June is Prolapse awareness month and in this VIDEO interview, we meet Cara McDougall who is an experienced pelvic health physiotherapist based out of Toronto. After observing that many of her clients were waiting months to get a pessary fitting, Cara proactively decided to do something about it. In 2018, Cara established the Toronto Pessary Clinic in response to an ever-increasing demand for accessibility to knowledgeable, compassionate health care professionals trained to assess and fit pessaries for women seeking conservative management for conditions such as pelvic organ prolapse and stress urinary incontinence.
If you have a prolapse and have been considering using a pessary as an option for management, you truly must have a listen to this interview.
Interview Highlights:
- Cara’s story and how she got into the pelvic health world – 1:21mins
- What is a prolapse? – 3:45mins
- In what situations would a pessary be appropriate or inappropriate for treating a prolapse? – 6:54mins
- Discussion on the different types of pessaries – 14:01mins
- Can pessaries be used while someone is on their period? – 19:49mins
- What about pessaries for incontinence? – 20:34mins
- What is the process for being fit for a pessary? – 23:13mins
- How will somebody know if the pessary is a good fit or not? – 28:04mins
- The progression of wearing a pessary over time – 33:14mins
- What about using different objects in place of a pessary? – 38:00mins
- Does using a pessary mean you no longer need to do pelvic floor physio? – 42:20mins
- Discussion on pessaries and intercourse – 45:13mins
- Cool research in the world of pessaries – 48:00mins
- Talking dollars and cents – how much does it all cost? – 59:00mins
- Where to find Cara and final thoughts – 53:15mins
