Symptoms and Effects
Symptoms of obstetric fistula include:
- Flatulence, urinary or fecal incontinence, which may be continual or only happen at night
- Foul-smelling vaginal discharge
- Repeated vaginal or urinary tract infections
- Irritation or pain in the vagina or surrounding areas
- Pain during sexual activity
Other effects of obstetric fistula include stillborn babies due to prolonged labor, which happens 85% to 100% of the time, severe ulcerations of the vaginal tract, "foot drop," which is the paralysis of the lower limbs caused by nerve damage, making it impossible for women to walk, infection of the fistula forming an abscess, and up to two-thirds of the women become amenorrhoeic.
Read more about this topic: Obstetric Fistula
Famous quotes containing the words symptoms and, symptoms and/or effects:
“Social movements are at once the symptoms and the instruments of progress. Ignore them and statesmanship is irrelevant; fail to use them and it is weak.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“The human condition is such that pain and effort are not just symptoms which can be removed without changing life itself; they are the modes in which life itself, together with the necessity to which it is bound, makes itself felt. For mortals, the “easy life of the gods” would be a lifeless life.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Some of the greatest and most lasting effects of genuine oratory have gone forth from secluded lecture desks into the hearts of quiet groups of students.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)