{"id":1622,"date":"2020-10-26T17:10:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-26T17:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2021-10-08T13:52:33","modified_gmt":"2021-10-08T12:52:33","slug":"how-the-menopause-can-impact-women-with-perineal-tears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/news\/how-the-menopause-can-impact-women-with-perineal-tears\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Menopause Can Impact Women with Perineal Tears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Published:<\/strong>&nbsp;26th October 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Louise Newson, a GP and menopause specialist, recently hosted an informative discussion on birth injury, subsequent incontinence, and how these issues can worsen during the perimenopause and menopause. The event was held as part of&nbsp;Leigh Day\u2019s weekly webinars for Women\u2019s Rights in Healthcare series that covers important topics that have low public awareness, variable quality of care and treatment, and often devastating effects on women\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Louise was joined by consultant urogynaecologist, Miss Ranee Thakar, Dr Radhika Vohra, a GP with special interest in women\u2019s health, and Joanna Prance, ambassador for the MASIC charity who has lived experience of birth injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As an ambassador for the MASIC Foundation (Mothers with Anal Sphincter Injuries in Childbirth), and with full endorsement from the other speakers during the webinar, Joanna clarified areas for focus as the Three Ps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Promotion \u2013 improving awareness of risk of perineal injury in childbirth<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>All speakers agreed there needs to be an open and honest conversation about the risk of perineal tears and incontinence. Healthcare professionals, as well as women, need to realise that problems can surface years down the line, along any point in a woman\u2019s life, but especially around menopause. Far more education is also needed for girls and young women on the importance of the pelvic floor muscle, how childbirth and menopause can affect it, and how to look after your pelvic floor for the rest of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Prevention \u2013 reducing occurrence of anal sphincter injuries<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Third and fourth-degree tears of the perineum shouldn\u2019t be regarded as merely an unfortunate consequence of childbirth. While it may not be possible to eradicate their occurrence entirely, much can be done to reduce the frequency and severity of them and minimise the potential impact on women throughout the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Protection \u2013 providing the best care possible<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Ranee Thakar believes care after perineal injury is everybody\u2019s business:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe must not compartmentalise care for these women into what is obstetric, what\u2019s for the midwife, for the nurse or GP \u2013 it is everyone\u2019s responsibility with the patient at the heart of it. We all have a duty to ask about the perineum and incontinence when we follow women up, to normalise talking about it, and provide that space freely \u2013 women are suffering with incontinence for far too long before getting the help they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One treatment that can be helpful to women, both after childbirth and around the perimenopause and menopause, is vaginal estrogen. This acts by boosting low levels of estrogen directly to the genital areas that need it, which in turn helps stop thinning of tissue, helps lubricate the vagina, eases discomfort, and helps fight off infection. Vaginal estrogen can be taken safely, and indefinitely by most women, under the advice of a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Listeners were reminded that women can seek out a GP who has a special interest in women\u2019s health, and that they also have the right to ask for a second opinion from a hospital doctor, even if that means going outside the local NHS Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Newson and The MASIC Foundation have produced a booklet about menopause and perineal injury which contains more information about treatments<strong>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published:&nbsp;26th October 2020 Dr Louise Newson, a GP and menopause specialist, recently [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":1165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1972,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/1972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.balance-menopause.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}