Kegel8 Ultra 20 Electronic Pelvic Floor Toner | Mumsnet Award-Winning | Kegel Strengthening for Prolapse, Bladder Conrol, Pain Relief & Postnatal Recovery

10/10, I’ve had this for a long time now and it works a treat and is also good to use as a little tens machine for back pain.

I've had my Kegel8 for about 3 weeks and it seems to be working to improve my stress incontinence. However, I've only given it 4 stars because the probe provided - Perispera - was not very satisfactory for me. Fortunately I had a probe similar to Periform plus, which I'd kept since having some physiotherapy sessions. I decided to try it instead and find it is much better - particularly because it allows me to walk around and it doesn't fall out.

this is a very good machine i use the machine once a week, and this appears to help me control my cervis. would highly recommend this machine to anyone who feels they need to pass water a lot. this machine would certainly control it. you can start off with easy setting then progress to the higher setting once you get into the swing of it.

I had high hopes for this device, and had been assured by Stress No More (the seller using Fulfilled by Amazon) and by Kegel8 (the manufacturer) that it was great for pelvic pain. They told me that there was research backing it up for pelvic pain, although mysteriously there is no sign of this research that I can find. That should have been my first red flag, along with the woman on the phone deciding I had an impending uterine prolapse, which was absolutely not up to her to diagnose (and doesn't seem to be likely, either). But I've had a really bad pain flare recently, the excruciating pain has been stopping me from sleeping so that I'm exhausted, and I was desperate. You're also told on the website that you can use this device during your everyday activities, or at least while sitting up if you find that it tends to fall out of you. I only wish that were the case. I'd been told that the programme you should use for pelvic pain was 30 min, but it turned out to be an hour. Well, there was one programme that's an hour called "circulation", one that's 20 minutes called "relaxation", both are marked as being for pelvic pain, and they were very vague as to which I should use. So I've tried both. It turns out that the probe sticks out of you by about 6cm of hard plastic. There's the probe, a sort of double ball affair with some gold involved, and then there's a flat part that is meant to sit just outside the entrance to your vagina, and then there is this long hard part before the cable begins. Sit down? You can't even wear knickers with it, and you have to lie flat in bed so that it doesn't jab painfully into you. For an entire hour, if you're running one of the two programmes advised for this condition. I managed it for three days, and on the third it was actually causing pain when I hadn't been in pain to start with, plus I couldn't even sit up enough to have a cup of tea, so I gave up. This just isn't usable. They also have four small, basic electrodes included, which can be used for a couple of programmes. One is for incontinence and involves putting two electrodes on your ankle. I have no idea how well that's backed up scientifically, apparently it's to do with nerves running down your leg from your pelvis. The other is for pelvic pain and involves putting four electrodes on your backside, at the top and bottom of your buttocks. Whoever dreamt that up evidently didn't try to go to the toilet with four cables attached there. It's pretty much impossible, and this is the programme where they say that you can wear it all day. It's a very basic TENS programme, pulsing on and off at 100hz for a few seconds at a time. According to the blurb, this will immediately help pelvic pain and eliminate the need for "nasty drugs". It didn't. (Chronic pain is hard to treat, and they shouldn't be making claims that they can treat it instantly, let alone hinting that people shouldn't be using their pain meds.) I tried switching out the four small electrodes for a pair of long, narrow electrodes I had, so that it would be covering the same area but not get in the way if I wanted to use the toilet. That still didn't help, perhaps because that is a very basic TENS setting they're using there. As well as the fact that 100Hz may not be the best setting for everyone, you're better off using variable settings with TENS, otherwise your body can adapt to it and it can stop working for you. I've been using a proper TENS machine for months, I get a decent amount of pain relief for general muscular pain from it, and things did go a little better when I switched to using that TENS machine instead. Apart from anything else, the Kegel8 control box is huge, unwieldy to wear on your belt, and if anyone sees it, you have instantly declared that you have fairly intimate problems because it says Kegel8 in big letters. At least this has shown me that it's worth playing around with using long electrodes in that area, and I'll see if I can get any improvement long term with my proper TENS machine. Mind you, I'd really like to see the research that supposedly backs this up, because my gynaecologist told me to wear my TENS pads at the base of my spine. I've generally been unimpressed with the manufacturer. If you read the FAQ on their site, they are very pushy, for instance telling one woman, "You need to be using the [most expensive model], and quickly." They sell this model as being good for uterine and bladder prolapses, then when someone wrote in saying they couldn't use the probe for that purpose, said "oh yes, for a prolapse you need to buy another probe". They claim the device will flatten your stomach. Perhaps there are people for whom the only thing between them and a flat stomach is weak pelvic floor muscles, and there is no fat getting in the way at all, and perhaps this device really does flatten their stomachs, but there won't be many people like that, so they really shouldn't be making that claim. They have two models listed as working for pelvic pain, but when you ring up they insist that you buy the more expensive one and say the other one isn't really going to do anything. They don't mention upfront that you will need to keep on buying batteries, electrodes, probes and water-based lubricant, which comes to quite a lot of ongoing costs. When you look at the probes, of which they sell quite a variety, several of them are labelled "perineal". I get a lot of muscle tightness in my perineal area, it's common for that to be a problem area for many of the conditions they claim to be able to treat, so I assumed the probe would in some way benefit the perineum. Nope. They said it was "just a name" and had nothing to do with the actual medical meaning of that name. That's misleading advertising, and the probes are around £25 each. For £150, you should at least get a case you can put the device and its bits and bobs into, but all you get are a few plastic bags. There's a small sachet of water-based lube which you can only use once, though you'll need to be using lube with this every time. It was a mild skin irritant. They used to be able to sell these devices VAT-free for people with medical conditions, but apparently they're no longer considered medical devices, so that's stopped. I wonder what happened there, whether their medical claims were disproven or something? It could just have been the VAT rules changing in a mysterious way, of course, that does happen a lot with disability devices. If you try to return this item online via Amazon, you'll get a message saying "This item can’t be returned since it requires special transportation and handling which we can’t provide. Use the Contact us button for help addressing your issue." There is no reason why this device should require "special transportation and handling". I suspect the company selling the devices via fullfiled by Amazon don't want to handle returns. Another red flag. Thankfully, an Amazon customer care agent is processing the return for me. I'll go back to doing the stretches and exercises in the book Heal Pelvic Pain, which are excellent, and see whether something like kegel balls will work better for me.

