1)       Do you tell yourself when you leak a little upon sneezing, coughing or during strenuous activity, “It’s not that bad”?

2)       Do you ever lose sleep visiting the bathroom more than once during the night, causing you tiredness the next day?

3)       Do you feel anxious going anywhere you do not know where the toilets might be?

4)       Do you ever plan your journeys or shopping trips around where you know you can reach the toilets quickly?

5)       Do you watch how much you drink in case drinking too much may lead to an ‘accident’?

6)       Do you refuse to accept social invitations or go on bus journeys longer than an hour out of fear of having an ‘accident’?

7)       Do you anxiously try to make sure you can get an aisle seat at the cinema, in the church, or at any public gathering in order to be able to leave quickly to find a toilet?

8)       Do you limit the amount of exercise you take out of fear of having an ‘accident’?

9)       Do you carry spare clothes or limit the kinds of clothes or colours you wear, preferring dark, baggy clothes that don’t show the signs of an ‘accident’ or of wearing disposable pads?

10)    Do you realize you may have been living with incontinence for so long it may seem normal to you now?

One thing is for certain - left untreated it will get worse. How much worse will you allow it to get before you do something about it?

Website analytics are wonderful!  I was just looking at the analytics on this site and it's always fascinating to see what information people are looking for and it's great to have the opportunity to provide that in a more relevant way.

Now, an interesting one I noted today was that someone had keyed into their search engine 'kegelmaster doesn't work'.  If you're finding that you're not getting the results with your Kegelmaster you were expecting, there is every chance that you could be making a very simple mistake with it that could be so easily rectified if you knew what that was.  A very common one is jumping from level 1 to level 5 by adding another spring instead of just moving the one spring to the next position.  You'd be amazed at how many women do that!

I felt quite sad when I saw this as I'm quite sure that if that lady had rung me I could have helped her get the results with the Kegelmaster she deserves.  I've probably heard all the questions that come up at this stage, and I love nothing better than to  help someone acheive success with this miraculous device.  Yes, I'll be honest, right now I do feel as though I've failed that woman and wish it were different.  What's worse is that having met so many women suffering the consequences of needless and ineffective pelvic surgery over the years I feel sad to think of any woman possibly going down that road while believing the Kegelmaster wouldn't work for her.

Unless you're dealing with a medical condition that requires a different approach I believe that the only way the Kegelmaster won't work for you is if you put it in a drawer and don't use it!  I LOVE to hear about the experiences women have with the Kegelmaster and if you're in any way dissapointed with the results you're currently getting please get in touch with me.  I'm here to help!

Women who submit to surgery for urinary stress incontinence should be aware that they may be taking part in what may be nothing more than a large scale clinical trial.  Countless women’s lives have been devastated by useless and ineffective pelvic surgery. 

During both a TVT (tension-free vaginal tape), and the newer TOT (transobturator tape), a tape is drawn under the urethra.  The theory is that the tape will support the urethra so that under the “stress” of sneezing, coughing, etc., it will eliminate the leaking of urine that women who suffer from stress incontinence are familiar with.

A generally accepted figure for the success of these operations in the short term is 80-85%, with 10-15% of women being no better or worse after the surgery than they were before, with around 5% likely to be worse than they were before surgery.  These may sound like good odds – but in reality mean that up to 1 in 5 women gain NO benefit from surgeries which are most definitely not risk-free procedures.

“In most continence surgery the benefit of restoring continence is often at the expense of developing new symptoms, or exacerbating existing lower urinary tract symptoms”.  This is from a study undertaken by the Department of Urology, Mid-Western Regional Hospital, Limerick, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the Regional Maternity Hospital, Limerick, and documented in the National Institute of Health Sciences Bulletin, June 2004.

The first TVT was performed in Sweden in 1995.  The TOT was introduced in 2001. The long term results of these surgeries are as yet unknown.  Three years is not long enough to qualify as a long term study considering the life-span of women today. 

Health services around the world are investing billions in solutions for urinary stress incontinence that can in many cases make a problem worse or create new problems.

One recent hospital report states that 57% of women presenting for urodynamic evaluation had already had some form of pelvic surgery.  However, there comes a point where no further surgery can be carried out.  The woman may then be left permanently incontinent. 

A ‘repair job’ can never be better than a woman strengthening her body to the degree that a ‘repair’ is unnecessary.  A ‘repair job’ to alleviate urinary stress incontinence may cause more problems in the long term than it resolves.  Both the TVT and TOT involve the formation of scar tissue to fix the mesh in place.  It is often only a matter of time before the repair becomes ineffective as the weakness in the pelvic structure increases, and then the incontinence will eventually reappear. 

Urinary stress incontinence occurs due to a weakness in the pelvic floor muscles. “There is a better way than surgery to correct most cases of pubococcygeal weakness” Dr Arnold Kegel, TIME magazine, 3 Dec 1956. 

The better way Dr Kegel, an American gynaecologist, and Associate Professor of gynaecology at the University of Southern California was referring to over 50 years ago is that of properly exercising the pelvic floor muscle against resistance.  He was alarmed at the amount of pelvic surgery being carried out back in the 1940’s.  Resistance exercise was a method he developed which reduced the amount of unnecessary pelvic surgery, and often greatly improved the sex lives of the women who practised it – a welcome side-effect for once!  By 1950, routine surgery for urinary stress incontinence was no longer carried out in his hospital as resistance exercise was found to be more effective.

“On the strength of these favorable results urinary stress incontinence in women is no longer routinely treated by surgical intervention at…LA County General Hospital.”  Dr Kegel (A progress in Gynecology 1950, p768).

Resistance exercise must not be confused with the nonsensical instruction to squeeze your pelvic floor muscles against nothing.  This cannot prevent or alleviate urinary stress incontinence in the same way that working the muscles against resistance can.  Just look at any fitness gym – any muscle toning is ALWAYS done against some form of resistance. Pelvic floor exercises were never meant to be done the way they are taught today.  They were ALWAYS meant to be performed against resistance.  It could be argued that anyone who instructs women to squeeze against nothing may contribute to the problem, as women conclude that pelvic floor exercises don’t work for them and opt for surgery as a result. 

More doctors today are becoming aware that resistance exercise, not surgery, is the answer to the problem of urinary stress incontinence.  As resistance exercise is being more widely practised today we will surely see a significant reduction in the numbers of women suffering from urinary stress incontinence along with the number of surgical procedures performed. A basic understanding of the value of resistance exercise would allow women to make a more informed choice about consenting to surgery.

If you haven't come across this great site yet I suggest you check it out!  Packed with tons of information, the website Sex and Relationships.com is co-authored by a man and a woman, Anna and Rod, to give you information on sex and relationships from both a male and a female perspective.

I just realised how long it actually is since I last put an entry on this blog.  It is a lot longer than I realised.  During this time I’ve been on the road, raising awareness wherever I go of how important it is for us to have knowledge of what pelvic floor resistance exercise is all about.   I guess whether it’s through a website or meeting with people the important thing is that the information is getting out there and there are many of us now experiencing the benefits of pelvic floor resistance exercise with the Kegelmaster.  When you know how good something is, it’s natural to want everyone to know about it, however you reach them isn't it?

The Kegelmaster is virtually 100% guaranteed to eliminate urinary stress incontinence quickly and naturally.  If you're being seduced by promises of being like a new woman after surgery for stress incontinence this article about the latest surgical procedure is food for thought - Click here for more information!