Monalisa Touch

About the Mona Lisa Touch Laser

As you may or may not be aware, there are many lasers now being used to treat vaginal atrophy and its symptoms, pain with intercourse, itching, and burning. Examples include the Mona Lisa Touch® laser, Selene Touch™, diVa™, FemTouch™, and FemiLift™, Physicians To Women wants you to know that although they all work on the same basic principle, they drill tiny little laser holes in the vaginal wall which stimulates the growth of new and healthier tissue, some seem to be better at this than others. At this time, the majority of data, worldwide, has been generated using the Mona Lisa Touch Laser.

Dyspareunia is a medical word for pain with intercourse. This can be caused by vaginal atrophy, vaginal surgery, trauma, assault infection, and very commonly by pelvic muscle spasm (tension myalgia and myofascial pain syndrome). Although the lasers described on this page may be very effective in treating vaginal atrophy related dyspareunia, they will not help with other forms of dyspareunia.

As a women ages and estrogen declines, the lining of the vagina becomes thin and fragile. Once this begins to happen, women often begin to experience vaginal dryness, itching, tenderness, and worsening pain with intercourse (dyspareunia). Unfortunately, oral hormones do not typically help. Vaginal estrogen cream, used several nights each week can help. However, it is messy and it must be used forever. Vaginal estrogen may also be administered as a vaginal pill or a vaginal ring. A pill called Osphena may also help. However, you will be putting a chemical in your body every day for the rest of your life. Additionally, creams and pills will not work for every women.

Yes. Indeed, the only treatment that has consistently be shown to help women with recurrent UTIs is the treatment of vaginal atrophy. So, if you have recurrent urinary tract infections and also have vaginal atrophy, consider treating your atrophy. You may consider vaginal estrogen or any of vaginal lasers such as those discussed on this page.

Physicians To Women wants you to know that FDA clearance for marketing means that he FDA has determined that a laser is similar (“substantially equivalent” or SE) to an already cleared laser that has been shown to be safe and effective, or itself has been shown to be safe and effective to another cleared laser. As you might be guessing, this can go on and on to the point that it becomes difficult to find the original laser that was tested. The original laser can even be a laser that was approved by the FDA prior to today’s rigorous approval process. Hence, it is important that your doctor carefully evaluates the laser he or she is using.

When a laser, or any medical device is cleared for marketing, it is cleared for a particular indication. By way of example, the lasers commonly used to treat vaginal atrophy were not cleared for vaginal atrophy. These lasers were cleared for indications such as skin resurfacing or photocoagulation. As you might have guessed, resurfacing of or photocoagulation of the vaginal skin (mucosa) may improve vaginal atrophy. Makes sense right? Indeed, it does. So, once a device is cleared to be marketed for an indication, it may be legally marketed for only that indication only. However, a doctor may use such device for a different indication, as long as you are informed of such and understand the potential risks and benefits. This is called off-label use. As these vaginal lasers are indeed being used to resurface or photocoagulate the vaginal mucosa, this novel use of skin resurfacing and photocoagulating lasers may not be off-label.

Physicians To Women has evaluated multiple laser platforms and continues to assess all available information in published medical literature. At this time, this data favors the use of the Mona Lisa Laser platform.

Not in our office. Our Mona Lisa treatment is typically 25% cheaper than other laser centers. We want all women to get the full treatment and therefore get the full benefits. So, how do we do that? When extra treatments are needed, they are free. When both internal and external treatment is needed, the external treatment is free.