Many women deal with constantly changing bodies from things like pregnancy and menopause. These stages in life come with their own joys and deserve to be celebrated, but sometimes the associated hormones leave us feeling negative about ourselves. Here at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA, we make it our mission to help women in any stage of life feel their very best. Fall back in love with the skin you’re in with our revolutionary MonaLisa Touch treatment.
Women, just like men, deserve to have fulfilling lives in the bedroom as well as outside of it. Intimacy can feel for some women like a taboo or embarrassing topic, and as a result too many women simply put up with unsatisfactory sex lives. The truth is that intimacy should be just as important as the other aspects that make up life. Our MonaLisa treatment has already helped many women enjoy less pain and more passion.
What Benefits Can I Expect From the MonaLisa Touch?
You can seek out this treatment to help with medical conditions such as vaginal atrophy. After receiving our treatment you’ll experience a significant reduction in symptoms and discomfort will be diminished. You’ll also experience relief post-treatment if you suffer from vaginal dryness, itching, or pain during intercourse.
Women who receive our treatment report increased natural lubrication, tighter vaginal walls, increased sensitivity, and more enjoyable intimacy. The results will gradually show themselves, but some women report noticeable improvements within 24 hours post-treatment.
Everything To Know About the MonaLisa Touch
What Does This Treatment Entail?
Our non-invasive treatment involves the power of lasers, specifically the SmartXide system manufactured by DEKA. The aim of the treatment is to stimulate and encourage increased collagen production within the vaginal walls. The vagina needs natural lubrication, and this laser treatment focuses on the surrounding tissue in order to restore and rehydrate. The laser directly targets the vaginal mucosa and a CO2 pulse stimulates the collagen into action. The pulse vibrations penetrate the tissues and help restore them.
The laser gently makes micro-lesions, penetrating the top layer of skin just enough to stimulate the collagen. These micro-lesions have the additional benefit of improving the vaginal mucosa equilibrium and restoring your body’s natural order. This painless treatment encourages steady tissue regeneration over the weeks following treatment, so your results will keep looking better and better.
What a Session Looks Like
Your Consultation
Once you come in for your initial consultation with us, we will go over your expectations and answer any questions or concerns you have. We’ll start with a pelvic exam to ensure there are no infections or complications present and review your health history to further determine candidacy.
The Treatment Session
Our treatment requires zero preparation or food/medicine restrictions, unlike most surgeries. Once you’re in the chair, we begin by numbing the area entirely. We focus especially on the vulva and the vaginal opening due to the sensitivity of the nerves there. You’ll assume the same position you do for routine vaginal exams, and a sterile ring will be placed at the vaginal opening to allow the laser wand easy entry.
The small wand is carefully and slowly inserted into the vaginal walls, and the laser will pulse concentrated energy into the surrounding tissues and collagen. This treatment is completely painless, and the most you’ll feel is a slight vibration from the laser pulsing. The process is short, and the treatment session will take no more than a maximum of ten minutes from start to finish.
Post-Treatment
Just like how our treatment requires zero preparation, it also requires zero downtime and has zero side effects. Since the treatment is non-invasive and simple in practice, most of our patients are right back to their normal lives immediately following their appointments. We normally recommend refraining from vaginal intercourse for a few days to a week and refraining from hot tubs or hot baths for three or four days following treatment.
You may notice positive results such as reduced pain or increased lubrication as soon as within the first 24 hours after your treatment. The majority of our patients report seeing the results appear steadily, and the most major improvements are noticeable about three to four weeks post-treatment.
How Many Sessions Do I Need?
The answer will depend on your treatment goals as well as the severity of your current condition. The treatment session needs 40–60 days to reach full effectiveness and heal the skin’s top layer. Once 40–60 days have passed, we will have you return for a second appointment. In the second session, we will start by assessing what improvements have been made from the first appointment. This will also give us an idea of how your body responds to the treatment.
We will use the second appointment to determine how many more sessions are needed. Most of our patients typically see us for two to three sessions to achieve optimal and satisfactory results. For some of our patients, we advise that they return for touch-up sessions once a year following their initial two or three treatments to maintain the desired results.
How Long Will My Results Last?
Once your two or three treatment sessions are over, and you start noticing improvements, you can continue enjoying the benefits of our treatment for years. The vaginal tissue and collagen will continue to slowly and naturally improve on their own for months after your treatments. We recommend that some patients consider returning once annually for as long as they want to keep their results.
Am I a Good Candidate?
A wide range of women are ideal candidates for this treatment. If you are someone who has gone through menopause and are experiencing negative postmenopausal vaginal symptoms, this treatment was designed with you in mind. Those who experience symptoms such as burning, itching, vaginal laxity, urinary incontinence, or painful intercourse will also benefit from this treatment, whether candidates are pre or postmenopausal. Those who cannot receive hormone replacement therapy due to being disqualified from candidacy should consider this an alternative.
Our treatment is a great option for any healthy adult woman who experiences vaginal discomfort and doesn’t want invasive and expensive surgery. The MonaLisa Touch is meant to be a holistic solution for any and all symptoms of decreased estrogen levels.
What Makes Someone NOT an Ideal Candidate?
If you’ve never had a vaginal birth, you are still a candidate for our treatment. If you plan to have children in the future, however, it’s best to avoid this treatment until after you’re done with the childbearing part of your life. The only reason for this is that giving birth will undo the results of our treatment.
What Can I Seek Out This Treatment For?
You can take advantage of our treatment for any type of vaginal itching, pain, or irritation you feel that’s the result of diminishing estrogen levels, postmenopausal hormones, or conditions that dry out the vagina and make sex uncomfortable. There are certain conditions that can be greatly improved by our treatment as well.
Vaginal Atrophy
Otherwise known as atrophic vaginitis, this condition is typically a negative result of lowered estrogen levels that can accompany postnatal breastfeeding or menopause. This condition robs the vaginal mucosa’s cells of their hydration and nourishment. This causes the mucosa to thin out over time, making it less able to protect the vagina from trauma. For those who suffer from this condition, symptoms are often presented in the form of a dry, burning sensation in the vagina.
Dyspareunia
This is the fancy term for pain during intercourse. This can be a symptom of atrophic vaginitis, but can also form on its own from trauma such as childbirth. The main reason for dyspareunia is a lack of proper lubrication, and this can make the libido of many women suffer. If an episiotomy was necessary during childbirth, this is also a common cause of dyspareunia.
Urinary Incontinence
Extremely common in women 35 and older, this condition causes occasional or frequent bladder leaks. These leaks can happen because of stress on the bladder from laughing or coughing, or because of reflux from holding in urine for too long. Our MonaLisa Touch treatment can solve all of these troublesome conditions and revive your quality of life.
Celebrate Your Femininity
It’s time to say goodbye to pain and discomfort once and for all. You deserve to feel your best, and our team of midwives, practitioners, physicians, and estheticians are all well-trained in helping you achieve that goal. At our healthcare center, we aim to provide care to women in every stage of life from adolescence to menopause. Visit us here at Shenandoah Women’s Healthcare in Harrisonburg, VA today for truly professional care with a gentle personal touch.