It’s rare that anyone will tell you to sit comfortably for 30 minutes to strengthen your muscles. But when it comes to your pelvic floor, that’s exactly what you should do—as long as you’re sitting on an Emsella chair, that is.
At Iowa Wellness Center, we are helping women and men restore their inner core function with Emsella near Iowa City. As you age, and with major life events like menopause, childbirth, or surgery, your pelvic floor muscles weaken. Without their support, you may notice uncomfortable changes in your body, like urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction.
It’s not always easy to talk about, but at our wellness center, these concerns are easy to treat. Before we explain just how Emsella works, let’s first take a moment to understand the importance of your pelvic floor.
The Anatomy of Your Pelvic Floor
Your pelvic floor does a lot of work and receives very little credit—until now. When you typically think of core muscles, you probably focus on the abdominal muscles, especially when striving for the highly sought-after “six-pack.”
But your core actually consists of more than that, like your back muscles, diaphragm, and your pelvic floor muscles. These muscles work in coordination with each other, generating stability and support, which in turn enables the movement required for everyday activities and tasks.
Your pelvic floor provides the base of these muscles, stretching from the pubic bone to the tailbone. It supports vital organs like the bladder, bowel, uterus (in women), and prostate (in men), and connects to the spine. Emsella near Iowa City is unique because it focuses on these muscles that often get neglected in your average workout routine.
The Function of Your Pelvic Floor
Your pelvic floor assists in the following bodily processes:
- Directing blood flow to the penis or vagina during sex.
- Relaxing your anus and urethra to move waste out of your body.
- Squeezing to stop urine flow and bowel movements.
- Supporting vaginal delivery during childbirth.
Pelvic Floor Dysfunction
With a weakened pelvic floor, you notice symptoms like urinary incontinence, bowel movement issues, and sexual dysfunction.
Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is very common in women, with at least 62% of females experiencing some type of issue with bladder control.
This condition affects men much less, with under 14% of men experiencing it. This is because women are more susceptible to hormone and bodily changes than men. Emsella near Iowa City is an effective urinary incontinence treatment for individuals struggling with stress, urge, or mixed incontinence.
- Stress incontinence: Leaking pee during physical exertion like coughing, sneezing, or exercising. When your pelvic floor muscles weaken, they’re unable to effectively withstand the pressure these activities place on your bladder, opening your urethra and causing you to leak pee instead of holding it in.
- Urge incontinence: The immediate and intense need to pee, often resulting in involuntary urination before you make it to the bathroom. This is caused by an overactive bladder, which contracts more often than normal, giving the impression of needing to urinate before the bladder is full. As it squeezes, the urethra opens, causing you to urinate before being ready.
- Mixed incontinence: The name says it all; you experience leaking from physical activity and urgency from an overactive bladder. This type of incontinence is also common in men after having prostate removal surgery.
Bowel Movement Issues
You may be surprised to learn that your gastrointestinal (GI) issues might also be caused by pelvic floor dysfunction. Surrounding and supporting your anus and rectum are a group of muscles called the internal and external anal sphincter muscles. When these muscles aren’t functioning properly, you can rely on Emsella near Iowa City to improve the following conditions:
- Constipation: Less frequent bowel movements (fewer than 3 a week—or fewer than is normal for you). This happens when your pelvic floor muscles tighten instead of relaxing to allow stool to pass as it normally should. This is often caused by excessive straining, which weakens the pelvic floor muscles.
- Fecal incontinence: Losing control of when you pass gas or stool. When your pelvic floor muscles weaken, the signals sent between your nerves and muscles are affected, which can result in your body not recognizing the need to eliminate waste. Or, your muscles have weakened too much and cannot hold the waste long enough for you to make it to the bathroom.
Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual arousal relies on blood flow to support vaginal sensations and help men achieve and maintain an erection. You may experience the following with pelvic floor dysfunction, causing you to seek pelvic floor therapy options like Emsella near Iowa City:
- Erectile dysfunction: The inability to get and maintain an erection. Men rely on proper blood flow to the penis to not only form an erection but also to maintain it, as the blood must stay in the region long enough to reach orgasm. When the pelvic floor muscles are weak, they cannot contain the blood flow effectively.
