pelvic floor exercisers

[GardenersDelight]

Hi i suffer from stress incontinence which is getting worse especially when I'm running. Does anyone have any experience of the different toners that can be bought and thier effectiveness? thanks in advance

Looked into them but read so many conflicting reports I was undecided. After the birth of dc1, I did get a referral to Women's Health at the hospital which focused on 'manual' PVE but they did say to return if that wasn't working as they could try out different things, including PF exercisers. My PF has got better but found out the other month I definitely need to sit on the loo with a bowl if I'm going to be sick!! (sorry tmi)

Has your GP been any use and/or have you tried this route already?

I havnt seen my GP yet. Thanks anyway I'll see if anyone else has any opinions

bumping this to see if anyone responds thanks

I went to see a physio privately about this. Could probably have been referred via GP as I have had stress incontinence since before kids and three vaginal deliveries has not helped! But I found it less embarrassing to just go to her directly. I knew she was someone who specialised in pelvic floor so she knew what she was talking about.

She has a gadget that measures how hard I can squeeze and it is great to see the measurement going up each time I visit her. I have been doing the normal exercises. I have an alarm on my phone to remind me to do them three times a day. I have also been using an Aquaflex pelvic toner - one of the ones that looks like a tampon and has weights you put inside. I started out on the larger 'tampon' and low weights and gradually increased the weights I could use. Now I am on the smaller 'tampon' and can wear it for 20 mins walking around and doing the housework.

Last visit she suggested I could also use a thing that stimulates the muscles electrically, a bit like a 'Slendertone'. But she emphasised that it doesn't take the place of doing the normal exercises. Also the vaginal one doesn't tone your stomach muscles whereas doing the normal squeezes does. I tried it during the session and it feels really wierd, but I guess the advantage is that you can stick it in and then watch tv or something (not while the kids are still awake though).

Hope that helps

Out of interest mama how many squeezes do you do for each of the 3x a day and how long do you hold for?

I saw a programme on C4 called embarrassing bodies where they road tested all sorts of contraptions and 'kegel weights' proved very popular indeed for toning the relevant muscles and the lady was raving about improvements in her sex life too so can't be all bad!!
Wil be trying them myself after DD2 is born in 6ish weeks.

Good luck
Bx

I do 30 squeezes for 10s each. Recently I have been doing them while walking around but that was too difficult at first.