Vaginal Rejuvenation Treatment: Understanding Your Options

At Thaxton Plastic Surgery, we offer an assortment of surgical, non-surgical, and medispa treatments to help you look and feel your best. One of these treatments is ThermiVa®, which is a type of vaginal rejuvenation treatment. Let’s take a look at this treatment and vaginal rejuvenation in general.

Why Opt For Vaginal Rejuvenation?

For women who’ve experienced traumatic childbirth or perhaps those who have delivered multiple children, they might notice a change in their vagina. This organ might have become stretched out or perhaps, after childbirth, you notice pain with sex or even with exercise. In some cases, you might notice diminished sensation during sex. These are all reasons that lead some women to consider vaginal rejuvenation.

Childbirth and menopause also can cause other issues to occur, such as incontinence when exercising, sneezing, coughing, or just bending over to lift something. Some women also experience urinary urgency, which can be frustrating, to say the least.

Additionally, some women experience vaginal changes after surgery or treatment for cancer in either their reproductive system or their urinary tract. Some women also experience physical trauma to their vaginal area and opt for treatment. Still, others have congenital abnormalities that they might want to address with vaginal surgery.

What Is Vaginal Rejuvenation?

If you’ve ever wondered how to tighten your vagina, vaginal rejuvenation may be the answer. Vaginal rejuvenation is a blanket term for any procedure that alters your vaginal area.  It is meant, in general, to restore your vagina to a more youthful state and there are several options to consider. Vaginal rejuvenation surgery is one option, but patients also can consider laser vaginal rejuvenation treatments or radiofrequency treatments with ThermiVa®.

There are several different types of vaginal rejuvenation surgery. One of these procedures is called a vaginoplasty, which is a surgical procedure that tightens the vagina. During the procedure, your surgeon removes extra skin and tightens up the area. This can be done under a local or general anesthetic.

Another option is labiaplasty, which is meant to reshape the labia. Women opt for a labiaplasty to improve the appearance of the labia. Sometimes women do not like the look of a longer labia and opt for surgery to lessen the appearance of the labia. In some cases, a longer labia might cause discomfort when exercising or even just sitting or wearing a bathing suit. In some cases, your rejuvenation surgery might include both vaginoplasty and labiaplasty.

Non-Surgical Vaginal Rejuvenation

Of course, not everyone wants a surgical procedure and sometimes people are not good candidates for vaginal surgery. Fortunately, there may be other procedures to consider, including laser vaginal rejuvenation and vaginal rejuvenation using radiofrequency, which is what we provide during a ThermiVa® procedure. Both procedures can help tighten the vaginal area, although they are not meant to address labia issues.

These two procedures are somewhat similar. With laser vaginal rejuvenation, a laser is inserted into the vagina and this laser penetrates the vaginal wall very slightly. This is just enough to help stimulate collagen production, which can help strengthen the ligaments in the pelvic floor area.

Laser rejuvenation shouldn’t be painful, but it does take several sessions to achieve the desired results. In some cases, patients are asked to take it easy for a day or two after this procedure and must abstain from sex for about four days.

At Thaxton Plastic Surgery, we offer radiofrequency vaginal rejuvenation using ThermiVa®. This is an FDA-approved, non-surgical procedure that’s even less invasive than laser treatment. With ThermiVa®, we begin by applying a special gel to the vulvar area and outer labia. Then a specially designed wand is gently moved over the surface of the labia and vulva. This treatment, like laser treatment, helps to stimulate collagen growth.

As with laser treatment, no anesthesia is needed, but you will need to schedule three treatments about a month apart in time as well as a follow-up treatment once per year to maintain results. However, unlike laser treatments, there is no downtime needed after ThermiVa® treatment and you can resume all normal activities right away, including sex.

Typically, before we begin with your ThermiVa® treatment, we need to ensure that you have had a recent vaginal exam and PAP test so that we know you are not experiencing any issues, such as infections. ThermiVa® is not recommended for patients with an active yeast or bladder infection, and it can be smart to wait until you have finished your menstrual cycle (at least your heaviest days) before treatment.

Most patients don’t experience more than minor symptoms, such as some swelling and redness for a few hours after the procedure. Some people might also experience some very light spotting after the procedure, but this typically goes away very quickly. We do recommend staying hydrated before the procedure. It is recommended that you drink about four glasses of water more than you normally would.

If you are interested in ThermiVa® vaginal rejuvenation treatments, give us a call today. In addition to ThermiVa®, we have a variety of non-invasive procedures that can help you look and feel your best, including miraDry®, Botox, Coolsculpting®, ThermiTight®, Juvéderm®, and more.