Baby Boomer Non For Profit

Non-Profit Discourages Silent Suffering

Women are leaving their doctors in the dark about serious pelvic health conditions, according to a report released this month by the National Women's Health Resource Center (NWHRC). Research shows that at least one in three - approximately 35-million - women will be treated for pelvic-related conditions by age 60. Symptoms are appearing most prevalently in boomers.

Researchers site a lack of education and the stigma attached to these types of conditions as the primary reasons for women remaining closed-mouthed with physicians and family members. The result - no diagnosis and no treatment. "Women learn about periods, pregnancy and menopause but are unprepared for what happens in between.

The fact is, pelvic health conditions can happen at any age, particularly after a women's had a baby," explained Elizabeth Battaglino Cahill, RN, executive director of the not-for-profit NWHRC.

Declining pelvic health conditions can result in symptoms including sexual dysfunction, abdominal pain and pressure, complications with fertility and pregnancy, anemia, low self-esteem, and depression. Treatments can include pelvic floor exercises, medications, minimally invasive procedures like endometrial ablation for heavy periods and sling procedures for stress urinary incontinence.

"What's Going on Down There?," a new campaign by the NWHRC, has been launched to educate women and provide them with questions to ask their physicians with respect to pelvic health.

Additional information is available on the campaign's website:

www.whatsgoingondownthere.com