An urge to urinate, leaks when you cough or sneeze, or even dribbles of urine when there is no pressure on your bladder; incontinence! It’s uncomfortable and embarrassing to experience and to talk about, but it’s real (for women and men). Thankfully, there are very effective solutions.
Most studies show that incontinence affects about 300 million people worldwide and that it’s far more prevalent among women. When it comes to bladder control, male or female, pelvic floor health is one of the main influencing factors.
Why does the pelvic floor matter?
The pelvic floor is made up of intricate muscles located between the tailbone and the pubic bone. Just like the floor of a building supports structural features, furniture and other objects, our pelvic floor muscles are vital to supporting the bowels, bladder and uterus (in women). Nerves that help us to control our pee and poo are also associated with these muscles.
Essentially, we want a strong, healthy pelvic floor to keep important organs in place and have good urine and bowel control.
So what weakens the pelvic floor muscles?
In men, prostate problems or surgery that cuts through the pelvic floor muscles can cause weakening but for women, more normal occurrences during the course of life including pregnancy, childbirth, and hormonal changes during perimenopause and menopause can all wear down the pelvic floor. This is why there’s a higher occurrence of incontinence among women. In some cases, the muscles can be so weak that the organs can start to sink into the vaginal space, a condition called prolapse. For men, erectile dysfunction can result from a weak pelvic floor.
Types of incontinence
Say you experience leakages when you laugh, cough, sneeze or perform exercises like jumping. That’s called stress incontinence.
If you find yourself having a frequent urge to “go”, or even losing sleep at night because of multiple trips to the bathroom, that’s referred to as urge incontinence.
On the other hand, if it seems that you’re dribbling urine repeatedly for no apparent reason, your bladder isn’t emptying fully when you do go to the bathroom and that is overflow incontinence.
It may be that you have some combination of the types of incontinence explained above like instances of stress incontinence and of urge incontinence. In that case, you’re experiencing mixed incontinence.
Treating Incontinence by strengthening the pelvic floor
For us at BioConnect Medical Centre, when it comes to treatment, each individual’s lifestyle, medical history, and symptoms have to be considered so our treatment plans ensure that there are options, including the FDA-approved EMSELLA device.
As with any other muscles, getting the right types of exercises can strengthen and tone the pelvic floor muscles. Kegel exercises are well-known but often difficult to execute and repeat. EMSELLA is based on technology that has been in existence for a decade and produces thousands of Kegels in one session.
EMSELLA (EM – Electromagnetic; sella – chair)
EMSELLA is a chair that uses high intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) stimulation to strengthen weak pelvic floor muscles and restore neuromuscular control for proper bladder function. It is used specifically to treat stress, urge, and mixed incontinence in women and men.
No anaesthetic is needed during the typically pain-free, non-invasive treatment. You’ll sit, fully clothed, on the Emsella chair as the device delivers 11,000 supramaximal (very high tension) strengthening pelvic floor contractions in each 28-minute session. At BioConnect we also make sure that your room is at an ambient temperature, with calming lighting so that you can relax, read a book or flip through a magazine if you wish.
A course of 2 sessions per week on non-consecutive days over a 3-week period is the recommended protocol we follow. You won’t require any downtime. It is a walk-in, walk-out procedure.
Some patients will see results almost immediately, for most there will be noticeable improvement of your symptoms after the third session with continued improvement in the weeks following.
As a plus, since strong pelvic floor muscles are also important for sexual health, improved sexual intimacy is often an additional benefit of EMSELLA treatments.
EMSELLA FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
The Emsella is a non-invasive treatment that improves pelvic floor muscle tone allowing both males and females to address their urinary incontinence symptoms. The name is represented as "EM" for Electromagnetic and "Sella" the meaning for chair in Latin.
Emsella utilizes electromagnetic energy to deliver thousands of supramaximal pelvic floor muscle contractions in a single session meaning that with these types of contractions your muscles work 100% for 100% of the time. EMSELLA works on the principle of patented* high-intensity focused electromagnetic procedure (HIFEM). This is an extremely powerful focused electromagnetic field. Its high intensity enables it to reach muscle contractions while sitting comfortably on the EMSELLA applicator.
The HIFEM technology creates supramaximal contractions in your pelvic floor causing the muscles to get tighter and larger. Tighter and larger pelvic floor muscles will reduce the amount of leaking you get from stress incontinence. We know that Kegels help to decrease urinary incontinence by increasing pelvic floor tone. No longer do you have to worry if you are doing Kegels correctly – this chair does this work for you! Each session will deliver approximately 11,000 Kegels in a 28 minute session strengthening that pelvic floor muscle. What might naturally take you 7 years to do, you can now do in 30 minutes!
