Hysterectomy Increases the Risk of Prolapse

Hysterectomy Increases the Risk of Prolapse

 

Hysterectomy Increases the Risk of Prolapse and this is rarely communicated to women.

Women are offered a hysterectomy for heavy periods or endometriosis. A complication of this is vaginal vault decent, which is a weakening and dropping of the top of the vagina from its normal position. It is a form of pelvic organ prolapse.

The symptoms are heaviness and a dragging sensation in the pelvis, lower back pain, difficultly urinating and defecating and a visible bulge of lump. However, this diagnosis is not always made until a referral for surgical assessment.

What follows is a further repair of the prolapse. Such an operation can cause pain on intercourse and on urinating.

Further prolapses can result in anterior and/or a posterior repair. However following these operations symptoms can become more prominent. Pain can spread to the suprapubic area and be constant. Pain can be felt in the rectum when full.

A hysterectomy increases the risk of prolapse because removing the uterus can weaken the pelvic floor’s support structures. While hysterectomy is sometimes performed to treat uterine prolapse, vaginal prolapse can still occur afterward. Factors like previous vaginal deliveries and existing pelvic floor weakness further increase this risk