Vaginal Laser Treatment

No, anaesthesia is not needed for this treatment as it is not painful.

The treatment takes about 15 to 30 minutes.

The treatment is done in Dr Novikova’s practice.

Yes, if the treatment is indicated in your case, you can have it on the day of the consultation.

No, you don’t have to take a day off work. You can do the treatment in your lunch break and return back to work.

• Any active genital infection.
• Active genital herpes infection. If you have past history of genital herpes and do not have lesions, you may have laser treatment.
• Certain medical diseases (for example scleroderma, uncontrolled diabetes)
• Taking medications that thin blood.
• Genital bleeding.
• Pregnancy.
• Cancer.
• Pelvic organ prolapse (Stage 2 or more).
• Unrealistic expectations.

• A pap smear should be done within the last 3 months before the procedure.
• General medical assessment, including breast check.
• Pelvic examination.
• Pelvic ultrasound.

Dr Novikova will take a detailed history, will do medical check including breast check, pelvic examination, pelvic ultrasound and Pap smear before the laser vaginal treatment.

• You should not have sexual intercourse for 3 days.
• You should not use tampons for 3 days.
• Please phone your doctor or the office if you have bleeding, fever or any other concerns regarding the procedure.
• It is very common to experience increased discharge (sometimes blood-stained) for several days after the treatment.
• Very rarely, women develop involuntary leaking of urine for 1-2 days after the treatment. This is very uncommon.

Dr Novikova uses CO² laser called Femilift. This laser is approved by the FDA. Alma Laser has been on the market for decades and the company is a leader in the laser industry. It’s the only pelvic laser that has a disposable probe to cover the handpiece which avoids transmission of any infection.

Vaginal skin contains collagen fibers that give the skin flexibility and strength. Femilift vaginal laser gently heats vaginal skin. This heat contract existing fibers. The trauma (very minimal and superficial) caused by heat stimulates the growth of new collagen and healthy vaginal skin. This process improves normalizes the blood flow in vaginal skin, increases lubrication, restores strength and elasticity of vaginal wall.

You can expect to feel the full (maximum) results 3 months after your last (3rd) procedure. Some women (especially those suffering from dryness and recurrent infections) feel significant improvement of their symptoms after the 1st treatment. Women with stress urinary incontinence may feel some improvement after 2nd session, but the full effect is felt three months after the last treatment.

Generally, 3 treatments are enough to achieve the desired result. If the results were not achieved you may need an alternative treatment such as the sling procedure for stress urinary incontinence or vaginoplasty for tightening of the vaginal area.
Occasionally doctors will choose to do more treatments (usually 4-6 treatments every 2 weeks) if a lower energy of laser has to be used during treatments.

Depending on the problem, the laser treatment improves symptoms of atrophic vaginitis in the majority of women, and it works for mild to moderate stress incontinence in 4 out of 5 women. We do not know how well laser treatment works for vaginal tightening over the longer term as yet.

No, vaginal laser treatment does not leave scars.