Background Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is the descent of the vaginal wall, cervix, uterus, bladder, and rectum downward into the vaginal canal. Its prevalence is higher among women in developing countries because women are more prone to risk factors. In Ethiopia, women with prolapse seek treatments at advanced stages of prolapse; hence, surgical management has been widely practicing. Therefore, it was found to be very important to conduct research that assesses factors hindering early treatments in Southern Ethiopia. This study aimed to find out factors associated with the delay in seeking treatment of pelvic organ prolapse among patients at selected general and referral hospitals of Southern Ethiopia. Methods Cross-sectional study design was employed in 123 participants of seven randomly selected General and Referral Hospitals of Southern Ethiopia from February 01 to April 30, 2020, by using a structured questionnaire. Pre-trained two midwives in each center were deployed to collect data. Physicians performed diagnosis and physical examination. Data were entered and coded using EPI INFO version 7 and exported into SPSS version 25 for analysis. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed. The goodness of fit was assessed by using the Hosmer and Lemeshow goodness test. Results In this study, out of 123 clinically diagnosed POP cases, nearly half of them were stage III, and over one-third were stage IV. Therefore, 84.6% (104 participants) of the respondents were delayed for the treatment of POP. The mean length of delay for POP treatments was 36.41 ± 3.95 months. After adjusting for covariates, lack of supports [AOR (Adjusted Odds Ratio) = 5.2 (95% CI 1.4–19.5)], low-income [AOR = 5.8 (95% CI 1.1–19.66)], and fear of social stigma [AOR = 4.7 (95% CI 1.2–18.59)] were significant factors for delayed treatments. Conclusions Most of the POP patients were delayed for POP treatments. Factors like lack of support, low-income, and fear of losing social value/stigma were associated with treatment delay. Screening for the POP cases, educating (making awareness) the community about this devastating disease to facilitate early treatment and to avoid social stigma, and raising access to treatment by making the nearby hospitals equipped with facilities to treat POP are recommended.

Background Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) is the descent of the vaginal wall, cervix, uterus, bladder, and rectum downward into the vaginal canal. It occurs owing to the weakness of the structures supporting and keeping pelvic organs in anatomic position. Prolapse occurs due to exposure to risk factors; women in developing countries are highly predisposed to the risk factors of the prolapse. No study assesses POP in Southern Ethiopia. Methods A case-control study design was employed in 369 participants (123 cases and 246 controls) of seven randomly selected Public Hospitals of Southern Ethiopia from February-June, 2020, using a structured questionnaire. All patients diagnosed with prolapse (stage I- IV) were included as cases; patients free of prolapse (stage 0) were taken as controls after physicians had performed a diagnosis and vaginal examination. Bivariate and multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed using SPSS. Results In this study, after adjusting for covariates, age of the women ≥ 45 years (AOR = 5.33, 95% CI: 1.47, 9.05), underweight (AOR= 4.54, 95% CI: 1.4, 15.76), low income (AOR = 2.5, 95% CI:1.14, 5.59), parity ≥5 (AOR = 5.2, 95% CI: 2.2, 12.55), assisted vaginal delivery (AOR= 4, 95% CI: 1.55, 11.63), instrumental delivery (AOR= 3.5, 95% CI:1.45, 84), sphincter damage and vaginal tear (AOR = 3.2, 95% CI:1.44,7.1), carrying heavy loads (AOR= 2.5, 95% CI:1.2, 5.35), and prolonged labor ≥24 hours (AOR = 3.3, 95% CI:1.12, 97) were significant associated factors of prolapse. The odds of developing prolapse is lower among women attended school. Most(84.55%) of the women with prolapse were delayed for the treatments and only surgical interventions were done as treatments. Most of them claimed lack of social support, lack of money, and social stigma as the main reasons for the delay in seeking treatments. Conclusions Older age, low educational status, underweight, low income, higher parity, assisted vaginal delivery, prolonged labor, sphincter damage, and carrying heavy loads were significant associated factors of POP. It is better to screen older age women by doing campaigns against the prolapse. Also, responsible bodies should work on raising awareness of women as well as awareness of the community about the prolapse through expanding health education. Moreover, informing women to practice pelvic muscle training daily, raising women’s income to empower them, and help of family members to reduce carrying an overload of mothers are recommended.