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Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia

INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to explore how women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a low-income setting explain, experience, and handle the potential practical and social consequences of the condition. METHODS: An explorative qualitative design was employed using in-depth in...

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Autores principales: Gjerde, Janne Lillelid, Rortveit, Guri, Muleta, Mulu, Adefris, Mulat, Blystad, Astrid
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer London 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5331107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27475794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00192-016-3077-6
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author Gjerde, Janne Lillelid
Rortveit, Guri
Muleta, Mulu
Adefris, Mulat
Blystad, Astrid
author_facet Gjerde, Janne Lillelid
Rortveit, Guri
Muleta, Mulu
Adefris, Mulat
Blystad, Astrid
author_sort Gjerde, Janne Lillelid
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to explore how women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a low-income setting explain, experience, and handle the potential practical and social consequences of the condition. METHODS: An explorative qualitative design was employed using in-depth interviews in the data collection. A total of 24 women with different degrees of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse were included; 18 were recruited at the hospital and 6 from the community. Fieldwork was carried out in the Amhara region of northwest Ethiopia in 2011 and 2015. RESULTS: The informants held that the pelvic organ prolapse was caused by physical strain on their body, such as childbirth, food scarcity or hard physical work, particularly during pregnancy and shortly after delivery. Severe difficulties and pain while carrying out daily chores were common among the women. The informants used a variety of strategies to manage their work while striving to avoid disclosure of their condition. Disclosure was related to embarrassment and fear of discrimination from people living close to them, including the fear of being expelled from the household. Most of the informants, however, experienced substantial support from relatives, friends, and at times also from their husband, after disclosing their condition. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights how symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse may severely affect women’s lives in a low-income setting. The condition is perceived to be both caused by and aggravated by the heavy physical burdens of daily work.
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spelling pubmed-53311072017-03-14 Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia Gjerde, Janne Lillelid Rortveit, Guri Muleta, Mulu Adefris, Mulat Blystad, Astrid Int Urogynecol J Special Contribution INTRODUCTION: The objective of the study was to explore how women with symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse in a low-income setting explain, experience, and handle the potential practical and social consequences of the condition. METHODS: An explorative qualitative design was employed using in-depth interviews in the data collection. A total of 24 women with different degrees of symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse were included; 18 were recruited at the hospital and 6 from the community. Fieldwork was carried out in the Amhara region of northwest Ethiopia in 2011 and 2015. RESULTS: The informants held that the pelvic organ prolapse was caused by physical strain on their body, such as childbirth, food scarcity or hard physical work, particularly during pregnancy and shortly after delivery. Severe difficulties and pain while carrying out daily chores were common among the women. The informants used a variety of strategies to manage their work while striving to avoid disclosure of their condition. Disclosure was related to embarrassment and fear of discrimination from people living close to them, including the fear of being expelled from the household. Most of the informants, however, experienced substantial support from relatives, friends, and at times also from their husband, after disclosing their condition. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights how symptomatic pelvic organ prolapse may severely affect women’s lives in a low-income setting. The condition is perceived to be both caused by and aggravated by the heavy physical burdens of daily work. Springer London 2016-07-30 2017 /pmc/articles/PMC5331107/ /pubmed/27475794 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00192-016-3077-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2016 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
spellingShingle Special Contribution
Gjerde, Janne Lillelid
Rortveit, Guri
Muleta, Mulu
Adefris, Mulat
Blystad, Astrid
Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title_full Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title_fullStr Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title_full_unstemmed Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title_short Living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from Amhara region, Ethiopia
title_sort living with pelvic organ prolapse: voices of women from amhara region, ethiopia
topic Special Contribution
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5331107/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27475794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00192-016-3077-6
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