By now, I am sure you know that pelvic floor strengthening (the simplest form of this is doing kegel exercises) helps bladder leaking.  Lots of women have a hard time doing kegels and need some personal instruction (like a pelvic floor physical therapist or your Ob-Gyn) to show them how to do them correctly.  There are lots of peri-trainers out there to help with pelvic floor strengthening.  All of the peri-trainers need to be inserted into the vagina and require you to do the exercises.  But what if there was a way to strengthen the pelvic floor without doing anything and without putting anything in the vagina?  Can you do kegels without the work?

Treatments

It sounds a little crazy, I know.  But there are actually 2 different ways to do this; the emsella chair and the innovo shorts.

Emsella

The emsella chair uses electromagnetic energy to contract the pelvic floor.  This workout for your muscles is much more extreme than you could do on your own.  You literally just sit on the chair for a period of time (often 30 minutes).  And you have to do this for several weeks (often 6).  There is very little data showing that emsella helps incontinence but theoretically, it should.  It is not covered by insurance and it is typically expensive. (more about emsella here)

Innovo

Innovo uses electrical stimulation to contract the pelvic floor.  This workout for your muscles is more extreme than you could do on your own but not as hard as the emsella.  You put on the shorts and stimulate your muscles for 30 minutes.  The recommendations are that you do this 5 days per week for 12 weeks.  It is recommended that you use the shorts twice a week after the initial 12 weeks.  There is data showing that this treatment improves incontinence.  It is not covered by insurance and is expensive, although not as expensive as emsella.

Things to consider

These treatments should help incontinence.  But there are a few problems with them.  First, they are spendy.  Second, they are not covered by insurance. Third, the treatments will wear off over time and you have to repeat them.  Some may claim that emsella is a permanent cure but I have never strengthened a muscle and had it stay strong without ongoing exercise. And lastly (and probably most importantly), these are “dumb” treatments.  By dumb, I mean they don’t teach you to engage your muscles at the right time.  They don’t work on posture, alignment and breathing- all things that help minimize leaking.  It isn’t just that the muscles are weak- they aren’t functioning correctly and you need to learn to use them.  An example would be learning to do the “knack.”

I’m not totally against these products.  You may not have time for physical therapy (at least not right now) and you want a quick fix.  I’m just not convinced that these are good long term solutions.