Treatment › Recovery after surgery
Recovery after surgery
Recovery advice after prolapse surgery varies enormously from one surgeon to the next. If you have been reading online you have probably run into frightening lists of things you can supposedly never do again. Here is a more balanced picture, and an explanation of why the advice differs so much in the first place.
The first days and weeks
- Expect to feel stronger each day but to tire quickly for a week or two. Rest is productive.
- Walking is encouraged from day one. It helps circulation and wards off clots and constipation. Start small and add a little each day.
- Light vaginal bleeding or discharge is normal for a while. Use pads, not tampons.
- Nothing goes in the vagina for about six weeks, so no tampons and no intercourse, unless your surgeon tells you otherwise.
- Most guidance suggests avoiding heavy lifting and high impact exercise for four to six weeks. Typical thresholds mentioned run from 15 to 25 pounds, but your surgeon's number is the one that counts.
- Keep your stools soft from day one. Straining is the enemy of a healing repair. Fluids, fibre, and a stool softener if your team suggests one.
Can I really never lift, run, or exercise again?
This fear comes up constantly in our community, so let us take it head on. Traditional advice often included strict limits, sometimes framed as lifelong. That guidance is actively changing.
Specialists at major centres now point out that many of the old restrictions rested on tradition rather than evidence. Research has shown that everyday actions like coughing, or simply standing up from lying down, create more intra abdominal pressure than lifting moderate weights does. A randomized trial comparing liberal against restrictive activity advice after prolapse surgery found no difference in early anatomical outcomes. Many surgeons now individualize, and tell women to resume activity as they feel strong enough.
What this means for you. Do not panic over the strictest list you found online, and do not quietly give up activities you love on the strength of a forum post. Ask your surgeon what their evidence based expectations are for your operation and your body. If long term restrictions would matter to your quality of life, say so before surgery, because it may even change which procedure is right for you.
Call your surgical team promptly if you notice
- Fever, or pain that is getting worse instead of better
- Heavy bleeding, meaning more than a light period
- Inability to urinate, or signs of a bladder infection such as burning, urgency, or foul smelling urine
- Redness, swelling, or discharge at an incision
- Anything that simply feels wrong to you. You know your body
Recovery is emotional too
Weeks of taking it easy, changed sensations, worries about recurrence, questions about intimacy. It is a lot, and it is normal for it to feel like a lot. This is exactly the season when our community matters most. Hundreds of members have been through the same operation and the same three in the morning worries. Come talk to us.