Incostress

I wish I had thought of that and maybe should could have asked a few of us to be test subjects with different degrees of prolapse and if there are any troubles with slippage.

The only thing I did notice on the website was that it stated it should be replaced every month. I am guessing that means a whole new unit which would work out really expensive - £300 a year or nearly $600! If it worked some ladies might want to use it everyday whilst others it may be an occasional thing on bad days. I guess I will have to e-mail them myself and ask the question.

Will do that now.

Anita

I hope you don't mind but I have also e-mailed as I didn't realise you had already asked the question about replacement. But yes I agree those with uterine prolapse might find it just gets pushed straight back out. I do have a mild prolapse of the uterus but have never had a problem keeping tampons in so I am really hoping this might help on those bad days with discomfort.

I eagerly await your test results!

Anita

If it does work I really like the idea of the freedom we have of using it just when we need to and only having to pop it in like a tampon. Unfortunately as you know here in the UK pessaries have to be inserted and removed by a GP which I find unfair, they take our control away. Also, like you say, I don't want to be stretched inside.

Anita

It just rang a bell somewhere in the back of my mind when you described your tampessary! I read the article a few month ago in the paper and had a quick look on the internet, but because I don't have issue with incontinence either I didn't think any more about it.
I would think with the shaping it would stay in better than a tampon, I switched to mooncup after having my first baby as tampons wouldnt stay in any more. Don't think I had a prolapse then, just a non existent perineum! Oh what fun!

Anyway, I'm intrigued to know how your testing goes, I'm not having too many problems right now, but it will be nice to have another fallback just in case!

xxx

Sue:
I just downloaded the instructions and read them (crazy me - always need facts and figures)! It says to remove the device Before emptying the bowels and Before urinating.

Maybe the pressure that it applies prevents an open flow of urine and therefore is why you are supposed to remove it first. Could you please ask the nice lady you have been talking to? It would be feasible using it at home, but not out in the workplace. Thanks.

Goldfinch

FWIW I don't think taking it in and out would be an issue...Presumably you look after the thing as you would a mooncup, cleaning with soap and water, or just rinsing in between uses depending on the facilities available and disincfecting otherwise (I boil the mooncup nightly which would be overkill to some, but I found I got thrush if I didn't)...

The incostress looks a lot less bulky than mooncup, and that isn't too bad to insert and remove once you're used to it. Though if I had been aware of POP when I was using it I would have done it even more carefully...(You have to break the vaccuum to get it out and sometimes I forgot...youch!)...I hope the two aren't linked...But I did remove the mooncup every time I went to the toilet to clean and empty it.

xxx

If you read the article which Sue gave us a link to, the inventor of the device says "As well as closing the urethra and supporting the neck of the bladder to stop an involuntary leakage, the minor effort to keep the device in place strengthens the pelvic floor, by encouraging the muscles to work. Those with weak pelvic floor muscles may need to remove the device to urinate normally." So it closes the urethra - meaning it has to be removed for normal emptying of the bladder. As we've talked about before, its not good to leave urine in the bladder - infection, etc. It sounds remarkable if you're able to remove it when necessary. In my workplace, that would not be possible (too many people in the bathroom at any one time!) Wearing it at night sounds interesting - sort of the same idea that Christine mentioned of packing the va-a with organic cotton balls at night to push prolapse up, which I haven't tried yet.

Hi Goldfinch. Incostress does not hold urine in the bladder. It closes the urethra only enough to stop involuntary leakage. I am able to keep my incostress in place and urinate at the same time. It recommended to remove before urinating for the benifit of ladies with weak pelvic muscles. (Hence losing the incostress down the loo) Over time the Incostress may strengthen the muscles to a degree that over time there will not be need for the incostress. The muscles will close the urethra automatically. Hope this helps Gaynorx

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life

Incostress is not as fiddly as mooncup to insert or to remove. Incostress has a 'tail' which allows easy retraction. There is no suction element with incostress, so no 'owch' factor.x
www.incostress.com

Are there any risks of damage to the vaginal skin with continued use. Pessaries have to be checked regularly and so I wondered if there were any risks with the Incostress in both pre and post menopausal women? Thanks.

How big is this thing? Is it the size of a super tampon? The pictures make it look about the size of half a banana.

Judy

Hi Incostress

This sounds like an interesting product. How could it help pelvic organ prolapse?

