Preventive Therapy For the Vaginal Tissues

Vaginal Health Preservation Through Prevention is Now Available and Non-Invasive!

For those at risk for declining vaginal function there is a solution we recommend. The decline in estrogen from early menopause to through the transition into menopause produces a condition of vaginal, vulvar, and other genital tissues including the bladder. The surface tissue becomes thinner, the underlying tissues and supporting ligaments of the vaginal, vulvar, rectal, and bladder areas specifically by having less musculature and the ligaments weaken as well. The health of the vagina can be spared by minimizing the effects of drying and thinning and lowering hormone levels as you age by non-invasively and proactively treating the dryness as you age. Not only is vaginal health impacted, but women also then are at increased risk of urinary tract infections (UTI) for the same reasons of decreased estrogen.

The Physiology of the Changing Vaginal Tissues

What possibly most impacts women's gynecologic health as they transition through lower hormones with getting older is the resulting vaginal dryness, irritation, change in discharge, and thinning of the vaginal walls that can make the walls bleed and be tender. The effect of these changes can be daily irritation and itching and discomfort with urination. The effect on sex can vary from discomfort to impossible if the condition is bad enough. These changes are due to a chronic lack of estrogen translating and the syndrome is VVA or vulvovaginal atrophy. To highlight the fact that frequent urinary tract infections and urinary symptoms are part of this syndrome there was a renaming of the disease condition by some physicians disease in 2015 to the genitourinary syndrome of menopause. (GUSM).  

The Preventive Therapy: MonaLisa Touch

Treatment of VVA and GUSM and the thinning vaginal tissues with aging can prevent the serious consequences of thinning and shrinking labia, prolape of pelvic tissues, shrinking of glands that provide vaginal moisture, incontinces, and the narrowing of the vaginal opening. Every woman needs to think about how to prevent these complications. Hormone therapy with estrogen has been considered the gold standard for treatment of vaginal atrophy. Hormone therapy is not an indicated treatment for prevention of vaginal disease. But now we do have a safe, effective, and proactive treatment for the prevention of vaginal conditions for women. For women wanting both vaginal wall and pelvic floor health with a non-medication treatment we now have a procedure called vaginal laser. There are two companies which have very similar devices to deliver this virtually painless, in office procedure. The treatment is a CO2 laser treatment delivers energy to the vaginal wall to promote a optimum vaginal health and has been used for incontinence, for vaginal wall dryness, for atrophy of the vagina, for painful sex treatment, and a variety of other conditions. There are many lasers, but the Cynosure laser MonaLisa Touch is the gold standard and has the most research behind it. The procedure itself takes about 5 minutes to preform, and after the treatment there are no restrictions to activity. So far it there have been no reported negative side effects. 

Women Most At Risk Can Get MonaLisa Touch Prophylactively 

Women with risk factors for vaginal atrophy and dryness can be offered the vaginal laser for proactive, non-invasive, therapy. The women who should be considered for treatment include those who have low natural estrogen, those who smoke, those who have decreased or abstinence sex, those who do not exercise, those who have had their ovaries removed, and women who abuse alcohol. For most young women with these conditions they may be helped by a single laser treatment, rather than the whole treatment sequence those with advanced vaginal atrophy need. This will help to prevent overactive bladder and prevent urinary tract infections, and there is some evidence that it will prevent bacterial vaginosis as well.