Childbirth, menopause, the natural process of aging, and a combination of various other factors can all contribute to changes in vaginal tissue over time. Some of the most common symptoms women can experience include vaginal dryness, tissue laxity, decreased sexual sensation, and even stress urinary incontinence (leaking urine when you laugh, sneeze, or exercise). Many women think they have to live with these symptoms. We’re here to tell you that no, you do not have to just “deal with it.” You have options. One of them is diVa Vaginal Therapy.
Women’s health is complex. The female anatomy has a lot of working parts that change as you naturally age and experience major life events like pregnancy and menopause. For years, the go-to solution to almost every issue involved hormonal therapy, but today, the go-to solution is different. There’s an effective and cost-efficient therapy that addresses changes in vaginal tissue related to natural aging, post-pregnancy tissue damage, and menopause symptoms. It’s called diVa laser vaginal therapy, and it can help you unleash your “inner diVa” through effective therapy for medical conditions.
In short, the diVa helps to revitalize vaginal function with little-to-no downtime. DiVa is similar to a HALO treatment, but it’s designed specifically for vaginal tissue. It utilizes two different wavelengths simultaneously to provide a controlled injury to the tissue. It stimulates the remodeling of that tissue, producing more collagen and elastin and causing the tissue to thicken.
Pain, discomfort, and embarrassment change a person, causing them to be crabby or depressed and negatively impacting their desire to do the things they enjoy. Good health contributes to a good life.
As a woman, vaginal health is part of your life. When it suffers, you suffer. Your most intimate of relationships can be negatively affected, and you may find yourself feeling less confident both in and out of the bedroom. As you age, your body experiences changes that can impact the vagina. It’s normal, and you are far from alone.
Are you one of these women? What have you done to improve your vaginal health? Here’s a better question, the one you’re likely asking: What can I do to improve my vaginal health?
Vaginal health impacts sexual activity. It can be negatively or positively affected by hormonal changes and child birth. Thousands of women are searching for effective solutions to symptoms that include:
All of these can decrease confidence in and out of the bedroom. But there’s a revolutionary technology now available that can treat your symptoms and help restore your confidence.
Why is sex painful? It’s supposed to be pleasurable, right? But for some reason, it’s just not for you. Maybe it hasn’t always been painful or maybe it has. Why?
For many women, painful penetration and/or painful sex is caused by a vaginal health issue. It could be due to illness, infection, or a physical problem. Sex can become painful after pregnancy due to childbirth and the hormonal changes your body has weathered. Vaginal dryness resulting in burning, itching, or lack of lubrication is common.
Your doctor can help you determine the cause of painful sex, and if it is related to the vaginal tissue, diVa therapy may be for you. It can treat:
diVa laser vaginal therapy is a medical treatment capable of correcting the symptoms that are sometimes caused by vaginal childbirth and/or the natural aging of the female anatomy. The therapy treats the tissue in the vaginal cavity to increase secretions and encourages the body to increase collagen production as well. It can regenerate healthy tissue to improve vaginal health, thus correcting the degeneration that contributes to painful sex.
Menopause is the ceasing of menstruation. For most women, it occurs between the ages of 45 and 55, but for some, it arrives earlier. The age at which a woman enters menopause is thought to be genetically determined, but it can be triggered by external stimulants like chemotherapy or a hysterectomy during which the uterus is removed.
Menopause is one of the most dynamic changes the female anatomy goes through. Some of the most common symptoms include weight gain, hot flashes, and vaginal dryness. Traditionally, these symptoms have been addressed through hormone-focused treatments. For breast cancer survivors and other estrogen-sensitive cancer survivors, traditional hormone therapy isn’t an option. Now, there is a solution.
diVa is a non-surgical, non-hormonal therapy designed to address vaginal dryness and stress urinary incontinence. It can help improve some vaginal symptoms of menopause.
How does the diVa therapy work, and what can you expect? The total treatment time is roughly 45 minutes – a 15 minute procedure following 30 minutes of numbing with a topical anesthetic. While diVa itself does not require an anesthetic, we find it offers patients an added level of comfort and decreases stress.
