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Updated: Aug 7, 2026

Anogenital Distance and Perineal Measurements of the Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP) Quantification System
Published on: September 20, 2018
Obsessive-compulsive disorder and rectal prolapse
Julian B Henry1, Lynne M Drummond, Peter Kolb
1Springfield University Hospital, London, UK.
Abstract:
A 47-year-old woman with a long-standing history of obsessive-compulsive disorder relating to dirt and germs is presented. Her fear of developing bowel cancer led her to manually evacuate faeces from her rectum five times a day and to a resultant rectal prolapse. Treatment involved prolonged graduated exposure to the patient's feared contaminants and ritual avoidance. After 5 months of inpatient therapy, the patient reported a subjective 70% improvement in her symptoms. As her obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms improved, the patient's rectal prolapse disappeared.
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