Helen Gets a Pessary

It's a big day in Helen's pessary saga! After a year-long wait to be fitted for a vaginal pessary, she's offered a private appointment with a specialist in London.

In this episode, you'll hear what happens at a pessary fitting when Helen visits Tracey Matthews - a women's health physio, former British rower, strong woman, cross fitter and proud pessary wearer. She's passionate about the benefits of pessaries when it comes to helping women with pelvic organ prolapse or incontinence and walks Helen through an assessment. Helen leaves with a cube...but will her pelvic floor be up to the task?

Tracey talks about the shock of discovering her own prolapse after the birth of her first child, her decision to specialise in pessaries and why it's so important to end the stigma around them:

We've got to shout about it and make it so that it's not a taboo...and pessaries aren't a taboo. I fit more pessaries in postnatal and younger women than I do in anybody over 60.

HUGE thanks to Tracey Matthews who is @prolapsestrength Instagram and part of the team at White Hart Clinic in London

For an easy guide to vaginal pessaries, read this blog

For more pessary chat listen to last seasons episode Vaginal Pessaries: A Deep Dive

Check out the new UK guidelines for patients and clinicians, which were mentioned in this episode

For more information about 3D printed pessaries of the future (!) go here

To see a video of a pessary fitting with Tracey go here