Across the globe, about 40% of women experience pelvic organ prolapse (POP), which most often occurs after women enter menopause. While there are many steps you can take before resorting to surgery, we want to explore how pelvic floor reconstruction can remedy moderate-to-severe POP using innovative techniques.
As urology experts, the team here at Arizona Urology has considerable experience helping women with POP, and we always endeavor to choose the best solution for your situation and goals.
Here, we take a closer look at when pelvic floor reconstruction makes good sense and how we go about renewing support for your organs.
As you know, your pelvis houses several different organs, including your:
These organs are mostly held in position by a group of muscles and connective tissues called your pelvic floor, which run across the bottom of your pelvis. With prolapse, your pelvic floor weakens, allowing one or more of your organs to drop down, often through your vaginal canal.
This weakening in your pelvic floor is often due to age and the loss of reproductive hormones after menopause, though it can also occur earlier because of childbirth or previous surgery.
Whatever the underlying cause of your prolapse, the condition is generally progressive, as are the treatment options.
In its early stages, we recommend pelvic floor strengthening exercises, such as Kegels, to address POP. If these don’t work, we can try support devices like pessaries to keep your pelvic organs in place.
When conservative measures can’t address your prolapse and the issue leads to quality-of-life issues such as incontinence, it might be time for pelvic floor reconstruction.
It would be impossible to say here what would be involved in your reconstructive surgery as we take different approaches to different types of prolapse.
Whenever possible, we go in vaginally to minimize incisions. That said, there are times when we can better access your prolapsed organ through your lower abdomen. When that’s the case, we still only make small incisions as we can perform most of our pelvic floor reconstructions using our da Vinci® robot-assisted advanced surgical system.
Our goal for pelvic floor reconstruction is to return your pelvic organs to their original positions by re-establishing their support, which we can accomplish through stitches and/or meshes.
Our use of laparoscopy and the cutting-edge da Vinci system also makes this surgery far less invasive than open surgery. Thanks to this minimally invasive approach to your pelvic floor reconstruction, you can reach your postsurgical goals more quickly since there’s less recovery time.
If you want to see whether you’re a good candidate for pelvic floor reconstruction, please contact one of our locations in Goodyear, Gilbert, or Glendale, Arizona, to set up a consultation.
