Let's Talk Wellness Now

A podcast on health, wellness and education by Dr. Debra Muth - the owner of Serenity Health Care Center outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Phoenix Factor, the premier women's health protocol for high-performing female executives. Please visit letstalkwellnessnow.com for more information!

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episode 184: Episode 184: Stop Bladder Leakage, Urge & Stress Incontinence


Have you suffered from vaginal trauma from birthing? Are you menopausal and tired of the vaginal dryness and pain with intercourse? Ready to get rid of urinary leakage without surgery? Dr. Deb shares her personal experience with pelvic floor repair and wishes she had this device before she had surgery. You can prevent surgery and solve your urinary leakage. 

Do not miss these highlights:

02:02 The amazing Morpheus V device.

02:45 Why is it important to have a strong pelvic floor? 

03:51 We can actually do non-invasive treatments for people who do not want or are not candidates to undergo surgical intervention.

06:02 The things that happen post-surgically in many women.

07:32  Different medications we can give vaginally to help rejuvenate tissues and nerves.

08:54 V tone and Morpheus V can help strengthen the pelvic floor, help reproduce new collagen, and new cell turnover in the vaginal tissue. 

09:47 The loss of hormones makes a significant change to the pelvic floor, to the vaginal tissue, to our sexual stimulation, and to how we look We feel from our head all the way to our toe.

12:10 We could have the best sex lives after 50 if we have the right tools.

13:16 We have seen a lot of erectile dysfunction post-COVID.

17:43 Knowing which muscles to engage in and how long is huge when doing a Kegel exercise.

18:00 The V Tone program – teaches your body how to do Kegel 

19:19 If we can rejuvenate that pelvic floor, it can assist with constipation, it can assist with the pain in intercourse, it can assist the vaginal dryness, and it also assists in urinary incontinence. 

Resources Mentioned

Whether you are recovering from an illness or just looking to maintain your current overall health, schedule a consult with us at Serenity Health Care  by calling  (262)522-8640 or visit https://www.serenityhealthcarecenter.com 

Transcription of Episode 184:

0:02
Welcome to Let’s Talk Wellness Now I’m your host, Dr. Deb. This is where we talk about everything wellness, and learn to defy aging and live our lives on our own terms. Hi, welcome back to Let’s Talk Wellness Now. I’m your host, Dr. Deb. Today I want to talk to you about vaginal rejuvenation. So many of you have heard my story about my own pelvic floor issues, my own collagen issues. I’ve had pelvic reconstructive surgery, had a uterine prolapse had undergone a hysterectomy. And then a couple of years ago, I underwent pelvic floor reconstruction surgery because I was having some issues after you know, God, almost 20 years, have a hysterectomy and had no problems for a while and then started having some problems with urinary incontinence and pain with intercourse, pelvic floor issues. I’ve had many guests on the show talking about pelvic floor and urinary incontinence and vaginal rejuvenation. And for those of you who’ve been following me a long time, you know my love for hormones, and I think it’s amazing. And I came across a device called the Morpheus V. And it was totally by accident, we had a rep come in and share this technology with us. And I was blown away by the technology. And I have to say a little saddened by the fact that this wasn’t available. Before I underwent my pelvic reconstruction surgery for urinary incontinence Had this been available? I really believe that I would not have had to undergo amajor surgery to fix the issues that I was having from my hysterectomy. This device Morpheus V is so amazing. It is a combination of radiofrequency and micro-needlingmicro-needling now before you get nervous, the micro-needling part is a little scary, yes.

