The Health Blog

Ordinary tap water with a teaspoon of salt added to each half litre (1 pint) and stored in the refrigerator can be applied on gauze to the burned areas. Local applications of soothing creams can also help. These often contain small amounts of local anaesthetic.

If blisters form, this indicates the burn is deeper and it is classed as second degree. If the blisters are small they can be left but, if large, they are better broken and the fluid drained.

Do not just prick the blisters with a needle — this lets the fluid out but infection in. Clean a pair of scissors by soaking in a disinfectant (boiling blunts them), then cut away the skin overlying the blister so there is no overhang left. This isn’t painful. The raw surface can be dried by gentle pressure with sterile gauze and a drying lotion like mercur-ochrome applied.

If the blisters are large and extensive, it is better to seek medical advice.

The chronic effects of the sun are more dangerous. Repeated exposure to UV light, over many years, leads to premature ageing of the skin.

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Complete prolapse of the uterus outside the vagina is called procidentia. This may make it difficult for the woman to move about and the uterus is subject to irritation and inflammation.

When the bladder falls back into the vagina, it distorts the normal anatomy where the urethra, or tube which carries the urine to the outside, leaves the bladder.

This leads to problems with passing urine. It may be difficult to completely empty the bladder and so small quantities are passed frequently.

The commonest symptom, however, is stress incontinence. When the woman strains by coughing, laughing, sneezing or lifting, the urine may involuntarily come away.

A watchspring pessary, which is a flexible rubber ring, can be inserted into the vagina to hold the uterus in place. This sits firmly in the vault or upper part of the vagina and is kept there by pressing on the pubic bone at the front of the pelvis.

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