Urogynecology is a subspecialty that focuses on women with the inability to hold their urine or stool and women whose Pelvic floor is weak leading to varied problems such as looseness of the genitalia and mass protruding from the vagina. It also deals with cosmetic correction of the genitalia and miscellaneous problems like Lower abdominal pain.
What are the problems dealt with by Urogynecologist?
1. Incontinence: This is of 4 types.
- Stress Urinary Incontinence- Loss of urine on coughing, sneezing, laughing or running
- Over Active Bladder – A group of symptoms like frequent urination, the urge to go to the bathroom and losing control of urine when they have the urge, and getting up in the night to pee.
- Mixed Incontinence where they have both symptoms
- Overflow Incontinence- The person has no sensation of her bladder filling and releases small quantities at intervals
2. Pelvic organ Prolapse due to pelvic floor Dysfunction: The muscle plate at the bottom of the body is the Pelvic Floor. It is like a Hammock holding the pelvic organs inside our body. When this weakens (pelvic floor dysfunction) the person feels that she feels a bulge in the genitalia and her Uterus or bladder or Rectum could indeed be sliding down
3. Conditions where the patient has bladder pain with no obvious reason or have burning in the vagina and external genitalia- called BPS or Bladder Pain Syndrome
4. Anomalous genital organs by birth, absence of the vagina
5. Cosmetic surgery to reduce the LabiaMinora or support a sagging vagina.
6. Recurrent Urinary infections
7. Voiding disorders – Inability to urinate or completely empty the Bladder
8. Holes in the bladder or rectum into the vagina either due to surgeries or childbirth or by birth leading to leakage of stool or urine from the vagina
9. Sexual dysfunction (Difficulty in having sex)