Self-Care

I had an emergency, 2-hour conversation with a Whole Woman member yesterday. She had been experiencing burning pain on her inner labia for “a couple of weeks” and then a significant amount of bleeding into her underwear. We spoke after her trip to urgent care, where two sores on her vulva were identified. She left with a tube of estradiol creme to use on the sores. 🙄

I tried as diplomatically as possible to explain to her that this is not the Whole Woman way. Allowing a burning sore to exist for weeks without responding to it, and when symptoms worsen rushing into the medical system for them to deal with it, is the main reason why the medical-industrial complex has been able to exert such breathtaking control over our population. Control that has now merged with the technocratic-industrial complex to create a mass-surveillance the likes of which we have never known.

This woman has been following Whole Woman for several years, coming to my online clinics and conferences. Yet, she had not implemented any of our most basic health practices. I hasten to add that she is not the only one, as it is something I run into again and again.

Women keep going back to their doctors, having the same conversations, resulting in the same frustrations, which in my mind keeps them in a kind of limbo. They feel some vague sense of security being connected at the hip to a paternalistic figure who will tell them what to do. All the while relieving themselves of the responsibility of truly caring for their body - full stop.

The sores on her vulva are being caused by the bulge of her significant cystocele constantly rubbing on the area. I told her how I was living well with “procidentia”, which is basically worse-case scenario prolapse. Unless you don’t have your uterus, in which case, ‘worse-case’ can literally mean vaginal evisceration, or your guts spilling out of your body.

I told her I was dedicating a portion of my working-life to seeing that the round ligament suspension once again be made available to women. At which point she told me “My niece just had that done.”

I assured her that was not the case, as the medical system has systematically removed the only anatomically-correct surgery for uterine prolapse that was ever devised. She double-checked, and this morning sent a text telling me what the surgery really entailed: hysterectomy, plastic mesh sling under her niece’s bladder to prevent urinary incontinence, and her vagina tethered to her spine with a second strip of polypropylene mesh.

This is the gold standard “pelvic floor reconstruction” that newly-designated “pelvic reconstructive surgeons” have managed to convince a world of women is actually a good thing. Even though the urethral sling will very likely erode into the woman’s bladder, the sacrocolpopexy mesh fester out of the anterior ligament of her spine, and her untethered vagina turn inside-out.

I have dedicated my life to helping women understand the importance of self-care. Not only to help them comprehend the necessity of protecting themselves from a clueless and dangerous medical practice, but because learning about our bodies, and the natural world around us, is the most extraordinary journey we could ever embark upon.

I’m making good progress stacking my second delivery of two cords of firewood. Each early morning I put in my sea sponge, which pushes my blessed uterus all the way forward and holds it there. I put on my Whole Woman Posture Belt, which I’m beyond grateful for (I promise to bring back that brilliant-if-I-do-say-so-myself invention someday) because it creates the perfect brace between spine and pelvis.

It’s such a wonderful feeling being surrounded by the sounds of birds and frogs in the early morning light. I’m strong. I’m able. The only reason for my severe prolapse is because my perineum, the “mast of the ship,” was cut twice during my childbearing years. The coup de gras was an unnecessary and uncalled-for surgery at 41 years old, where my vagina was permanently tethered to my abdominal wall, causing my uterus to immediately prolapse.

I had gone to the gyno for a well-woman exam, and came away from the interaction with a lifelong injury. But it is also true that relatively speaking I was just grazed. In reality, I dodged the real bullet - hysterectomy and pelvic reconstructive surgery. I can assure you, none of the millions and millions of women who have been given the “gold standard” are stacking their own firewood.

Please support the Whole Woman work. Sign up for our Summer Intensive, which promises to be a life-changing experience. Come to Whole Woman Yoga class on Saturday mornings, or at least take advantage of the recordings.

We take Saving the Whole Woman very seriously, and our work has only just begun.