After surviving breast cancer in 2013, Tina underwent an elective oopherectomy to remove her ovaries two years later.
The healthcare support worker went into the menopause and started to suffer vaginal dryness, burning and painful intercourse.
The menopause will reduce the vagina’s moisture and elasticity, but some breast cancer treatments can block or reduce the amount of female hormone oestrogen which help maintain the vagina’s moisture and elasticity. Both can cause the vagina to become dry and less supple, making sex or intimacy painful.
Tina, 53, read about the MonaLisa Touch®, a scientifically proven laser treatment to relieve vaginal dryness. On the advice of her gynaecologist, Rowan Connell, she decided to undergo the course of three treatments, at six-week intervals.
A small probe is used to deliver laser energy to the vaginal wall tissue, stimulating the production of collagen and restoring the proper balance to the mucous membrane and alleviating the effects of vaginal atrophy.
“It’s not painful but a little uncomfortable,” Tina recalls. “After just one session I regained lubrication and the pain during intercourse and burning improved.
“Having been a breast cancer patient I know the treatment will not affect my oestrogen levels and so it safe to undergo without fear that the breast cancer will return or cause other health side effects.
“Aside from helping with vaginal dryness it has also helped stress urinary incontinence.”
Consultant Gynaecologist Rowan Connell said: “We started this treatment at Benenden Hospital in October 2017. Most of the women that we see are 45-65 years old with vaginal atrophy of the menopause.
“However we see a significant number of women younger than this who have had breast cancer treatment, and they see improvements in a condition which, for them, can be difficult to treat without the Mona Lisa Touch.”
To find out more about gynaecology procedures at our private hospital in Kent, please complete our online enquiry form, contact us via Livechat or call our Private Patient Team on 01580 363158.
Published on 12 November 2019