The gradual weakening of pelvic muscles that permits prolapse of the uterus and allows other organs to bulge in the vagina. This weakening of the muscles is associated with childbirth, obesity, and loss of estrogen in women who have completed menopause. Symptoms include the bulging of the bladder (cystocele), urethra (urethrocele), rectum (rectocele), or the uterus into the vagina, accompanied by feelings of pressure in the vagina and stress incontinence, in which urine leaks out when a woman sneezes, coughs, laughs, or is physically active.