Kim Harris, who also treats women at our GYN Clinic with incontinence and prolapse, including the Urgent PC office treatment, pessary fitting, and pelvic floor physical therapy.
What is incontinence and prolapse?
The involuntary loss of urine or stool is called incontinence, and it is a taboo subject among many women — even with their doctors. But as many as 50% of women experience problems with incontinence or symptoms of pelvic relaxation (prolapse) over their lifetime.
Symptoms of pelvic relaxation can include:
- Feeling pelvic or vaginal pressure or heaviness
- Feeling or seeing a vaginal bulge or protrusion
- Laxity or discomfort with intercourse
- Incomplete bladder or bowel emptying
As our GYN doctors discussed in an earlier tip focusing on stress urinary incontinence, there are several types of incontinence and pelvic floor problems with different treatments available. Most often a simple office examination similar to your yearly GYN exam will be enough to start a treatment plan. Options include physical therapy, medications, in-office treatments, pessaries, or surgery.
A pessary is a pelvic support device similar to a contraceptive diaphragm that is fit and placed during your visit to our GYN Clinic. Once it’s there you shouldn’t even feel it, and it can provide nearly immediate relief of pelvic relaxation and sometimes incontinence symptoms.
Another effective in-office treatment is called Urgent PC, which uses an acupuncture needle down by the ankle and can help eliminate the feeling of “having to go right that second” and frequent urination.
Dr. Ryder can also perform prolapse reconstructive surgery to repair a pelvic organ that may have “fallen down.” As Dr. Ryder likes to say, “Gravity is not our friend.” Prolapse can commonly be due to childbirth, but women who haven’t given birth vaginally can also suffer from it. You may have heard of a “bladder tack up.” Today, pelvic reconstructive surgeries are better than they’ve ever been. It can be an outpatient surgery by a Urogynecologist or a one-night hospital visit.
Please feel free to bring up any of these concerns with our GYN doctors. We are here to help.
If you are suffering from incontinence, prolapse, vaginal pressure, vaginal bulge, or stress urinary incontinence, please contact our GYN clinic at (757) 312-8221. Our Urogynecologist and GYN doctors are here to help you.
