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Twelve years ago, Bronwyn Ford underwent major surgery, including inserting pelvic mesh and a hysterectomy, to help relieve symptoms of severe pelvic organ prolapse. She has since experienced several other health issues including surgery and treatment for non-invasive breast cancer, osteoporosis, pre-diabetes, and acute onset rheumatoid arthritis. “The thing that has affected my life the most is the prolapse and continence issues—they have an everyday impact, but it has made me much more resilient. When these things crop up you say, okay this is what's happening, what can I do now to keep moving forward and make sure it doesn't have too much of an impact on my life,” explains Bronwyn. “I try to be as proactive as I can in my health care and dedicate myself to advocating so that other women aren't left wondering what should I do? How do I cope with this?”

Pelvic organ prolapse is when one or more of the pelvic organs (bladder, uterus, bowel) move from their normal positions and may bulge or protrude into the vagina due to damaged, weakened or stretched pelvic floor muscles and connective tissues (ligaments and fascia).

Bronwyn’s journey with incontinence 

After her prolapse surgery, Bronwyn started to experience urinary incontinence and worked with specialist pelvic floor physiotherapists to retrain her pelvic floor muscles. With time and dedication to reconnecting her brain to her pelvic floor, she says the reaction of the muscles has now become automatic and she doesn’t have to consciously activate them to prevent leaking when she coughs or sneezes. 

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As well as issues with controlling urine due to her prolapse and pelvic floor injuries, Bronwyn also experiences problems with her bowels and constipation, “I find it does impact if you want to go out for the day or go away on holiday, you are very much regulated by your bowel movements.”  

TOP TIPS FOR PROLAPSE AND CONSTIPATION

  • Keeping hydrated 
  • Eating enough fibre 
  • Using a toilet stool to lift your feet and create a squat position  
  • Seeking help from a pelvic floor physiotherapist  
  • Medication from the pharmacy or general practitioner
  • Calling the National Continence Helpline 1800 33 00 66 for advice and referrals 

When Bronwyn went in for her pelvic organ prolapse repairs and hysterectomy, she found there was little information given to her about preparing for the surgery and how to help her body recover afterwards. She also felt there was little advice given about having to keep working on your recovery with a physiotherapist so that the symptom relief from the surgery is maintained.

“The best thing for me when I was going for surgery was a book by Queensland physiotherapist, Sue Croft. I bought her book two weeks before my surgery and I read it from cover to cover. I photocopied the pages where she explained what to do leading up to the surgery, straight afterwards and in the following weeks and months. I put it on my fridge and I said to my kids (who were teenagers at that time) this is what I can do, and this is what I can't do while I'm recovering. The detail was helpful because the discharge notes were just: no driving and no heavy lifting for two weeks, no sex, baths or tampons for six weeks, avoid constipation, gentle exercise.

Now in her 60s, Bronwyn has a positive outlook and tries to maintain a healthy lifestyle including eating healthy foods, exercising and staying hydrated. “I do exercise that is suitable for me and find something that I love to do which then gives me the incentive to want to go and do it,” Bronwyn told us. She enjoys classes such as Heartmoves, Zumba Gold and retro aerobics and also includes strength and resistance training. “I am still under the care of the physiotherapist, so she gives me exercises to do for my pelvic floor and I have also seen an exercise physiologist who helped with looking at my exercise routines and tweaking them, showing me how to do different exercises for all over body strength”.  

Advocating and educating 

Since Bronwyn shared her story with us in 2021, she has been dedicating her time to raising awareness of prolapse, continence issues, and birth trauma. This includes all sorts of activities— assisting in running a Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week event at her local gym, to submitting to the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma, and the Australian government's inquiry into menopause and perimenopause issues. “My prolapse and continence issues came to a head when I started going through perimenopause. That's something that doesn't get spoken about a lot,” said Bronwyn. “In addition to experiencing the everyday symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, women that have prolapse and continence issues can experience worsening symptoms from those conditions as well.”

 “My advice is, don't suffer in silence. Don't be frightened to speak about what you're experiencing. Even if you don’t know the medical term for it—there is someone out there who knows what you're going through. Don't get discouraged”  

Online pelvic organ prolapse support groups 

Bronwyn has been a member of online pelvic organ prolapse support groups since 2018. “It's amazing the number of women that join the support groups that are blindsided by the diagnosis because they've never heard of prolapse before, or if they have heard of it, they think it only happens to older women.” Giving birth and menopause are two of the main risk factors for development of prolapse, however, there are other risk factors as well. Even women who have not had children can develop prolapse. “We have had a girl as young as 14 join the group who had been diagnosed. At first, she and others had been told by doctors they were too young to have prolapse, but prolapse can be caused by many different, often interacting risk factors including Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other inherited connective tissue disorders.”


She finds the support groups help people put two and two together with symptoms, diagnoses and risk factors. Some risk factors are avoidable, some are not. From the reading she has done and discussions with her specialists, Bronwyn now knows that if she had had help straight after childbirth, rather than 17 years later, she could have avoided some of the issues she is currently living with. Her aim is to educate other women about what they can do to minimise their risks of prolapse and incontinence. “Many women who are experiencing prolapse immediately postpartum are told to just wait and see what happens. I don't believe in just wait and see without education on what you can do in the meantime to ensure that it doesn't progress any further or what to do if you start experiencing XYZ. Education is the key and that's what we are lacking: good quality education for women who want to know how to manage their prolapse. They want to know what they can do to avoid it getting worse, because unfortunately there's every chance that if you've got a minor one, it could get worse as you get older.”

“Common questions that come up in the support groups are, how come I've never heard of prolapse before? How come my doctor says: I’m too young to have prolapse? Mostly, women just want to know what they can do to help themselves.”

 “There are always women out there searching for support and it's disappointing to think that they must resort to a Facebook support group that is being run by other women experiencing the same thing to get the help they need. It is great though to find people that understand what you're going through and what you're dealing with. These women are at a loss, they just don't know who to turn to, or who to talk to for support a lot of the time. A lot of GPs are very good, but there's a limit to what they know unless they specialise in the area. Most of the time I say to people that you need to see a Women's Health Physiotherapist who has extensive knowledge in the area, not every single physiotherapist is going to be equally educated about dealing with prolapse and incontinence. It can be challenging to access specialist physios and doctors—both financially and geographically.”


One of the big takeaways from Bronwyn’s story is—it’s never too late to get help—even if it has been years or decades since your prolapse or pelvic floor issues started. Another important point she raised is that your health is a constant work in progress and investing time in yourself and your body will pay off.  

Get support 

If you relate to Bronwyn’s story but don’t know where to get help, phone the free National Continence Helpline 1800 33 00 66, 8am-8pm AEST Mon-Fri to ask a nurse continence specialist about any questions you have relating to prolapse, bladder or bowel control health.

Bronwyn’s recommended resources:

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