Pelvic Floor Disorders

• Pelvic floor disorders predominantly are seen in women who have had children and are related to damage to the pelvic floor during delivery.
• Many women later in life will experience either difficulty opening their bowels or problems with faecal incontinence.
• A common type of constipation experienced by women is a syndrome called ‘Obstructed Defaecation Syndrome’ or ODS for short.
• ODS typically causes symptoms such as difficulty with opening the bowels, having to strain a lot of the time, having to make multiple (unsuccessful) visits to the toilet with resulting incomplete evacuation of the bowels.

These conditions can severely affect the quality of life of women suffering with pelvic floor disorders. Fortunately with careful history taking and investigation, the majority of these conditions are treatable with a combination of lifestyle and dietary changes, pelvic floor physiotherapy and where indicated pelvic floor surgery.

Pelvic Floor Surgery

• 1 in 5 women will undergo surgery for Pelvic Organ Prolapse related to childbirth in their lifetime.
• Vaginal delivery is the single most important risk factor for prolapse.
• 2 births confer an 9-fold increased risk for needing surgery in later life.

I have a special interest in the management of women with pelvic floor disorders and frequently hold pelvic floor clinics and undertake specialist surgery.

It is vitally important to take a very careful history to understand the main issues that someone is experiencing. This allows the appropriate tests and management to been started to relieve the difficulties experienced by women suffering with these disorders.

Often realizing that many other women experience these symptoms is the first step in someone seeking help in complete confidence for such very personal matters.