The Promise of Hormone-Free Tech: Can it Bring Better Sex?
ORIGINAL ARTICLE POSTED ON GOOP.COM
Having your period can be rough, but not having it is no fun either: Whether caused by hormonal changes associated with giving birth, breastfeeding, perimenopause and menopause, reproductive cancers, taking the pill, or even just garden-variety stress, many women find themselves with (incredibly common) problems that no one ever told them about. “Dryness, painful or not-as-good sex, and low libido are all side effects of normal hormonal fluctuations, and as many as ¼ of women who give birth vaginally get stress incontinence at some point in their lives—but women generally suffer those conditions in silence,” says Dr. Elizabeth Eden, president-elect of the New York Gynecological Society, an OB-GYN in private practice in New York, and gynecologist and consultant for VSPOT Medi-Spa.
“People don’t talk about it,” agrees Rebecca Nelken, a uro-gynecologist in private practice in Beverly Hills and a leading expert in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, as well as assistant clinical professor of OB-GYN at USC. Part of the reason for the silence may reflect the lack of effective treatments: Kegels make a difference in many symptoms, but need to be done consistently—and forever. “Patient compliance with kegels is difficult,” says Eden. (See our story on the app/device Elvie, which makes them a bit more fun.) And Kegels alone are often no match for stress incontinence or serious dryness. Addyi, a drug for low desire, came out last year, helps some women, but does come with side effects.
“Dryness, painful or not-as-good sex, and low libido are all side effects of normal hormonal fluctuations.”
Supplementary hormones—in creams, gels, pills, patches, etc.—help with dryness and painful sex, but systemic versions don’t always treat vaginal atrophy, the thinning of the vaginal tissues caused by hormonal shifts and aging, and topical creams can be messy. All come with some uncertainty about health risks, and are not an option for women who’ve had reproductive cancers. In fact, Tamoxifin, which many breast cancer survivors take long-term, can actually cause dryness and painful sex—which survivors cannot use hormones to treat. “These women effectively have their sex lives taken away,” says Eden.
And surgery—for stress incontinence, it’s the gold standard in treatment—is surgery, with risks. “It’s a 30-minute outpatient procedure, but it’s 6 weeks of no heavy lifting, no intercourse, and anesthesia,” says Nelken.
But new technologies—some of them borrowed from dermatologist treatments originally developed for the face—now offer drug- and surgery-free solutions.
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