A couple of weeks ago I was diagnosed with a prolapse. Something else on top of my PMR and struggling to get over a lousy cough/cold (had prior to cough). To my relief PMR well controlled at the moment after some yo-yoing. Currently on 10mg for a further month after GP increased from 9mg (went as low as 5mg but obviously too quickly) and then will begin trying to titrate again. On Prednisolone since July '24. I was wondering if there could be any correlation with having PMR/taking Pred or just to put it down to having given birth, albeit 45 years ago, an hysterectomy 30 years ago or the natural ageing process. Appointment with a Women's Health Physiotherapist next week but just feeling deflated about something else to contend with after being what I'd consider very healthy until 10 months ago.
Prolapse (ladies): A couple of weeks ago I was... - PMRGCAuk
Prolapse (ladies)
Oh dear. Can understand you being deflated. I doubt its the PMR - more likely the other things you mention and I guess that cough wouldn’t help! Glad you’ve got an appointment so quickly and hopefully targeted physio will help. It is hard to accept these things but at least you can do something about it. I hope it goes well.
Sorry to hear this dismaying news. I hope it can be sorted out. There is muscle weakness with this disease and coughing may well have contributed.
Thank you for your sympathetic ear.
Me too, thanks.
I was similarly afflicted when I got to well under 10mg Pred having started on 60mg. I would have been about 57/58 then. I went to a pelvic specialist physio as recommended by my GP. It was put down to weakening effects of Pred, deconditioning, and previous childbirth x2. I found pelvic floor (PF) exercises to be not very effective. The reason for this was my poor PF was being given every job in the office while my lower back, hip, pelvic and leg muscles had bunked off. When she put me through my paces I realised how weak I was even though I thought I was pretty good. So not only did I have to do my PF exercises far more frequently than I was, but I had a load of moves for the rest. Incidentally, I went to a podiatrist too for Achilles tendonitis and they prescribed the same exercises for my appallingly weak apparatus from the navel down to my feet.
Things did improve but I do have to keep it up especially after regular bouts of Covid etc. I also find that if my gut isn’t happy (gas) or I put on any visceral fat above a certain level I know about it. It’s a long road with no final destination in terms of exercises.
When I was nursing and seeing many ladys’ parts where the sun don’t shine, I found that many people who regard themselves fine after childbirth or being very fit had fairly lax PF’s, a problem waiting to happen later on.
Wise words SnazzyD and with a touch of humour too which always helps! I don't appear to have any 'pull up and squeeze' so hoping the physio can point me in the right direction, so to speak 🤔 I'm not trying at the moment as have read if done incorrectly could make worse. When I had my son in 1980 I don't recall anything about doing pelvic floor exercises, neither when I had my hysterectomy. No doubt times have changed. I'd laugh at not being able to hold my wee or a dribbly sneeze and just put it down to normal ageing process. I'm not laughing now!
My pelvic lady said that her first task after diagnosis is helping people identify the muscles needed to engage. Just telling people to do it may not help until this awareness is achieved. My exercises were almost imperceptible and didn’t involve a proper ‘hitching up of skirts’ initially.
Regards after babies, I think most people did the exercises but as soon as the wee problem seemed fixed, stopped. Oestrogen allows one to get away with murder for a while but menopause and then Pred weakening can cause all those chickens to come home to roost.
Hoping Wednesday's visit proves a masterclass in PFE and obviously just worried about how bad the prolapse is.
Of course your case is individual to you but if it’s any encouragement, I went in feeling like I was about to lay an egg to months later to not needing a vaginal pessary. It took a lot of work and I have to keep on top of it.
You have my sympathy.. I think it will probably be more age related as it happened to me in my late 60s long before I’d even heard of vasculitis and its many diseases and despite remembering to do my pelvic floor exercises. I was prescribed a pessary ring and sometime later tablets to insert as well so in the main it’s not caused me any issues. But recently it seems to have become more pronounced so at times I can feel very conscious of it. I note SheffieldJane’s comment about muscle weakness so perhaps now having LVV or being on Pred has contributed. (I’m intending to get it checked out ) Never know what’s coming next do we? .I keep telling myself just smile and count your blessings 😃 I do hope it easily gets sorted for you and doesn’t cause further discomfort.