Cheers

Louise

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life

Hi Louise,
Incostress has no evidience that it is suitable for a prolapse. It is designed to control stress incontinence by placing pressure on the urethra and allowing the bladder to be replaced in its normal anatomical position. Over time the shape of the Incostress could help strengthen the pelvic muscles.
I doubt if the incostress could be retained in the body with a prolapse. One of the members here has kindly offered to try it out to see if it actually will help. :D
Incostress has been clinically trialled at Singleton hospital - Swansea. Women with prolapses were excluded from the trial.
It will be interesting to see if it could help. But to be perfectly honest I don't hold much hope. This is why, I have set a tast to investigate and designe something which could help a prolapse. But as with anything of the medical nature it won't happen over night.
Incostress is a 10 year ongoing project!

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life

Hi Judy,
Incostress is 5.5cm long and 2.5cm wide. (not even a mini banana's worth ;-)

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life

Incostress is made of a medical grade silicone. The same silicone which is used in indwelling catheters. It has been passed through all the tests and is certified at a medical device.

Post menapausal women do have a thinning of the vagina lining due to the reduction of oestrogen. This can be combated by a vaginal oestrogen cream (prescribed by your doctor)
If the pelvic muscles are not strong enough the Incostress could slip. The constant pushing up of the incostress could evenually cause an irritation of the vaginal lining.
I would always recommend patients/customers to seek medical advice first. Take the information of Incostress to your doctor, if need be your doctor is welcome to contact me, where I would provide the clinical data.
One the www.incostress.com site there is a questions and answer page. Your question is on this page.

Due to the legal legislation Incostress may not be left inside the body continuously for more than 8 hours. It must be removed check and the body should rest for 1 hour before re inserting. Of course the Incostress may also be used for less than 8 hours. Some women only use theirs whilst exercising or shopping.
Hope this helps.

Hi Incostress

Thanks for putting the information about your product on the Forum.

I personally don’t think that strength of the pelvic organs has an enormous role in bladder control, beyond the initial mobilisation of these muscles, and women becoming aware that they can utilise their tone to help with continence. That tone is maximised by stretching these muscles over a wider diaphragm like a drum skin, which happens when the pelvis tilts forwards slightly. Once the woman has learned to contract and move these muscles in response to bladder stress, I think that further improving their strength is secondary.

The muscle fibre type in the pelvic floor is not the type of muscle designed to bear weight. I believe that the pelvic muscle group is designed to allow things like urine, faeces and babies out, rather than holding things up or in. It is just too thin and stringy to be a platform for anything. It is more like a trampoline that will sag if weighted at all.

When a woman adopts what we describe as Wholewoman posture her pelvic floor muscles are not in a horizontal position, more diagonal, sloping upwards towards the back, so these muscles have to carry very little weight anyway, because the pelvic organs are resting further forward, on top of the pubic bone, and against the lower wall of the abdomen. You can read more about this in Christine Kent’s book, Saving the Whole Woman, available from the online store at this site. Also from the FAQ’s on the homepage.

Yes, post-menopausal women do often have vaginal thinning. Does this mean that Incostress should not be used by post-menopausal women without the support of oestogen cream? What about perimenopausal women and women in the second half of the menstrual cycle when dryness can cause irritation? Wouldn’t a normal over-the counter personal lubricant work? Many women don’t want to use topical oestrogen, as its effect can be systemic, and lead to serious health risks if you don’t take progesterone as well. This starts to sound like fullblown HRT to me, which is a pretty big step to take in order to be able to use the Incostress pessary.

I am not saying the Incostress is not a good product, and I do hope you get some women who will trial it for you, as it looks like it could have benefit, though it looks from the instruction leaflet that it would not sit above the pelvic floor muscles at all (if you connect a line from the pubic bone to the tip of the coccyx), unless it was inserted higher in the vagina, where it was nowhere near the urethra. I can now see how it would be difficult to retain for a woman with pelvic organ prolapse if inserted only to the position illustrated.

However, a woman with pelvic organ prolapse may be able to benefit from using it higher in the vagina as an adjunct to Wholewoman posture. Some of our Members are currently experimenting with different types of tampons as pessaries for POP, which is a similar principle to the Incostress. Some of the medically supplied pessaries are difficult to remove or insert, and it would be nice to have a pessary that is not dependent on prescription, fitting and removal by a health professional. I guess it is only going to be time and further testing that will determine its final use, and further development.

