A number of things can weaken your pelvic floor and increase your chance of developing pelvic organ prolapse.
These include:
- pregnancy and childbirth, especially if you had a long, difficult birth, or if you gave birth to a large baby or multiple babies
- Use of episiotomy/forceps during childbirth
- getting older and going through the menopause
- being overweight
- having long-term constipation or a long-term health condition that causes you to cough and strain
- having a hysterectomy
- a job that requires a lot of heavy lifting
- Some health conditions can also make a prolapse more likely, including joint hypermobility syndrome, Marfan syndrome and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes