Major common problems: genital prolapse

Genital prolapse commonly results from fascial tears or muscle laxity in the pelvic floor associated with childbirth. Increasing age and raised intra-abdominal pressures often provide the additional stresses that culminate in symptomatic descent of the vaginal walls and uterus. Careful preoperative assessment of both the whole patient and the local condition is essential in the preparation for appropriate treatment. Physiotherapy plays a major role in prevention and cure when muscle laxity is the predominant causative factor. Surgical repair, despite a high recurrence rate and various complications, has become the most fashionable form of definitive treatment in all but the most trivial of cases.