Prolapse and colovaginoplasty

[Valecia_Cho2013]

Hi all,

This is a call out to anyone and everyone who's had a colovaginoplasty. So I live in the UK and getting all this done under the NHS. I had my GRS back in June and I've prolapsed. Before I went under I was told that I could only get 3 inches of depth, then this was revised to 4 inches with a 2nd opinion. Unfortunately, when I woke up, I was told that they could only get 3 inches and after that (with the benefit of hindsight), started to prolapse. I don't think I can live with a vagina that doesn't work properly.

So to my fellow sisters: What should I know when considering colovaginoplasty? What were your experiences like and what did said experiences teach you?

[Dani]

A prolapse vagina is more common than many people think. It happens when there is plenty of skin, but the space between the rectum and urinary bladder is not deep enough to accommodate the desired vaginal length. Also, sometimes the neovagina is pushed out of place if it is not secured with packing or suture.

The only permanent fix is to have a revision and the most common revision is from the colon where a section of the colon is moved to the vagina and the left over colon is rejoined to resume normal function. As with any surgery, there may be complications. The most troublesome complication from colon surgery is loss of fecal control. This is not common and of the few girls I know who have had colon vaginoplasty, none have reported fecal incontinence.

There are other methods such as peritoneal grafting and grafting from any other available skin, either full thickness or partial thickness. The main problem with grafting is that some methods require a complete take down of the existing vaginoplasty and repeating the procedure with an extension and increasing the vaginal depth to accommodate the longer neovagina. This procedure is much more complicated than an initial vaginoplasty.

Fixing a prolapse to full depth is not easy. You must find a surgeon who has experience in this procedure.