2:17
But it’s really not that painful, we can make these procedures very comfortable for people. And for those of you who’ve suffered from urinary incontinence for years, you may have known about the Mona Lisa, cert,ainly we talk a lot about doing Kegel exercises, pelvic floor physical therapy, re connecting that muscle tissue and really being able to have a strong pelvic floor. So why is it important to have a strong pelvic floor? Well, most of us, we think about urinary incontinence and leakage. And that is very true. Without a strong pelvic floor, we are going to suffer from urinary incontinence, maybe fecal incontinence. And then eventually what ends up happening is we start having sexual dysfunction or we shy away from intercourse. Because it may be painful. You may feel like you’re gonna leak, you may feel like you’re gonna pass gas or have a bowel movement during intercourse. All of these things are problems that women suffer in complete silence. And myself my friend Sherrie Palm who runs a pops, which is the pelvic floor organization, that’s a non for profit. She has spent the last 16-plus years educating women on pelvic floor issues and all of the various devices and treatments that are available and really has come to an exciting time for women. Because what once used to just be a surgical option or a pessary or suffer and live with the incontinence and the pelvic floor issues, this arena has significantly changed with the development of some of these devices like Mona Lisa and Morpheus V. We can actually do non invasive treatments for people who do not want or are not candidates to undergo surgical intervention. Or they tried Botox injections into the vaginal tissue. They’ve tried estrogen, they’ve tried testosterone. They’ve tried all of the things that we give women to help with urinary incontinence and pelvic floor. But it’s still not helping. It’s still not enough. And when I came across this device, I was so excited about it. Because I thought finally for once we have a device that can really address the woman’s problem. In a very short period of time. We’re talking literally three treatments and after the first treatment, you’re going to notice a significant difference in incontinence. And I thought we finally have something that women can use that is effective. This treatment helps in 90 to 95% of the cases. Now, if someone has a severe pelvic prolapse, you know, grade three or something more difficult going on, it’s certainly not going to help in those cases. But in those mild to moderate urinary incontinence, urge incontinence pain with intercourse, like in planets, lichen sclerosis cases where there scar tissue and there’s pain, this device can significantly help make your life so much better. And I had to share this on the show today, because I am such an advocate for women’s health, this has been my passion my whole life. And I really feel like as women, there’s not a lot of research that goes into the issues that we deal with. And finally, we have something. So you know, a lot of times when people undergo surgical interventions, or you have birth a child and have had birthing trauma, like a rip or a tear, or they’ve had to do an episiotomy, many women end up with scar tissue in that area, which then leads to nerve damage in that area. And if you’ve got undergone pelvic floor surgery, they’ve cut a lot of the nerves internally, and women will tell you that this type of surgical repair, although it’s been helpful, has also created some other issues. We’ve create issues where intercourse is difficult either because of an over zealous physician that has cut away too much tissue and made the vaginal tissue too tight.

6:50
And yes, that is the thing as much as the guys will say, go ahead. It is a problem when they’ve over-rectified the situation to the point where you can barely get one finger in the vagina. That is a problem. Now the wonderful thing about the world of vaginas is bad, they stretch and it can get better. But it does take some time it does take some work, it takes some diligence there. The other thing that happens post surgically is many women no longer feel or have the same sensation that they have prior to surgery. They have much more difficulty reaching orgasm, especially vaginal orgasms, it’s much more difficult to stimulate the g spot. And in part, that’s because all those nerves have been caught. Now there are things that we can do. There’s different medications we can give into vaginally that help rejuvenate that tissue and those nerves, but nerve tissue takes a very long time to rejuvenate. We’re talking about one millimeter a month. So we have 1000s of nerves in the vaginal tissue. And so it takes time to rejuvenate that. But with the Morpheus V, it’s so much different. And it’s so much better because you can start getting that collagen and that elasticity there, you can start getting that nerve connection back again. And so it just has given us such an opportunity to help women in a arena that we don’t talk about. You know, many women do not want to talk about their urinary incontinence, they don’t want to talk about their painful intercourse. They don’t want to talk about not having an orgasm. But it creates a lot of friction and a lot of tension in the relationship because the partner always feels like it’s them, they’re doing something wrong, they’re not pleasing you, you don’t love them anymore. When that couldn’t be further from the truth. For the majority of women, it has nothing to do with that. It simply has to do with the fact that we don’t have the sensation that we had before. And with Former V, V Tone, Morpheus V, all of these things that we can do to help strengthen the pelvic floor to help reproduce new collagen, new cell turnover in the vaginal tissue.

