A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
The Impact of Service
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Treatment
Uterine prolapse begins with a slight drop of the uterus, caused by weakened pelvic floor muscles. If these muscles are restored through rest and exercise, they can strengthen and bring the uterus back into place, reversing the prolapse. Without such treatment, however (and under conditions of heavy labor and poor nutrition), a prolapsed uterus will quickly accelerate into more sever and debilitating stages of prolapse, which may demand surgery.
Early Stages: The most common clinical solution to early stages of prolapse involves the insertion of a pessary ring—a donut-shaped ring made of either metal, rubber or plastic and inserted into the vagina to hold the cervix in place.
Treatment for early stages of prolapse can be problematic, however, as pessary rings can cause discomfort, and also must be removed and cleaned every three months. Frequently, women remove the rings themselves because of discomfort, or leave the rings in too long because of a lack of follow-up health care; improperly removed rings or rings that stay in too long can lead to infection. Pessary rings also cannot be used in situations in which the prolapsed uterus is already infected. In these situations, patients may be provided with antibiotics and referred for further treatment once the infection has cleared.
Advanced Stages: When early stages are not treated or treated inadequately, they can quickly progress to advanced stages of prolapse. In Nepal, advanced stages of prolapse are primarily treated through hysterectomy. This surgery is often performed in hospitals (government or private) or in surgery camps (managed by government or by NGOs). This surgery involves the removal of the uterus, and patients cannot become pregnant after this surgery.
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