- Vaginal discomfort: Weak and overactive muscles can cause painful intercourse and reduce vaginal sensations.
The Emsella Chair: Pelvic Floor Therapy
Emsella is a noninvasive pelvic floor therapy that restores strength to your pelvic floor by helping you rebuild these muscles. In a series of 30-minute sessions, this treatment can improve the following concerns:
- Urinary incontinence
- Pelvic floor weakness
- Sexual dysfunction
- Postpartum recovery
The Emsella Technology
The Emsella treatment utilizes high-intensity focused electromagnetic (HIFEM) energy to stimulate up to 12,000 pelvic muscle contractions per session, which it does by sending the energy through the chair and directly into the pelvic floor.
Kegels and Emsella
These muscle contractions are quite similar to Kegel exercises, which you can perform at home. They involve lifting, holding, and relaxing your pelvic floor repeatedly. Usually you’re instructed to do 10 Kegels in the morning and at night.
Not only are these time consuming, but you also run the risk of worsening your symptoms if you do them incorrectly. Emsella near Iowa City is 7 times more effective than traditional Kegels, it’s less risky when done under the supervision of a certified professional.
If you would like to enhance your Emsella results between sessions, we encourage you to speak to a member of our team. We can teach you how to perform Kegels properly and effectively on your own, or give you a referral to a physical therapist who can also help.
Emsella Sessions
Emsella doesn’t require you to take time out of your day twice a day to strengthen your pelvic floor. However, it does require 30 minutes of your time throughout a series of 6 to 12 sessions over the course of 2 to 3 months. Unlike at-home Kegels, you can expect to notice initial improvements after just a few sessions.
Emsella Effectiveness
12,000 contractions in just 30 minutes sounds too good to be true, but the numbers don’t lie.
In clinical trials, Emsella boasted impressive improvements, including a 64% improvement in urinary incontinence on average, and a 57% average reduction in hygiene pad use.
The Emsella Process at Iowa Wellness Center
Before you sit on the chair for Emsella near Iowa City, you first sit in our office chair and discuss your symptoms.
Consultation
It’s not easy to talk about sexual health, bowel movement issues, and urinary incontinence. But we encourage you to be transparent and honest so we can determine if this is the best treatment for you. As medical professionals, we’ve not only heard it all; some of us have also experienced similar issues ourselves. We can assure you that what you’re experiencing is normal and treatable.
Treatment
These quick 30-minute sessions don’t require much preparation; you don’t even need to change or undress. You’ll simply sit comfortably on the Emsella chair, and the machine will do the rest. During this time, you’ll notice a tingling sensation as the chair induces powerful muscle contractions. Most patients find this tolerable.
Results
Although you’ll notice initial improvements after a few sessions, you can expect full results after about 2 to 3 weeks. To prolong the strength of your pelvic floor muscles, we recommend follow-up appointments 6 months after you finish your treatment. This is not only a maintenance session, but also an opportunity to track your progress and make sure your pelvic floor is still functioning properly.
Emsella Benefits
As if improved sexual function and better bladder control weren’t enough—our team also appreciates the following benefits of an Emsella treatment:
- Noninvasive: No incisions required, making this a completely noninvasive treatment.
- No downtime: There’s no need to carve out more than 30 minutes of your day to rehabilitate your pelvic floor. Emsella requires no downtime, so you can continue your daily activities as usual (and quite possibly more comfortably).
- Safe for men and women: This helps improve the lives of men and women, offering relief from embarrassing and life-altering conditions.
Sit Down and Stay a While at Iowa Wellness Center
At Iowa Wellness Center, our team is inviting you to sit down and stay a while, or for at least 30 minutes. In this quick session, you can improve bladder control, revive your sex life, and clear up GI issues.
To restore your pelvic floor, it all starts with a conversation so we can determine if Emsella near Iowa City is right for you.
To streamline the process, you can try our treatment planning tool. We especially recommend this option if you’re shy about your symptoms. Once we receive your submission, a member of our team will reach out with more information regarding Emsella and available appointment times.