Can you see it ultimately being available in different sizes (maybe a longer, flexible version that might help women with POP as it could be worn higher in the vagina, but still apply pressure to the urethra, if that is the aim? After all, probably most women who experience stress incontinence do seem to have have a degree of POP, whether they know it or not, and it would be a pity to exclude them from using it, if it could be potentially useful with some design modification.

I have wondered for some time why somebody doesn’t just market a pessary direct to women? Why has it always been through a doctor only in the past, whatever purpose the pessary is designed for?

Looks like the world is not flat, after all!

Cheers

Louise

Louise,

Thanks for your kindness about my mother.

I've been watching this Incostress thing with interest, and I looked it up it on the site, and couldn't tell how big it was. Not good on centimeters - too American I guess. Looks like an interesting shape, however. Not sure about the tail. The tampon felt OK, but drew blood - maybe the strings?

I suppose I'm concerned that there is a separation between creating this for stress incontinence and neglecting the other pelvic floor failures. It seems to me that medicine is once again treating particular symptoms but failing to get to the source of the problem, which makes for a revolving door scheme of treatment.

I'm a big source person. If you have POP or any body breakdown, then find out what the failure is, and try to treat it at the top of the mountain at the stream rather than down in the delta, and use sense and sensibility, to quote Austin. A little weight loss, exercise, diet, posture and positive thinking all help pop - surgery will not, so what exactly are we talking about? I believe that's called a way of life - new and difficult for some people.

So many of us have bladder prolapse, rectocele, cervical drop and a host of other little pelvic nasties, it seems that the ten years that it took to create this thing would address more than stress incontinence.

Anyway the Incostress is $49.00. That's a lot for a tiny bit of plastic. Might try the tampon shell...

Judy

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life
Dear Judy,

Im not surprised the tampon drew blood. If you were using the tampon outside of its recommended use, it is possilbe the vagina could have been so dry that the fibers of the tampon would have stuck to the lining tearing it on removal.
I would like to point out that Incostress is designed for stress incontinence only, it could improve pelvic tone over time but this isn't its main function.
I agree fully with you that women need to find out what the failure is and why it failed then proceed to address solving this problem in the correct manner.
I would like to point out that 10 years wasn't spent on 'creating this thing' 10 years was spent on helping my mum,researching into incontinence and other pelvic problems,carrying out clinical trials, searching and studying every material possible to make this device safe for women to use, holding focus groups to bring about awareness of the problems women face and studying to become the manufacturer.(all self funded through me holding down 2 jobs to pay for it) This took all this time because I did it single handed with no backing of anyone. Normally when a medical product is brought to the market it has the backing of finance from large medical companies.
I would like to point out that Incostress is not a tiny piece of plastic, it is made from a high quality medical grade silicone. Incostress is a recognised medical device which holds all the certification.
$49.00 for this reusable device to control stress incontinence is a lot cheaper than your usual monthly supply of incontinence pads, (and pads only hide the problem not control it)
The price is relative.
If you do use tampons to control your incontinence I would urge you to think again, purly for the reason of TSS and use of the tampon outside it's prescribed use.
Due to Incostress being made of silicone, this makes this product inert.
Hope this helps

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life
Hi Louise,
thank you for your comments. What you say is correct and you put explain the pelvic muscles in a great way.

I keep stressing that Incostress is there to close the urethra from the vagina and is there as a support. It is not a pelvic floor exerciser which a lot of people seem to have this idea. Yes over time it could help strengthen the pelvic muscles, but primarily it is there to stop involuntary leakage.
It is not designed for women with prolapes and I do not see it being of benifit to these women, which is what I tell any woman who asks me. ( I truly wish it was)
As every woman is unique post menopause women do use Incostress without any problems. It was suggested to me by physiotherapists and doctors that a vaginal oestrogen cream could be used if the lining is too thin. I always ask women to seek medical advice if they are in any doubt.
At the moment, there is no need for 2 sizes. (We tried with a smaller size in the clinical trials, but this was too small and had little effect)
Women with POP were excluded from the clinical trials.
We had a 90% success rate with women using the incostress, 37% of women were taken off the surgery waiting list thanks to Incostress.
I would like to work with anyone who has a prolapse in designing a product to help this condition. All ideas would be very welcome.
Thanks again for your interest

Hi Sue

Have you got your sample Incostress yet? If so, how are you finding it?

