Vaginas, Vulvas, and Pelvic Organ Prolapse with Kathleen Connell, MD (Episode 82)

Hit Play Not Pause

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Medicine

4.9 • 769 Ratings

🗓️ 18 May 2022

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Your pelvis changes during menopause–inside and out. The vaginal and vulvar tissues become thinner; the pH and microbiome in your vagina can shift; and the scaffolding that supports your pelvic organs can weaken, increasing your risk for pelvic organ prolapse. There’s help for all of that, so you can continue running, riding, lifting, having sex, and enjoying an active life free from pain, infection, and injury. We talk about all that and more this week with urogynecologist Kathleen Connell, MD.

Kathleen is chief of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is the co-director of Women’s Pelvic Health and Surgery, a multidisciplinary practice at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Her surgical practice focuses on pelvic floor disorders including pelvic organ prolapse, urinary and fecal incontinence, and reconstructive pelvic surgery. She has done research on genital health and bicycling and genital health and saddle selection. You can learn more about her and her work at CU School of Medicine.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to Hit Play, Not Pause, a feisty menopause podcast for active performance-minded women.
0:14.6	I am your host, Celine Yeager. Each week, I bring you advice from athletes, scientists, researchers, and other experts to help you feel and perform you best no matter what your hormones are doing.
0:25.0	This show is a production of Live Feisty Media.
0:30.9	Hello, hello, strong feisty women.
0:34.6	So there have been a few times when I've been out of the race or a gravel cycling event
0:39.6	and a woman has come up to me and thanked me for the show and then quietly pulled me aside
0:45.4	and asked if I wouldn't mind doing a show on pelvic organ prolapse.
0:50.1	Sometimes I get some details, sometimes I don't, but it's happened a number of times. And I'll be honest,
0:56.2	this is a topic that I was not terribly well versed in. But as I started researching it, it became
1:02.1	clear that this is something that probably affects a lot of you. And even if it doesn't, it's something
1:07.8	that we should all be aware of as active menopausal women. And it's
1:11.8	definitely not something we need to be ashamed of or talk about in hushed whispers. This show is all
1:17.1	about bringing all of these issues out into the daylight and normalizing them. So I called up a
1:23.9	eurrogenicologist at the University of Colorado, Dr. Kathleen Connell, to come on and do a deep dive
1:30.2	on pelvic organ prolapse, as well as pelvic health in general, including how to keep our
1:35.2	vaginas and our vulvas healthy and free from irritation, infection, pain, and all the issues that can
1:41.2	arise as estrogen declines.
1:49.1	Kathleen is chief of urogynocology and reconstructive pelvic surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.
1:50.9	She is also the co-director of a multidisciplinary practice called Women's Pelvic Health
1:55.8	and Surgery.
1:57.1	Her surgical practice focuses on pelvic floor disorders, including pelvic organ prolapse,
2:02.3	urinary and fecal incontinence, and reconstructive pelvic surgery.
	...

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