Laser treatment for menopausal symptoms, 'may be a placebo'?

In this weeks news : 

The BBC published ' Laser vagina menopause therapy shows no benefit in trial

The Guardian published ' Vagina Lasering for postmenopausal women 'may be placebo''

We get an opportunity to listen to women and hear how they have been managing their pelvic challenge on a daily basis, through or new virtual consultation service. A question that comes up time and time again is ;

'Have we heard about the latest treatments and technologies.'

It is of our opinion that when new pelvic health products/techniques become available for women, there is a drive to use these before solid evidence is available: symptoms can be very distressing for the individual.  The vagina is one of the most richly innervated areas of the body: it is not only integral to sexual activity, but has a supportive function as part of the pelvic floor, responsible for urinary and fecal continence and pelvic organ position.

Laser treatment is in current use for a myriad of vaginal/pelvic symptoms, and a variety of completely different laser types are available. They carry known short and medium term risks, and long-term effects are unknown. The latest study (JAMAlink…) does not confirm benefit for Carbon dioxide laser in a sample of 38 postmenopausal women with itching/burning/dryness/pain on sex or on passing urine, compared to 40women who had a ‘sham’ treatment.

An accompanying editorial to the article suggests that laser technology ‘should be limited to a research setting until….evidence supports both effectiveness and safety’.

We always advise our community to regard pelvic health in a holistic manner, that includes exercise, diet, taking time out for yourself, and consulting your general practitioner and your local pelvic health therapist in the first instance.