Cut it out - Sunday Times June 2011

"Many women see delivering a baby as an emotional high point and could not imagine missing a second of agonising pain, despite the fact that, according to the Lancet, up to one in three of them will afterwards suffer some form of incontinence, and up to one in six some form of sexual dysfunction.

In the 266-page Nice document are figures of 64% of women suffering sexual problems six months after childbirth, and a 21% risk of incontinence. An average figure of almost £7,000 is given for lifetime treatment of incontinence, and that is still assuming everyone dies by the age of 80. And fewer than two in three of the women affected actually see a doctor. No treatment at all is suggested for sexual problems.

“You do see a lot of British women with vaginas you could drive a bus up,” one woman obstetrician remarked graphically. “I think a lot of them just accept that forgoing sexual pleasure is the price they have to pay for having children."

Extract from The Sunday Times, 26 June 2011