You don’t need to fret over downtime after a diVa session. You’ll be able to resume your normal daily activities, but patients should not introduce anything to the vagina for the first 48 hours following the procedure. The therapy itself is recommended in a series of three treatments spaced four weeks apart with one annual treatment to maintain optimum results.
The diVa laser is manufactured by Sciton. It’s a revolutionary piece of technology and currently the only vaginal tissue rejuvenation laser capable of addressing both vaginal secretions and laxity. The laser operates on a precision guidance system, eliminating reliance on manual positioning. It’s also highly customizable, allowing practitioners to adapt the therapy based on your age, personal symptoms, and desired results.
Hormone therapies present a host of dangerous risks. According to the National Cancer Institute, menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) is linked to and increases the risk of the following serious conditions:
There’s a better solution for menopause symptoms, painful sex, painful penetration, stress urinary incontinence, and vaginal discomfort. It’s called diVa, and it’s available at Dermacare of Hampton Roads. Our expert diVa clinicians, our nurse practitioner, Trisha O’Meara and physician assistant, Carrie Lapert, have the top level education and credentials – and are passionate about restoring your intimate confidence.
DiVa is performed in a series of three treatments over the course of three months. When you arrive, your Dermacare medical provider will insert a vaginal numbing cream into the vaginal canal. Once you’re numb (about 30 minutes), a speculum will be inserted and the numbing cream will be gently swabbed out. We’ll complete 2-3 passes with the diVa laser, which takes around 10 minutes.
Fun Fact: The laser actually uses a clear quartz dilator that is only functional for 30 minutes once attached to the machine. This means each dilator can only be used once, for a single treatment for a single patient! This dilator is also important because it helps to gently stretch the vaginal tissue so that more surface area can be treated by the laser. Additionally, the quartz dilator ensures that the laser energy delivered at the end of the treatment is just as strong and as fully transmitted as the energy at the beginning of the treatment since the laser itself isn’t coming into contact with the tissue. All of this helps to provide our patients with the most thorough and efficacious treatment possible.
What’s unique about diVa is that the laser doesn’t come into contact with your skin, only the dilator does. This means there is zero risk for burned tissue adhering to the laser itself and decreasing the efficacy of the laser treatment itself. Other treatments on the market actually are designed to have the laser itself come directly into contact with the skin. This means that burned tissue can get onto the laser face and make the treatment less effective. Because the diVa’s laser is protected by the quartz dilator,, the last pulse of the diVa is just as strongly delivered as the first!
We typically recommend a maintenance treatment once per year, depending on when your symptoms begin to return. For some patients, that may be a little shy of a year; for others, that may be a little past a year. Everybody is different, and your Dermacare Expert can help you determine how often you may want to come back for maintenance treatments.
Most patients rate the discomfort around a 3 on a pain scale of 1-10. Many patients describe it as feeling like a light tapping sensation. We should note that if you have any scar tissue from childbirth, it could be slightly more sensitive to the laser in those particular spots. Once again, everybody is different!
You should expect spotting to light bleeding anywhere from a few hours to a few days post treatment. We recommend wearing a pad for 1-3 days. You can go to the gym right away, though. The only restriction is that nothing goes into the vagina for at least 48 hours, and you can’t go swimming or sit in a bathtub for the first few days. (Showering is fine!)
Everyone is different. We typically recommend a maintenance treatment once per year, depending on when symptoms return. If you begin to reexperience dryness or stress urinary incontinence before a year is up, then you’ll want to come back sooner. Everybody is different, and your Dermacare Expert can help you determine how often you may want to come back for a maintenance treatment.
Friendly reminder that all our consultations are private, and we can do them in person or over the phone. We understand your concerns and want to help you live your life to the fullest.
Of all the treatments available here at DermacareHR, our patients say that diVa is the most life changing. If you’re premenopausal, menopausal, and/or experiencing vaginal dryness or stress urinary incontinence when you go to the gym or laugh—we can help! You don’t have to live with the symptoms of aging. Call us at (757) 317-3587 or make a consultation appointment HERE.
If you’re ready to say goodbye to vaginal issues and improve vaginal health, then it’s time to say hello to diVa. Contact us today to schedule your complimentary consultation. It’ll be personal, private, and focused on your concerns. We can’t wait to help you unleash your “inner diVa!”