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"Girls’ Night Out" Showcased InControl Medical's Fabulous Products
Hosted by Femina PT at LA's Big and Tiny
Three expert speakers chatted and answered questions on female pelvic and sexual health. One of our major sponsors was InControl Medical, the creators of one of my favorite product lines for urinary, bowel and sexual dysfunction. They have three different products that are focused on these basic necessities of female health and wellness.
At the event, the nearly 60 ladies in attendance had a 1 in 8 chance of winning either the Intensity, Apex and Attain! These were definitely the hot items of the night.
We also sell this line in our office. Patients have many questions on the differences between them (naturally!) and there are pros and cons to each. If you are not local to our offices, you can also purchase these items directly here. Before going in to why these devices are so great, it’s important to first understand the differences between the types of incontinence we treat:
Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI): This is involuntary bladder leakage that occurs during coughing, sneezing, laughing or exercise. This is also referred to as light bladder leakage. Don’t downplay even a minor leakage. This only gets worse with time!
Urge Urinary Incontinence (UUI): This is involuntary bladder leakage that is associated with a strong urge to go the bathroom, resulting in the inability to hold the urine, and thus leakage occurs. Another symptom is constant bladder leakage. Even though this is not necessarily associated with an urge sensation, this is still due to an overactivity of the bladder and treated the same as urge urinary incontinence.
Mixed Urinary Incontinence (MUI): This is when symptoms of both Stress and Urge urinary incontinence are present.
Bowel Incontinence:Also known as anal incontinence or fecal incontinence, is the result of the involuntary loss of your stool.
Incontinence of Flatus: This is when you pass gas involuntary. This can be due to diet and/or pelvc floor muscle weakness.
Use of pelvic floor muscle biofeedback and muscle stimulation can also help with symptoms of pelvic organ prolapse (when your pelvic organs aren’t tucked up as high in your pelvis as they used to be!)
Once common feature that makes this product line so appealing is that the internal portion is inflatable. The problem with biofeedback or pelvic floor muscle stimulation devices that do not have this feature and are of a fixed size, is that when it comes to the pelvic floor, one size never fits all. For my patients that have prolapse or an injury from childbirth, using a fixed sensor size is essentially useless, as these tend to actually just fall out of the vagina.
What’s worse, when using the pelvic floor (or perineal) electrical stimulation feature, these women will also experience a SHOCK instead of a muscle contraction – OUCH!! Not only is that painful, it is 100% ineffective.
The Attainis a home biofeedback and electrical stimulation device used to conservatively treat both urinary (stress, urge and mixed) and bowel incontinence. Bladder leakage, even just a few drops is NOT normal, despite what your Ob/GYN or your mom may have told you. Bowel leakage is also NOT normal, and has a huge impact on social and relationship functions.
Bladder and bowel leakage typically gets WORSE if not treated. The Attain is appropriate for treatment of incontinence and is one of the most user-friendly devices on the market. This is a huge upgrade from their previous InTone line, as it allows the user to fully control the stimulation settings at home AND it’s at half the price – retail price $499.
The Apex is rated for stress urinary incontinence only. It has a larger sensor than the Attain, making it a challenge for some women, including new moms, perimenopausal and menopausal women. It also lacks the encouraging visual display, but the price point is nice at $249.
The Intensity is designed for improving sexual function. I recommend this to patients as a graduation gift to themselves when they met their goal of painfree sex! I also see women that report reduced sexual function, and the stimulation frequency on this device helps with muscle contraction to help get their orgasms back on track.
Bladder and bowel leakage can be stopped or significantly reduced with the Attain or Apex. When these modalities are used in combination with our pelvic floor and orthopedic physical therapy services, the results are long-lasting and empowering for the women that go through our program.
Our licensed physical therapists have been utilizing biofeedback and electrical stimulation to the pelvic floor muscles for over 25 years and have integrated the use of the Attain and Apex into our practice to maximize patient outcomes. We have also seen positive results in our patients that have pelvic organ prolapse and sexual dysfunction, such as anorgasmia (no orgasm) or diminished orgasms. (See our testimonials page)
In addition to the Attain and Apex devices, we also offer over the counter purchasing of the Intensity. This device is like a “Vibrator PLUS”. While initially looking like a traditional vibrator, the metal sides provide a powerful and comfortable electrical stimulation at a frequency that help facilitate a pelvic floor muscle contraction. Since part of the orgasm cycle is enhanced by contraction of the pelvic floor, the result is a WOW experience different from other vibrators on the market..
Give us a call for current device cost here. We honor specials offered by the InControl Medical website, so don't wait 3 days for it to arrive when you can pick it up from us today!
