While not well known, there are many surgical and non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation solutions on the market. Some solutions, such as vaginal rejuvenation surgery and artificial lubricants, just mask the problem. Others, such as ablative lasers and radiofrequency treatments, are very expensive and only marginally effective. So what are the options out there, and how do they stack up?
Kegelbell’s inventor and founder created Kegelbell out of frustration with the solutions in the marketplace. Here’s what we found after years of exploring and studying the industry.
What’s the problem with surgical vaginal rejuvenation?
Before we dive into non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation options, let’s discuss the invasive option—surgical vaginal rejuvenation.
Most surgeries are very expensive and have potential downsides. This is especially true with vaginal rejuvenation surgery. Why? The surgery involves cutting and narrowing the canal, which risks damaging a nerve and could result in either numbness or pain. This is a short-term solution because it only addresses laxity. Other issues are not resolved through this solution.
Pelvic mesh or sling surgery, which is now banned by the FDA, was a permanent implant intended to help with pelvic organ prolapse and incontinence. It did not help with orgasm, lubrication, and laxity. While this surgery can help a woman if she has the ideal circumstance with the best surgeon, most women cannot ascertain this to make a good decision. As a result, many women are left with crippling pain. The FDA website also warns that when mesh erodes, it can injure a penis during intercourse!
Most surgeons tell patients to kegel for six months prior to surgery to see if surgery is even needed and then to kegel for the rest of their lives to maintain surgery results.
Our takeaway? Vaginal rejuvenation surgery comes with a high risk of side effects, won't get you out of doing kegel exercises and will definitely hurt your pocketbook.
Non-Surgical vaginal rejuvenation alternatives to consider
Fortunately, achieving vaginal rejuvenation without surgery is possible. Explore your options below!
1. Traditional kegel exercises
Kegel exercise is medically proven to treat and prevent incontinence, prolapse, sexual dysfunction, vaginal dryness, and vaginal laxity/looseness. Unfortunately, numerous medical studies have proven that most women cannot do them properly even with instruction, and very few of those do them often enough to be effective.
Moreover, the muscles are limited to how much strength they can build with just an isometric squeeze.
Our judgment: We love that kegels are free for a woman to do at any time, but it’s important to do them properly and often, or she won’t see results for her effort.
2. Incontinence Pads and Diapers
Pads and diapers are a band-aid solution for bladder leakage. Pads and diapers are embarrassing to use, time-consuming, costly over the decades, and inconvenient.
Big corporations would love to sell you some every day, every year for your entire life! Don't line your panties with these things or their pockets with your money! A company that wants to sell you an incontinence panty is not solving your problem.
Our judgment: Piss poor solution.
3. Kegel exercise devices
Kegel exercise devices are great because they support vaginal rejuvenation without surgery. Unfortunately, most kegel exercise devices out there suffer from one or more of these flaws:
- Painful (electroshock vaginal rejuvenation devices)
- Complicated (ones that sync to an app)
- Unhygienic (ones with lots of complex shapes that are hard to clean or made of toxic or porous material, jade eggs)
- Easily broken (cheap or complex electronic devices)
- Ineffective (lightweight kegel balls, which is all of them, including jade eggs)
- Not FDA registered (nearly all kegel balls, the worst being jade eggs).
As you can see, jade eggs are the worst offenders in this category.
Our judgment: We were so frustrated with these devices that we invented Kegelbell.
4. Laser and Radio Frequency Treatments
These sorts of non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation treatments are in vogue with the wealthy as they cost thousands of dollars a year. Do they work? According to the FDA, effectiveness has not been proven. And worse, the treatments can injure women. This is why the FDA released a public warning and circulated cease and desist letters to manufacturers.
In theory, lasers bulk up the muscle by stimulating a collagen response, which happens because of the little cuts they make to the pelvic muscle. Okay...would you build your bicep that way?
Our judgment: Modest to trivial difference at great expense and risk.
5. Physical Therapy
We love this option. One-on-one treatment with a physical therapist who is properly trained in pelvic floor dysfunction is fantastic! The only problems with it are too few in the USA, expensive for many, time consuming to make appointments and a little embarrassing for some.
Our judgment: We would love to see a world where PT's trained in pelvic floor issues in every city, and that treatment is at an accessible price.
6. Artificial Lubricants
Too many women believe that vaginal dryness is inevitable and start to use lube in their 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. But lube is irritating, sticky, smelly, tastes bad, inconvenient, expensive, can harm sex toys, can kill sperm (which is a problem for ladies trying to get pregnant). Toned pelvic muscle will naturally produce lubrication!
Our judgment: Lube is a sticky mess, better to solve the root problem.
So, which non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation option is best?
If you have time and money, seeing a physical therapist specializing in pelvic floor dysfunction is a great option for vaginal rejuvenation without surgery. They can also recommend any supplemental treatments or devices based on the symptoms you’re experiencing.
Doing kegel exercises on your own is the most important way to prevent and treat the symptoms of weak pelvic floor muscles. Doctors, physical therapists and experts will almost always recommend this as the first course of treatment.
If you need help, check out our step-by-step kegel tips in The Ultimate Guide to Kegels.
To amplify your kegel routine, save you time, and get results faster, we recommend using Kegelbell, our vaginal rejuvenation device. Using Kegelbell, you can reduce your time kegeling from 100 minutes a week to just five minutes three times a week in muscle-building mode, or just once a week in maintenance mode.
Buy your Kegelbell here or talk to your physical therapist to see if they sell Kegelbell.