Thank you, I certainly hope it won't come to surgery and will do everything advised if can avoid. Even the thought a permanent pessary worries me.
Don’t worry they’re very common and generally stay in place. Not sure I should say on here but great orgasms 🤪
Sorry to hear that - all of the above I suspect except PMR, though you never know. My cousin was here recently - not long after an op for the same, disgustingly healthy and fit as a fiddle (here to ski at 76!!) but a similar history to you otherwise except never taken pred in her life.
I think it is probably more to do with giving birth all those years ago. I gave birth in 1980 and was diagnosed over 2 years ago. I had an episiotomy and epidural. I lived an active life gardening, carrying heavy shopping and not thinking about what I might be doing to my body. I had a hysterectomy in 1999.I know from belonging to a Facebook group that women in their 20's, upwards have them. It is usually linked to having babies but some people haven't had them.
Women's health is one of the worst areas for appointments at hospitals. I tried to go private but as I was slightly overweight 2 consultants refused to treat me.They also said I was too high risk as have other health problems also. One would operate buy it had to be cancelled due to low sodium at pre op. If you do think of going private remember they don't have any emergency facilities.
A private Women's physio is a good thing and some can fit pessaries, also some GP'S can. Don't also be surprised if you see one person and you are diagnosed with one type of prolapse and someone else say it is something else. Prolapses are wore for standing and as the day goes on and vary in symptoms. I have symptoms that the people who should know say are not connected but so many people in my group ask the same questions about them so I feel they must be connected.
As you can tell I have read a lot and I hope you don't have towait long to be anyone at the hospital. Good luck.
Thank you for your input.
Oops. Pressed too soon 🙄 Birth of your child same as mine and hysterectomy 2 years later than me! I'm hoping not to have to go down the surgery route. I'm fortunately going private. Don't want to wait weeks for advice and fingers crossed, and everything else below too 😲, hoping to prevent it getting worse. The oestrogen pessaries are helping me feel more comfortable.
Hope some might help.
My cousin went privately for her op, she had seen the same one for a hysterectomy and she said she was pleased she'd seen her privately as she had just had to give an appointment to someone for a YEAR's time! Just for assessment!!
Was the year for a private patient? My one I saw privately was a 3 month wait but in the end it didn't happen.
No, for her NHS list for a first appointment, not the op.
That is less time than I had to wait but different areas of the country differ. My GP told me there was nothing I could do, I would have to live with it, so I started Googling.
You are joking?
No so I saw the private Urogyaenecologist who wouldn't operate because I was too heavy at 12 stone and too vulnerable being Immume suppressed . I did have a pessary fitted by her and then she told me if it slipped or was uncomfortable I should go to my GP nurse to have it removed as she was on holiday for 5 weeks. It slipped the next day. On the following Monday I called my Practice and got a nurse appointment who removed it bur then booked me in with a GP who specialised in pessaries. That Dr tried so many and ordered all sizes but none were comfortable so she referred me to Gynaecology where I didn't need to try a physio first as I had a private one and I had tried pessaries already. It was a years wait to see her and from there I got sent to a bowel nurse. My next appointment was August but it was cancelled and I was seen in January.
Good grief - I'm short and 11 1/2 st but don't look as overweight as that is - hope I never need anything like that!
I am same as you now and 5ft 2ins. I saw another one privately but he said the same, then a lovely man who said he would help me because we all put on weight as we age. I had to wait almost 3 months and at pre op my sodium level was very low so it was cancelled. He told me if I could sort my sodium out he would operate. GP didn't know what was causing it and an endocrinologist in the NHS who my GP wrote to said he would see me in 5 months. We paid and saw one privately but he told me to stop laxatives which I can't do. Then the BHS one cancelled. I have been putting salt in my food and using rehydrating powders as we have been trying to to eat really healthy and haven't bought a lot of processed food with lot's of salt in it. That appointment got cancelled and I am on the NHS list now with an extra prolapse and other things coming down.One thing I realise is private may not be good for people with other problems or who they call vulnerable as they have no emmergency fascilities. They have to get you to an NHS hospital.
