Your sexual health is an important part of your life. If your vaginal tissue is lax or dry, sex may be uncomfortable or downright painful, and your enjoyment may suffer. Don’t worry, though, radiofrequency (RF) energy can be just the thing to rev up your sex life.
At Viva Health in Clark and Clifton, New Jersey, board-certified OB/GYN Dr. Aleksander J. Bodnar knows that talking about intimate issues can be difficult, but you shouldn’t hesitate to mention problems in the bedroom. He can help.
Dr. Bodnar offers vaginal rejuvenation treatments using the radiofrequency energy of Votiva® to restore or improve your sexual health. Here’s the scoop.
How vaginal atrophy and vaginal laxity affect your sex life
During perimenopause, the period leading up to menopause, a woman’s estrogen levels start to decrease. One consequence is vaginal atrophy, the thinning of the vaginal walls. The thinning causes a number of uncomfortable physical symptoms that can lead to sexual dysfunction:
- Vaginal canal shortens and tightens
- Vaginal tissue becomes dry and inflamed
- Sex becomes painful
- Sex results in spotting
- Urination causes pain and/or burning
- Urinary tract infections (UTIs) become more frequent
- Risk of urinary incontinence increases
Vaginal laxity is your own assessment of your tissue’s looseness or tightness. Your labia may have become shriveled or enlarged instead of tight, and that can mean decreased pleasure — or even pain — during sex, though it comes minus the other symptoms associated with atrophy.
Why vaginal tissue loosens
Why the tissue loosens depends on the underlying cause. As we’ve mentioned, the primary reason women experience vaginal atrophy is lower estrogen production during menopause. Called genitourinary syndrome of menopause (GSM), it affects about 70% of all women.
Vaginal laxity is another matter. Here, one of the major causes is giving birth, especially if you’ve had a number of children, if you had large babies, or if the doctor used forceps during delivery.
Another major cause is age. Just as facial skin wrinkles and creases, so does vaginal tissue. The body’s production of collagen and elastin, proteins that give skin strength and the ability to recover from stretching, naturally drops with age. This affects all tissues, not just on your face.
Using RF energy to rev up your sex life
At Viva Health, we use Votiva by InMode to improve our patients’ sexual health. It’s the only radiofrequency device that tackles both internal and external vaginal issues, including atrophy and laxity.
The Votiva platform uses FormaV® (internal application) and FractoraV® (external) technologies, and patients can choose one or both modes for their treatment, depending on their needs.
Inside the vaginal cavity, the FormaV delivers RF energy to the tissues, triggering a healing response that leads to increased vascularization and renewed production of collagen and elastin. It essentially reverses the effects of decreased estrogen.
It also improves pelvic floor dysfunction, especially when combined with Kegel exercises, to help improve urinary incontinence.
The FractoraV takes care of overall tissue appearance. We use the internal device for about 10 minutes and the external device for about five.
As a result of the treatment, you should see a decrease in vaginal dryness and irritation, a decrease in pain during sex, and an increase in lubrication, making sex enjoyable again.
If you’re struggling with GSM, or you don’t like the appearance of your vaginal tissue, Votiva may be the answer for you. Give us a call at either location to schedule a consultation with Dr. Bodnar, or book online with us today, and reclaim a pleasurable and healthy sex life.