This item is very much worth the money spent. It has helped me tremendously, would recommend to anyone who is looking to purchase one. Don't expect over night results, can take 12wks plus to feel the benefits, but you won't be disappointed.

Good and easy toner to use. 4stars only as I have only used it for a week. Have not used the programmes I need to as I am on my initial programme.

Marvellous! I have been experiencing mild/moderate mixed stress incontinence for approx the last 12 months. I am in my fifties and had a hysterectomy 8 years ago. I spent a long time deciding to buy a Kegel because of the cost - I now regret wasting so much time. I noticed a difference within days and within two weeks I had stopped using panty liners!

Don’t just buy the ready made package . There are different probes to suit different needs and body shapes. The slide probe that is put across as a wonderful invention seems to be absolutely the wrong shape for the vagina. I was a nurse who did smear tests and just about the first rule of putting anything in the vagina is the widest part is top to bottom, not side to side. Babies certainly can’t be born with their oval heads side to side. So what happened if you try and place something side to side? It flips 90 degrees to lie top to bottom. As the electrodes are in the sides they then loose contact with the correct muscles and the machine stops working. If you check out the other probes they come in a variety of shapes to suit different people. The instructions are very hard to follow . The print is small and you are repeatedly referred to another page. Problem is the page numbers are minute. I don’t need reading glasses but I can’t read them. I’m guessing many of the people who buy this do need reading glasses , I hope they are strong enough! To be fair I got a free new probe because I complained within 30 days.

Una sola stella perché non si può fornire in Italia un prodotto di questo tipo con un manuale d'uso solo in Inglese!!