Dealing With Prolapse On My Year Abroad

As I had left going to the doctors so late, regarding this mysterious lump that was coming out my vagina, I consequently had to have most of my medical appointments and scans on my year abroad in Denmark. Emotionally this was quite difficult for me as I was away from my family and didn't yet have any friends to confide in, which meant at the beginning of the term I attended most of my medical appointments alone. Additionally, as I was in Denmark, English was not the official language spoken and so most of the medical letters and results I received were in Danish. Having said that about 86% of Danes also speak English so I actually became closer to some female flatmates as they helped me with translation issues and to orientate the Danish health care system. I remember one incident when the gynaecologist recommended I do pelvic floor exercises and gave me a sheet of paper that detailed numerous exercises, however to my dismay they were all in Danish. Luckily one of my female flatmates was really helpful and translated them all for me, although it was quite embarrassing when she attempted to explain how to clench and relax my pelvic floor muscles having had only known her for less than a month.

The hospital that I most regularly attended was in Randers, which is about an hours bus ride away from Aarhus were I was living at the time. Initially, I had an ultrasound, however the results were inconclusive therefore it was recommended I had a hysteroscopy. A hysteroscopy is a procedure to examine the inside of your womb whereby a hysteroscope is inserted that has a light and a camera at the end, next liquid (a clean sterile fluid) is inserted which expands your uterus so that your womb can be seen more clearly. The painfulness of this procedure varies considerably among women and your gynaecologist may recommend you take painkillers beforehand. For me, as I have quite a low pain tolerance the procedure was rather painful and gave me stomach cramps for the rest of the day. Additionally, a rather embarrassing incident occurred where when I stood up and walked to the toilet all the sterile fluid that had been inserted soaked my trousers and knickers so that it had basically looked like I had wet myself. It was then suggested I had a renal ultrasound, a cervical smear and another ultrasound. After these tests, it was confirmed I had a Uterine Prolapse.

I was quite relieved once I had a solid diagnosis as it allowed me to properly research what prolapse is and the treatment options I had available to me. I discovered that Uterine Prolapse is one of the five types of pelvic organ prolapse and is quite common in women who had given birth (around 50%). In Denmark, I went on to have two types of pessaries fitted including the ring and the cube, neither of which worked for me. However, now that I have finished my year abroad I am back in England and currently carrying on my treatment and physio here. Having to deal with so many medical appointments alone on my year abroad was quite daunting and at times lonely however it enabled me to take ownership of my condition and not have to rely so much on my mum to book and chase up on medical appointments. It also taught me that there are specialists out there that want to help you no matter what country you are in.