When Kegels Are Not Enough: What to Do to Increase Vaginal Sensation

Kegel exercises are known to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles; among its functions is to aid in orgasm. Kegel exercises, however, can’t return the vaginal muscles close to their pre-childbirth tone and tightness; what Kegels do is strengthen the bulbocavernosus muscle and several other muscles that wrap around the vagina and control its constrictions.

The Importance of Pelvic Floor Muscles
The pelvic floor muscles are a group of muscles connecting the pubic bone and the tailbone, working like a sling to keep the uterus, vagina, bladder and bowel in place. The outer layer of the pelvic muscles that lie just underneath the skin and are involved during orgasm is made up of the bulbocavernosus muscle, the transverse perineal muscle, and the ischiocavernosus muscle, with the latter responsible for tensing the vagina during orgasm.
Your pelvic floor muscles can be weakened by pregnancy and childbirth because the muscles drop and the tissues lengthen to accommodate the growing baby; stooped posture, which increases intra-abdominal pressure, in turn causing repetitive strain on pelvic floor muscles; or lack of core exercise (your pelvic floor is the most bottom part of your core muscles).

What are Kegel Exercises?
Just like any muscle, the pelvic floor muscles can be strengthened by exercise, which are known as Kegels. The goal of the exercise is not strength per se, but flexibility, so you are able to clench or pulse your vagina during sex, and give that feeling of tightness.
Pelvic toning exercises come in many forms, either simple clenching and releasing exercises without the use of aids, or similar exercises using devices such as Ben Wa balls or vibrator-like devices that come with an app telling you which of the muscles you should be clenching and releasing.
Because your ‘Kegel muscles’ are also responsible for urinary and fecal continence, Kegel exercises will help strengthen your pelvic floor so you can ‘hold it’ until you get to the bathroom.

Why You Might Need Vaginal Laxity Treatment?
Women who report decreased sexual pleasure due to vaginal laxity have issues not just with their Kegel muscles, but also with their vaginal muscles, the tissues that make up the inner walls of the vagina.
For a helpful analogy, consider a folded towel inserted inside a sock, which is squeezed by a pair of hands. The pair of hands is your Kegel muscles, the sock is the vagina, while the folded towel is the vaginal walls.
Repeated vaginal deliveries, especially among women 30 years and older, stretch the folded towel, the sock and the pair of hands. Because of decreased production of collagen and elastin in old age, the muscles involved in vaginal childbirth no longer go back to their old form. As a result of this repeated stretching of the vaginal and introital (opening) tissues, women report a persistent decrease in genital sensation during intercourse, which in turn leads to decreased sexual satisfaction that impacts a woman’s quality of life.

Vaginal Tightening Without Surgery
Kegel exercises keep the ‘hands holding the sock’ in great tone, but they can do little to rejuvenate the ‘sock’ and the ‘folded towel,’ the one in direct contact of sexual stimulation.
This is where Viveve, a non-surgical vaginal treatment done in a medical aesthetic clinic, is most applicable. Using safe and patented radiofrequency (RF) energy, and without any use of needles or application of anaesthesia, the Viveve treatment tip is moved around the circumference of the vaginal opening, delivering gentle pulses of RF energy to stimulate the body’s natural ability to create new collagen fibers.
Going back to the sock analogy, the Viveve treatment in Singapore directly treats the ‘folded towel’ so the tissues become toned once again and more sensitive to sexual stimulation. Production of new collagen fibers results to tightened vaginal tissues, which occur over a period of 30-90 days after the treatment. The changes happen on a cellular level, so there is no downtime involved after the procedure. For laser clinic Singapore patients, Viveve is a walk-in, walk-out treatment; the results, however, last for up to 12 months, as reported by participants in clinical studies measuring Viveve’s impact on vaginal tightness and sexual satisfaction.