Cheers

Louise

Hl Incostress

You keep saying that Incostress is primarily for involuntary leakage, and not suitable for women with POP, and women with POP were excluded from clinical trials. Just wondering why you are promoting it so heavily on a Web Forum for women with prolapse. As far as I know, all the women here are here for reasons of prolapse, while some may have stress incontinence as a part of prolapse, but because of their prolapses are not able to use it. Is that right?

Re the need for different sizes, if you could develop a larger size? That would be flexible enough to accommodate pelvic organs moving around a lot, high enough to keep the top part of the vagina up high, but coming down far enough to be able to support the urethra down at and below the level of the pelvic floor. Now that *might* work for both purposes, if stress incontinence is indeed a problem. Many women are put off pessaries as a support for POP because they can't find one that suits them, and they can't insert and remove them themselves. I think the medical devices industry could do better for women with POP, with the way they sell them through medical practitioners only, and how they are designed to need repeated visits to the doctor.

I am interested to know more about your clinical research. Could you please post a link to the full clinical trial report?

Cheers

Louise

United we stand. Women supporting each other for a better quality of life

Very good points on the design of a new pessary. I will certainly look into this in more detail.
I am not promoting Incostress on this site for women with POP. I was invited here by one of your members (and very glad to be here as I am learning so much)

The lady in question emailed me, where I did say Incostress would not be of benefit to her problem, however from her emails I really felt for her and sent a free sample as I would never sell to anyone I genuinely thought my product would not be of any benefit.

If it does work I would be over the moon and would be happy to go further in helping women with POP with my product.
Not enough is done to help women with POP, and I personally would like to do more through my company .

Incostress when first trialled was called Inco-Stop one of the pulications can be found http://www.springerlink.com/content/r3273x5x53345775/
It was presented in Athens 2006 by Singleton hospital Swansea and the department of Life Science Univeristy of Wales Swansea at IUGA.

Kind regards
Gaynor

Hi Gaynor

I found the trial results. They were very telling. It is great that some women found Incostress helpful enough to continue to use it at least for a full month.

I did note that 8 of the 20 women could not retain the device, which I kind of expected. I imagine that this is partly the low positioning of the Incostress and partly due to the insidious nature of pelvic organ prolapse, which is often asymptomatic, or not evident all the time. It can creep up on you over a number of years, and not be obvious at all, certainly not affecting the way you live your life. On the other hand the organs can literally descend overnight which would, and is, horrifying for a woman to experience.

Stress urinary incontinence is one of the telltale symptoms of POP, though not the only cause, I think. It may be that Incostress is suitable for a particular group of women with stress urinary incontinence from other causes.

Retention of any pessary is a challenge when you have POP, which is part of the reason why professional help is often needed for insertion and removal. They just have to design them to stay in!

I have found that posture improvement, clothing design, pelvic floor exercises and other whole body exercises work OK for me to keep my continence at an OK level without the use of pads and other things. I guess as I get older I am less inclined to do things like kick-boxing and tuckjumps; more inclined towards exercise with smoother smoother movement. Menstrual tampons have been off my shopping list for years, so I don't think I would be a candidate for Incostress.

Best wishes as you continue to develop this pessary.

Louise

Hi Sue

Did you only try it in the position illustrated in the brochure, or did you try it higher up in the vagina?

Cheers

Louise

Gaynor,

Nobody respects the kind of work you are doing than I do primarily because I've put together a school for very young children without any backing or support either. I know all the difficulties, and they are not easy, so many many kudos.

Forging out by yourself to accomplish anything is a tightrope of emotional ups and downs that break or make the women who try it. Please don't let this forum seem like a test of your strength. We are very serious about what we know and what we think and especially irritated by what the medical profession as done to fail us.

Personally, I was surprised the tampon drew blood because I'm not dry. Crazypause did not leave me dry.

I don't have any stress incontinence at all. I can laugh, jump, sneeze and run without losing a drop. I think it's because I exercise doing yoga. I'm in very good physical shape for a woman my age.

I have an annoying bladder prolapse which gets on my nerves sometimes when I'm on my feet 10 hours, and I thought your product would be helpful - like the tampon.

As far as the $49.00 goes, I read it was a monthly charge. I don't use any medications, have extravagant tastes except for food, and in the old days, I could make a box of tampons go 6 months, so $49.00 does seem like a bunch.

Thanks for your work; it really does mean a lot.

Judy

B%#$er.

L