Medical Spa Breakthroughs: Now, A Spa for a Woman’s Pelvic Area

 
After giving birth to her second child, Alisande noticed troublesome looseness in her pelvic area even though she is only 38 and describes herself as a fitness enthusiast.
 

So, a surgical technician from New York booked an appointment at the new Phit spa – short for pelvic health integrated techniques. The spa calls itself the first of its kind devoted exclusively to examining, toning, tightening and grooming what it calls women's "other face."

"I was concerned about my overall toning down by my vagina," said Alisande. She signed up for the spa's signature Kegel Phitness Check, a $150 training session in Kegeling, a squeezing exercise that works a woman's pelvic floor muscles. She also purchased a KegelMaster, an $85 tube-like devise fitted with springs that she described as "resistance training for your vagina." "It's sex and it's also for me. I just wanted to feel strong down there," said Alisande. She now says she feels better and enjoys sex more.

The spa specializes in non-surgical vaginal rejuvenation and is part of a trend that has led more women to tinker with their genital area. "For women, the pelvis, it's your core," founder, Dr. Lauri Romanzi said.

During a Kegel Phitness Check, patients lie on a rosemary-colored bed, more like a massage cot than a doctor's office bed and demonstrate their Kegeling skills in front of a mirror and have the strength of their compressions measured.

The shelves of the closet-like, one-room spa are stocked with KegelMasters and other Kegel aids. Phit's other treatments include "Baby Beaut Camp" for new mothers ($400 per session), "Lazy Susan", an electrical stimulation treatment that mimics Kegeling without the effort ($200 per session) and "Core Restore," a vaginal tightening surgery ($4,000).

A treatment called "The Other Face Lift," is designed to plump the labia and costs $450 per session. Kegel exercises have long been recommended for women with urinary incontinence or women looking to strengthen their pelvic muscles following childbirth. But there is no consensus in the medical community that they can prevent problems or improve a person's sex life. Lauri said there is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that Kegeling may do all of those things.

Erin Tracy, a gynecologist at Harvard Medical School, said she is all for women being more comfortable with their bodies but cautioned against treatments not backed by science. "If there are 20-year-olds who are healthy, I think exercise is a good thing," she said. "We just can't tell them that if they do that, they will not have urinary incontinence in the future."
 
25 Aug 2008, 1324 hrs IST, EDITH HONAN,REUTERS