"A smart Kegel exerciser"

In a previous post, I described an exercise that could help men with premature ejaculation called kegels. It involves squeezing your pelvic floor muscles i.e. the muscles that will stop urination. Kegels are also helpful for urinary incontinence (bladder control problems), and a disorder in women called uterine prolapse, which "occurs when the female pelvic organs fall from their normal position, into or through the vagina. Minor prolapse can be treated with exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles" (Wikipedia).

The current mindset of health technology these days is that every activity or exercise is just waiting to be tracked. Why should Kegels be any different? Currently, there are several competing Kegel activity trackers/exercisers. Is such a device useful or is this technology gone amok?

Over at The Verge, the writer Arielle Duhaime-Ross attempted to address this question when she reviewed a device called kGoal which is branded as "a smart Kegel exerciser" for women. According to Minna Life, the company that sells kGoal, the rationale is that "[i]n a 2014 study, researchers reported that 23 percent of women who do Kegels do them incorrectly. This is unfortunate. When Kegels are done right, women show up to 70 percent improvement in stress incontinence symptoms, regardless of their age."

As a side note, Minna Life is a sexual health company that makes other products for women, several of which are tastefully designed and marketed vibrators. Not surprisingly, it should be mentioned that Kegels (for women) can serve another purpose (link):

"The muscles you strengthen during Kegel exercise, the “PC” (pubococcygeus), are some of the muscles that contract during orgasm, so toning them enhances those sensations and makes it easier to reach climax. And we’ve already discussed the numerous benefits of orgasms, from beating stress to boosting the immune system, so having more and better orgasms can only be a plus! Stronger pelvic muscles also mean a tighter vagina–so both you and your partner will feel more intense sensations during sex."

I will not comment on the medical validity of the above statement because it is beyond the scope of this post. Returning to kGoal, the basic idea is to help women perform Kegels correctly and to track your Kegel exercises. It consists of a bulb and handle (which helps with insertion and removal, Figure 1). The bulb is inserted into the vagina and contains a pressure sensor that can detect the contraction of the pelvic muscles so that it can track the movements. A novel feature is a biofeedback system in which the device vibrates when the contraction is detected. Indeed the strength of the vibration depends on how tightly the device is squeezed:

"The kGoal works by giving users tactile feedback through an optional proportional vibration feature: when a woman contracts her muscles more tightly, the vibration intensifies. When she lets go, the vibration stops."

Thus, the user can sense in real-time via the vibrations whether she is doing the exercise correctly, and all of this information is recorded and sent to a smartphone app. Indeed if the vibrations are pleasant enough then there might even be incentive to continue to do the exercises. But for Ms Duhaime-Ross it was not a pleasant experience; the problem with kGoal was that it "hurt like hell."

"The only way I can describe what taking the kGoal out felt like is by asking Verge readers who menstruate to imagine the most painful experience they've ever had with a tampon. Then, take that pain and triple it — that's what taking the kGoal out felt like. By the end of the first attempt, I was covered in sweat."

One major drawback with kGoal is that it comes in only a single size, and people's vaginas come in different sizes. An important attribute of any activity tracker is that it is comfortable.

As a first-generation device, one expects some bumps in the road. However, more thought should be placed into the form factor and comfort rather than adding extra bells and whistles and vibrations. Nevertheless, it is clever to combine the function of a "smart kegel exerciser" that can help women with medical issues like urinary incontinence and uterine prolapse with the sex appeal of a vibrator. I imagine this is not the last we will hear of Kegel activity trackers.

Figure 1. The world's first smart Kegel exerciser/vibrator.