In a recent program on incontinence from Stanford University health library, I learned that some degree of incontinence afflicts about 50% of women. Even among my friends and neighbors, it seems fairly common. I completed a physical therapy program specifically for those with pelvic organ prolapse. Then pessaries worked for me for a while, but ultimately I needed colpocleisis surgery. Unlike reconstructive surgery, colpocleisis is obliterative. It makes the vagina shorter and narrower, which means it can no longer accommodate a penis, so you can't have intercourse afterward., though it's still possible to experience clitoral orgasm. The reasons I chose this route: I was 83 at the time, and my husband was significantly disabled. Also, I was aware of a number of cases of reconstructive surgery in which mesh had been used that resulted in suffering for women because the mesh grew into the flesh and caused infection. In some cases, women even died. My vagina was partly descended out of my body and sticking to my underwear, and I was having unpredictable episodes of incontinence, so that was when I started with the pessaries. The surgery improved things so that I could live a more normal life.