Both men and women over the age of 18 years who desire a solution for symptoms of urinary incontinence and improvement to their sexual health.
It is important to remember that incontinence is not only a women’s issue.
EMSELLA Chair treatment treats stress incontinence, urge incontinence and mixed incontinence, improving sexual health in both males and females. It can also help women with mild prolapse.
We frequently see postpartum and postmenopausal women representing the largest female patient population who suffer from Urinary incontinence (UI).
Men after prostatectomy represent the largest male patient population seeking improvement in incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
Your Physician will review your medical history with you but the following will disqualify you from treatment:
- Pregnancy
- Cardiac pacemakers
- Metal or electronic implants
Emsella treatment is a simple, effective and scientifically proven treatment option.
It is non -invasive.
You remain fully clothed
It is a walk in-walk out procedure.
It entails sitting on a chair for 28 minutes. It is not painful. Patients describe it as a tingling sensation and strong pulsation as the pelvic floor muscles contract while sitting on the device.
Treatment takes 28 minutes. Why 28 minutes? Because after this point, your pelvic floor muscles are fatigued and naturally need to rest. After the treatment you can continue about your day without any downtime needed. No specific clothing is required for treatment and neither do you need to remove your clothing. We recommend that you come in comfortable clothing like workout clothes or leggings for the most comfortable experience.
The EMSELLA treatment is non-invasive so no recovery time is needed, and the treatment is pain-free. Some side effects experienced after treatment to the area include muscular pain, temporary muscle spasms, and temporary joint or tendon pain (remember it is working the pelvic floor muscle as if it went to the gym ). Very rarely erythema or skin redness may occur. In some cases, incontinence may worsen in the next 48 hours from the first treatment because of sore muscles but improvement is quickly seen soon after.
Each patient is an individual and for some, improvement may be seen after a single session. Results will continue to improve over the following weeks with a noticeable improvement after the third session. The best results with the treatment can be seen 2-4 weeks after the recommended 6 treatments.
After your course of 6 sessions, you will see a significant improvement in your symptoms but like all muscles, we have to use them regularly to avoid weakening. Depending on the severity of your incontinence, you and your Physician will discuss if a top-up session is needed. This can be repeated at any time, though most patients will come back after 6 to 12 months to do a repeat of the six sessions. Other patients have found the best results by doing one maintenance session per month to continue the results
Yes. Patients suffering from overactive bladders have reported that they can hold their bladders for longer and feel the need to urinate less frequently.
Yes. Patients who suffer with prolapse have reported improved symptoms of urge incontinence as the Emsella treatment plan can strengthen the muscles around the bladder. This will not treat or cure prolapse, but it can help.
We do not recommend you have treatment on your heavy period days. We will work to create the best schedule for you to receive optimum results.
By improving blood flow to the pelvic area, the Emsella has been proven to successfully treat erectile dysfunction as a result of improving blood flow to the pelvic area to naturally achieve an erection.
EMSELLA has a proven ability to strengthen pelvic muscles. The result of this is that is it increases the ability for patients to more easily achieve orgasm, experience stronger orgasms, and lead to an increased sensation which has a positive effect on sexual wellness and intimate relationships.
Before starting your treatment, you will have a consultation with your healthcare provider. At that first visit, once given clearance to start treatment, you will be shown to our Emsella treatment room where your therapist will explain the treatment and help to position you on the Emsella. The first appointment will be approximately 45 minutes including the consultation and treatment session. Each treatment session after this will be approximately 30 minutes. You will not be able to hold any electronic devices whilst sitting on the Emsella but we have created this space to be a relaxing oasis while you get the full benefits of treatment.
Emsella is MEDICAL CE MARKED and FDA CLEARED and the only machine on the market using HIFEM technology. EMSELLA is supported by numerous clinical trials proving results. It has 95% patient satisfaction.
To see the best results, you will need to perform two treatments per week for a period of 3 consecutive weeks, a total of 6 treatments. At your first appointment, you will meet with your healthcare provider to review your individual case and can start treatment that day once clearance is given.
Each appointment is BDS $300.00
The full package if paid in full of 6 sessions is BDS$1500.00 Click here to learn more about EMSELLA.
You just learned about: EMSELLA
Click here to learn more about EMSELLA.
It’s time to regain some freedom and confidence and the Emsella chair can get you there.