9:04
These kinds of things can help so much with your sex life, with your incontinence with how you feel as a woman, the sexuality, the sensuality, of being able to dress nice and not have to worry about leaking on yourself or looking nice. All of these things are so important to us. And let’s face it, the world of aging is spreading. The female population over menopause is one of the fastest growing populations that we have here in the US and abroad. And more of us are entering menopause every single day. The loss of hormones makes a significant change to the pelvic floor to the vaginal tissue, to our sexual stimulation to how we look We feel from our head all the way to our toe. So when we’re talking about using some of these devices, for vaginal rejuvenation, we can use the same type of device with a different platform to rejuvenate the skin in the face and the neck and even our hands. And we can use it for body sculpting as well. But I think the vaginal rejuvenation makes so much sense for us. Because it’s such a significant problem. And using something that you could come in and have a procedure done in your office, over your lunch hour, and go back to work and nobody knows what has happened and you don’t feel bad, you don’t feel uncomfortable, you have no downtime at all, is huge. When I had my pelvic reconstruction surgery, I was off of work for three weeks, they wanted me to stay off for six, I stayed off for three. I worked from home remotely for another week and a half. But it really took a toll on recovery. For me. It took me almost three weeks to get back to walking two to four miles a day, I had lots of pain, lots of sleepless nights. And I was unable to be sexually active for eight weeks, and then re engaging in sex after that time, was very uncomfortable. Took a lot of patience. And a lot of time for my husband and I to get used to that again. We were able to do it. And it was great. And partially we did it because I have the knowledge that I have. But I could see where someone who doesn’t have the experience or the knowledge or somebody to teach them what things are going to be like and how to get over that could be a significant challenge for them. And they would give up and just say I’m done. We’re not having intercourse again. And actually my surgeon asked me before she performed the surgery, did I want to be sexually active after this surgery? And of course, my answer was yes, I’m you know, 51 years old, of course, I want to be sexually active still. And that made a difference in the procedure that she chose to do for me.

12:10
Thisidea that sex after 50 Doesn’t happen or shouldn’t happen is crazy. It could be our best sexual lives after 50. If we have the right tools, right? Whether you’re a guy with erectile dysfunction, or a woman with urinary incontinence and pain with intercourse, there are ways that we can maneuver this so you don’t have to be uncomfortable having sex. You know, there are vaginal lubricants. There’s vaginal estrogen for people who cannot or do not want to use estrogen. We have hyaluronic acid, we have Former V, we have Morpheus v that we can use now to replenish that vaginal tissue. We can use testosterone vaginally for men with erectile dysfunction. We can use testosterone, we can use Viagra or Cialis. We can also use an ultrasound therapy to help break up scar tissue and remove the plaque from the penis so that you don’t have problems with erectile function. We have seen a lot of erectile dysfunction post COVID. So people who have been sick with COVID. And people who have had the COVID vaccine are struggling with erectile function. Part of that is because of what it does to the blood flow from the heart. And it can disrupt that blood flow and cause bigger problems. And when it does that, you will find that you’re having more problems with erectile function. And there are ways around that there are ways that we can work through that we can also measure with a non invasive procedure, how much blockage is in the heart. And so if you’ve had COVID, and now you’re struggling with erectile function, we want to make sure that there’s not some kind of blockage there. We can do a three minute test in the office that determines how much blockage you have. And we know if it is a problem or not super inexpensive, easy to do nothing more than putting a clip on the end of your finger and measuring with a computer program. There are things that we can do in integrative medicine that traditional medicine doesn’t offer that can really help with this sexual function. I have seen some of the best physicians forget to talk about sexual function, forget to talk about urinary incontinence. Nobody wants to have this discussion. Nobody wants to bring it up. And I think it’s an important part of our health and well being for us to have these conversations. And there’s no reason that people need to suffer in silence anymore when we have treatments available, and not every treatment is going to be for every person. However, there are people that want these types of treatments, there are people that are tired of suffering in silence. And we need to be having these open conversations. And we need to not be afraid of them. You know, if you’ve been watching any of the TV commercials these days, you’re seeing a ton of ads for fancy little depend-on underwear for women, so that they can look and feel sexy and alive, even though they’re having to wear something to help with their incontinence. It’s all about loving who you are being comfortable with who you are being happy with what’s going on in your life, instead of being made to feel ashamed of what’s happening. Most people suffer from urinary incontinence, post-vaginal delivery, and birth. And we were in a truly preventative society, we would be recommending these types of treatments like V Tone and Former V and Morpheus V. Right after delivery right after that six week postpartum evaluation, we would start to do these kinds of treatments so that incontinence never becomes a problem so that we’re taking care of that pelvic floor. When I was training to be a women’s health nurse practitioner, we always told people to do your Kegel exercises through the commercials, and do your Kegel exercises at every stoplight, and after a period of time, it will just become like human nature, you won’t even think about it, and you’ll just automatically do it and it’ll be on autopilot. The reality is we don’t do that. And many of us either don’t watch TV, or we’re watching TV that doesn’t have commercials anymore. And we’re too busy doing things in the car to think about Kegel exercises. So we don’t get those Kegel exercises in nor do we do them properly. So we don’t get the benefit from them the way that we should. I don’t know about you, but nobody ever really taught me how to do a good kegel.

