The Beauty Balance Podcast - Episode 03 Transcript:

“You’re listening to The Beauty Balance podcast hosted by Dr. Usha Rajagopal, a San Francisco board-certified plastic surgeon with over 20 years of experience. We cover a range of highly requested aesthetics and skincare topics, and chat with industry experts and influential, talented women who truly encompass grace, beauty, and brains –  plus, you get the inside scoop on what it’s really like to be a plastic surgeon.” 

We’re kicking off our podcast with the first part of our V-Suite Series, where we discuss all things vaginal rejuvenation. Today we will be discussing the Emsella for urinary incontinence.

What is the Emsella Treatment?

Emsella is a treatment that has high intensity electromagnetic energy. It works on energy that’s similar to the MRI and it really stimulates and strengthens the entire pelvic floor. When a woman does kegels, that's the muscle she’s engaging. That muscle gets stretched out when you have kids and can get weaker when you age. When you have an orgasm those are the muscles that tighten and go into spasm. The Emsella targets the pelvic floor and makes those muscles stronger, thicker, and have more nerve endings.

How does the Emsella feel?

The Emsella treatment is not painful at all and in some women it’s actually enjoyable. It gives little stimulations to the pelvic floor area. We have the woman to sit on the Emsella and target the region between the vagina and the anus (the perineal muscle). That’s the central point where all the muscles attach. It gives a little vibration and stimulation. You don’t have to do anything but just sit on the Emsella and relax for 30 minutes.

How long is the treatment? How many sessions do I need?

I usually recommend a 6 treatment regimen for the Emsella. We recommend that they come twice a week and each treatment is about 30 minutes long.

Who are ideal candidates for the Emsella treatments?

The Emsella treatment is for women and men who want their pelvic floor strengthened. Both men and women can have weakness of the pelvic floor especially when they age. For women, it’s usually related to childbirth. Men and women can experience leakage of urine, especially with stressful situations, such as stress of the urinary bladder. This can be urinary stress incontinence with exercise. Young women would come in and say that they have some urine leakage when they laugh, cough, or doing jumping jacks. Sometimes when they go for a run and their bladder is full they notice that they could have issues with urinary stress incontinence.

In men, what they notice when they get older is that they’re unable to empty their bladder completely. This is quite a problem for older men who have hypertrophy of the prostate or when the prostate gland gets larger. When the prostate gland gets larger it’s harder to empty the bladder and you need to have more strength of the pelvic floor muscle to empty the bladder. Men who have prostate hypertrophy can have symptoms of waking up several times at night to go pee. The Emsella will help with this because when your pelvic floor is strengthened they can empty the bladder completely despite having a hypertrophied prostate so they can have a more peaceful night. 

How long do the results last? How often do you have to maintain?

The pelvic floor has an active, dynamic set of muscles so these muscles need to be stimulated and that’s what the Emsella does first. It kind of wakes up sleeping giant of the pelvis. Think of it that way. Once the muscles are stimulated and strengthened you need to continue with pelvic floor exercises. For example, doing kegels for both men and women to keep the strength up. Otherwise, if you don’t do any of that, I would say every 4-6 months or so patients need to come in to keep strengthening the pelvic floor.

What are some success stories you have heard from your patients?

Yes, we have some amazing success stories with the Emsella. We often combine it with the Femilift laser and I call it the “dynamic duo” because both of these improve urinary stress incontinence and vaginal health for women. The Emsella strengthens the pelvic floor muscles and the Femilift laser treats the internal vaginal canal and thickens the vaginal mucosa which also supports the bladder. I would say we have had great success with both of them and a lot of patients would say that after the first treatment with this combo they would notice improvements. In fact, I just saw a patient who’s in her late 30s, a mother, a professional, and she loves the super long marathon runs. She said that even after a single treatment of the Femilift and Emsella, she has noticed a huge improvement and stopped having any leakage.

Why is it important to take care of your vaginal health?

Vaginal health is really important because sexual health and sexual well being is important for both men and women. The vaginal area, pelvic floor, and bladder are all in close proximity to the rest of the organs, so having the vaginal health happy can improve your entire well being. Imagine if you could go on everyday without issues of urinary stress incontinence or having a good night sleep without waking up in the middle of the night and have more energy during the day. The Emsella is also known as the “Orgasm Throne” so imagine having better, stronger orgasms. I think everyone would be happier.

What do you recommend for feminine grooming?

We’ve been using the Lady Suite which is a botanical oil for your post lady-scaping. We take 2-3 drops of this light, really fresh, and not overbearing product applied topically and externally to that area. It’s not too oily and I like to put it on just to soothe after lady-scaping. 

What’s really great with the Lady Suite is all the organic ingredients. It’s got organic jojoba oil, meadow foam seed oil, and carrot seed oil. All these are organic and lightly scented, not too oily, and won’t clog your pores. It gives you a fresh scent and they’re good for your skin.

Photo Credit: Lady Suite