WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31, 2007 (HealthDay News) -- Muscle damage caused during vaginal childbirth is associated with a serious gynecological condition called pelvic organ prolapse later in life, U.S. researchers report.
Pelvic organ prolapse -- a fallen bladder, uterus, vagina or lower bowel -- causes more than 200,000 American women each year to undergo corrective surgery.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System also found that particularly high rates of pelvic organ prolapse were associated with the use of forceps during vaginal delivery.
The findings are published in the February issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
In their study, the Michigan team compared 151 women with prolapse to 135 women without the condition.
They found that 55 percent of the women with prolapse had major defects in a muscle called the levator ani (which supports the bladder and uterus), compared with 16 percent of the women who didn't have prolapse.
"Our findings are an important step forward in the search to identify what causes pelvic organ prolapse and subsequent difficulties with other problems, such as incontinence," study lead author Dr. John O.L. DeLancey, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the U-M Medical School and director of pelvic floor research, said in a prepared statement.
"The next step is for researchers to look at ways of preventing and treating these injuries of the levator ani muscle in order to reduce the rate of pelvic organ prolapse later in life," he said.
More information
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has more about pelvic support problems.
