Vaginal Health; Roadblocks and Evolution in the Most Stigmatized Field of Women's Well-Being

MILWAUKEE - Aug. 4, 2016 - PRLog -- Global leaders and key stakeholders in women's pelvic health are coming together in Milwaukee for APOPS 2016 Women's Pelvic Health Congress on August 18-19, to address the seldom acknowledged pelvic organ prolapse pandemic, sharing insights and challenges with diagnostic clinicians who provide routine pelvic exams, substantiating best practices, and analyzing little understood comorbid conditions.

"Knowledge is power, and knowledge is the way to overcome the misconceptions and fallacies in women's health."
– Roger Dmochowski, MD, Vice Chair of Surgical Sciences, Vanderbilt Medical University

Research studies indicate 50% of the female population will experience pelvic organ prolapse (POP); childbirth and menopause are the leading causal factors. Millions of women experience debilitating POP symptoms and quality of life impact for years, often decades, prior to being diagnosed, because little clinician curriculum exists in the multitude of fields providing standardized diagnostic female pelvic examinations. Association for Pelvic Organ Prolapse will address this significant shortfall in women's health screening with APOPS 2016 Women's Pelvic Health Congress.

Medical records indicating POP diagnosis and treatment date back nearly 4000 years to the Kahun Papyrus in 1835 BC; stigma continues to shroud POP in silence. Women typically navigate multiple risk factors which include:

v  Childbirth.
v  Menopause.
v  Heavy lifting.
v  Chronic constipation.
v  Chronic coughing.
v  Diastasis rectus abdominus (DRA).
v  Downward pounding (jogging, running) or heavy lifting fitness activities.
v  Neuromuscular conditions.
v  Hysterectomy.
v  Heredity.
v  Excess weight.

A significant diagnostic clinician practice gap permeates women's health despite widespread prevalence of pelvic organ prolapse and thousands of years of medical documentation. In recent years, a multitude of over-the-counter products, incontinence pharmaceuticals, surgical and nonsurgical medical devices, and medical procedures have been developed to address treatment, but little has shifted regarding stigma, patient awareness, or diagnostic screening protocol.

As the foremost international advocacy agency addressing pelvic organ prolapse, APOPS aligns with patients, healthcare, research, industry, academia, and policy makers to evolve and achieve POP directives, bridging all sectors to address much needed advancement in patient health and physician practice.

Association for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Support is a 501(c)(3) advocacy agency with global arms, founded to increase awareness of pelvic organ prolapse (POP), to provide guidance and support to women navigating POP, and to bridge patients, healthcare, research, academia, industry, and policy makers for the advancement of POP directives. APOPS's grassroots energy currently includes patient following in every US state, every Canadian province, and 42 countries.

More conference information is available at:
http://www.pelvicorganprolapsesupport.org/meeting-detail/