17:00
They told me what they were, they told me that I should squeeze my vaginal muscle. Try not to squeeze your buttcheeks. And that was about the extent of the teaching for Kegel exercises. And unfortunately, I passed that same information along to women for 15 years. And it all sounds great. But the reality is that’s not how it works. And that’s not how you want to do a good Kegel, the physical therapists who do pelvic floor reach can retraining do that much better. But women still have a hard time knowing which muscles they’re engaging and which muscles they’re not. And are they engaging the right muscle? And are they engaging it for the right period of time. And that can be a true struggle. So knowing which muscles to engage in knowing how long and all of that is huge when you’re doing a kegel. So once you get it down, could you subconsciously do that? Yes, there are many people that can, there are way more people who cannot. So there’s a program called V Tone that we offer, which teaches your body how to do that Kagel and it actually contracts the muscle for you so that you don’t have to worry about consciously in your mind contracting that muscle. For many of us, we are unable to do that by the time we’re in our mid-50s. And so we need some assistance in contracting that muscle and holding it for a period of time and then relaxing it. And so the tone is a great way for people to get introduced to these kinds of treatments and therapies, reconnect that pelvic floor, see how bad that pelvic floor actually is, or how good it is. And if you need further assistance with that Kagel, or you need further assistance with Tony that pelvic floor, then we can go on to something like a form of E or A Morpheus aid. Or if you just simply don’t ever want to be in the position that I was in. You don’t ever want to have to have surgery. And you know, you’re already starting to have some issues or some laxity in that pelvic floor. Doing this proactively is so important for your health in so many ways. Even problems with constipation. You know, constipation causes issues in that pelvic floor. And if we can rejuvenate that pelvic floor, it can assist with the constipation, it can assist with the pain for in intercourse. It assists with the vaginal dryness, and it also assists in the urinary incontinence. So I’m just so excited about this and I really wanted to share this with you because there has never been a device like this to the market. It is the first and I’m sure it will be the first of many, once new technology becomes available to us. But for those of you who are suffering at all with pelvic floor issues, I want to really encourage you to find somebody who has a Morpheus V He who has these tools that can help you reach out, talk to them, get an evaluation and see if it can benefit you. We have this device at Serenity Health Care Center. We would love to help you if you need it. If you need a consultation, you have questions, please reach out to us. If your partner is suffering from erectile dysfunction, either pre or post-COVID. And you’ve tried things and it’s just not working the way it is. Or you’re concerned that something happened after COVID That’s now causing this problem and you need evaluation from someone who understands what COVID actually is doing, and has an opportunity to fix that for you. Please reach out to my team at Serenity Health Care Center, we have a great ultrasound therapy that can work well for men. Amy is my nurse practitioner over there that works with the Men’s Health Program. And she is amazing. You guys will just love her knowledge and expertise. And she can help you put together a program that is going to get your erectile function under good control and assess whether or not COVID has caused a problem for you with this. So I hope this video is helpful for you. I know it’s a very different format than what you guys are used to seeing and hearing from me on Let’s Talk wellness now. But I really wanted to just get this information out to you guys because like I said, I’m super excited about it. I’ve tried it myself. I really wish I had this before I did my surgery because I would have never had to do my surgery had this been available a few years ago. And I would love to see other women use it so that they don’t have to go through surgery either. So I hope you guys are having an amazing day. Please enjoy the beautiful fall weather that we’re getting to. And we will be back to with another episode on Let’s Talk Wellness Now next week.

21:55
Hey, it has been really great sharing this time with you guys on the Let’s Talk Wellness Now podcast. If this episode has helped you or you feel as though this episode would help someone else we’d love for you to leave us a review, share this podcast and if you don’t want to miss the most exciting episodes we have coming. We’d love for you to subscribe to our podcast on iTunes or Google Play. Until next time, live every day to the fullest.


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 September 12, 2022  22m