Ladies beware: Giving birth to Jack and Jill (or Jose and Juana) may eventually cause your lady parts to come tumbling out after!
A recent study revealed that 1 in 5 women nationwide have a lifetime risk of developing stress urinary incontinence (SUI) or pelvic organ prolapse (POP)–two conditions that aren't fatal, but can be quite a pain in the hooha to deal with.
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Women who experience stress urinary incontinence are prone to wetting themselves whenever they sneeze, laugh, or even engage in physical activity, like sex. And as if that doesn't already sound horrifying enough, some women who experience SUI may also have pelvic organ prolapse, a condition that occurs when one or more of the pelvic organs fall downward and try to escape through your vagina! Oh, joy.
Ugh, it's hard enough trying to keep our boobs somewhere between our collarbone and our bellybutton, without having to worry about our lady parts falling out whenever we sneeze. Can you imagine sneezing and having your vagina accidentally fall out? What do you even say? "Oops, sorry. Would you mind holding my purse while I tuck my vagina back in?" Somehow, that seems uncouth.
Luckily, the symptoms associated with these conditions can be minimized or even eliminated with surgery, meaning you may not have to worry about having to tuck your uterus back into your vagina in public, after all. But only if you see a doctor about your symptoms first! So, how do you know if and when you should see a physician? Well, first of all, peeing on yourself is a surefire sign that something's up. But other than that, you should know that the risk for developing either of these issues increases as women have more children, and then again as they age. So if you've experienced any of the above symptoms and you're over 46 years old with children, you may want to go see your doctor.
You do not have to live your life worrying about whether or not your cosa loca is going to fall out into your Depend diapers. That's no way to live. Go pamper yourself with a nice trip to the gyno.
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