Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
close window
Housecall Archives
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
close window
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Risk factors
By Mayo Clinic staffFactors that increase your risk of developing an enterocele include:
- Pregnancy and childbirth. Vaginal deliveries of one or more children contribute to the weakening of your pelvic floor support structures, increasing your risk of enterocele.
- Age. Enterocele and other types of pelvic organ prolapse occur more often with increasing age. As you get older, you tend to lose muscle mass and muscle strength — in your pelvic muscles as well as in muscles elsewhere in your body.
- Pelvic surgery. Removal of your uterus (hysterectomy) or surgical procedures to treat incontinence may increase your risk of developing an enterocele.
- Increased pressure. Being overweight increases pressure inside your abdomen, which increases your risk of developing an enterocele. Other factors that increase pressure include chronic cough, smoking (which increases coughing) and straining during bowel movements.
- Genetics. You may be born with weaker connective tissues in your pelvic area, making you naturally more susceptible to enterocele and other pelvic organ prolapses.
