Health: What happens when your vagina 'falls out'? Everything you need to know about complete uterine prolapse

                   

Childbirth is daunting to say the least, but one woman's tale of her own struggles post-labour has left many asking worried questions.
Mum Allison Henry has described how, post-birth, her vagina 'fell out' - describing it as feeling like "someone had rammed a pitchfork up [her] butt".
Allison wrote on the MomLogic.com website, which no longer exists, that her problems came from nowhere towards the end of her second pregnancy.
Following 15 weeks of bleeding and constipation, she gave birth to a healthy boy, slightly prematurely - but then realised there was still something amiss.
She says she was using the loo when she noticed that "there wasn't really a hole there - it felt kind of flat", like something was blocking her vaginal canal.


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But something more disturbing came later in the year, when she describes: "It was like my insides were on the outside and they were coming out", according to Broadly .
At this point, she went to the doctor and described what it felt like: "My vagina is falling out of my body!"
Alison was treated and came through the medical issue.
After an emergency appendectomy, which caused gangrene and an untwisted bladder, a hysterectomy, many surgeries and, eventually, a new surgically-formed vagina and labia, she was fit and well once again.
The medical term for what happened in Alison's case is a 'complete uterine prolapse'.

                  

Shock: A uterine prolapse can feel like your insides are bulging out of your body

According to the NHS, a pelvic organ prolapse is bulging of one or more of the pelvic organs - the uterus, vagina, bowel and bladder - into the vagina.
Symptoms may include a sensation of a bulge or something coming down or out of the vagina, which sometimes needs to be pushed back.
It can also cause discomfort during sex and make problems when passing urine, such as slow stream, a feeling of not emptying the bladder fully, needing to urinate more often and leaking a small amount of urine when you cough, sneeze or exercise.
As far as treatment is concerned, the NHS says: "If the womb (uterus) is prolapsed, then removing it during... a hysterectomy often helps the surgeon to give better support to the rest of the vagina and reduce the chance of a prolapse returning."

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Trauma: There are different levels of prolapse, and each should be addressed with your doctor

Up to half of all women who have had children are affected by some degree of prolapse according to the journal Menopause .
A prolapse like this can be associated with age, as well as menopause, obesity, and pelvic surgery among other issues.
Los Angeles–based obstetrician and gynecologist Dr Jessica Schneider told Broadly that some women complain that they feel something or have a bulge in the vagina.
"What is falling will determine if there are urinary, sexual, or defecatory dysfunctions."