I think ANYONE is at risk having surgery privately unless the private hospital is in the grounds of an NHS one - trolley pushing distance!! There are a few. A woman in Dundee having a nose job bled overnight - no anaesthetist on duty overnight and a mile to the NHS hospital, By the time 999 got there and took her up the road, it was too late.
The worst thing ever done for the NHS was taking pay beds out - they brought in income that could be used to buy instrumentation that NHS patients could benefit from when private patients weren't using it. In Germany they have that sort of system and when I was expecting my second daughter I was monitored on the private stuff - at 11.30pm when no private patient was wanting to be looked at!
Totally agree - back in the early 90's - my sister in law insisted on going privately for a hysterectomy - luckily enough as you say she was in trolley pushing distance from the general NHS hospital - good job as she started haemorrhaging when she got home and had to be re-admitted but to the NHS and they couldn't do what they needed to do e.g. re-operate and find out the problem because the private surgeon was on his boat and they couldn't contact him - unable to touch her without his permission - NHS is far 'safer'- private hospitals are not geared up for emergencies.
Exactly - just creaming the "easy" stuff that should provide a good profit margin and leaving the difficult and complex stuff to the NHS.
My husband used to complain - when private companies tendered for the same services he provided in his NHS department it was under totally different conditions so they could be cheaper than his break-even figures. He still had to maintain the facility to do the difficult stuff they didn't want but had lost income. The concept of open market in the NHS caused a LOT of chaos.
On the other hand most surgeons also work for the NHS as well as privately as they then have access to all the facilities offered by the NHS.
They do - but that doesn't help when you have an emergency that needs Resus and/or ICU and it is a few miles away.
I do agree always choose a private hospital close to an NHS one. When I was last in hospital as a private patient, the hospital was full, mainly NHS patients. It seems the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting MP, is encouraging use of private hospitals for NHS patients to try and cut down the waiting lists.
They can't even order an urgent blood test. The hospital I was at was maybe 10 minutes from NHS one as long as there were ambulances available.
I'm surprised they aren't made to keep a private ambo on site to be honest!! They charge patients enough.
Or at least, a fully equipped advanced paramedic, especially overnight.
Yes even more so as they treat NHS patients now. The person who refused to operate on me because of my weight could have politely told me there is no emergency dept if needed so they don treat vulnerable patients, instead of I had a bmi that was high. You only need to be slightly well covered to be too high!
Private hospitals are not set up for emergencies. They tend to cater for things like hips, knees and eyes in the day to day categories which get pushed to the bottom of the list nowadays. Heart and cancer are really for the NHS.
I guess it depends how big the prolapse is and what’s affected. In the first place mine was dealt with by aGP at our practice who had a particular interest in women’s issues. Thereafter the pessary ring is changed every 6 months by a dedicated practice nurse who is the first point of contact for any concerns. Hope you don’t need an op 🤞
I have a prolapse front and back which has got better (stronger) with thyroid hormone - caused by violent coughing whilst sitting down - the Women’s Health people should offer you oestrogen cream which does help as when oestrogen low the tissues become less strong and can cause prolapse
I've been prescribed oestrogen pessaries and feeling more comfortable now, thanks.
There is a correlation with oestrogen AND vitamin C for collagen strength as Pred depletes C !
I do take daily Vitamin C supplements. Perhaps I should apply a good face cream down below 🤔 You have to laugh sometimes or else you'd cry!
Made me laugh and wince at the same time !
There is a newish pessary called Intrarosa which is a DHEA that converts to estrogen and testosterone - apparently recent research shows both hormones are important for our lady bits. Adrenal glands naturally produce DHEA so it’s perfectly plausible (in my mind anyway) that there might be a connection. Research into PMR and the menopause is so poor I would not mind betting there is a muscular connection too.
Thanks for this I have taken DHEA at times and it does help with muscle strength etc.
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