Are these smart balls suitable for strengthening my pelvic floor despite all my bladder and kidney problems?

Question

I have very bad incontinence partly due to childbirth, followed by a total hysterectomy which has caused a prolapse and now I have recently found out that my left kidney has stopped working due to scar tissue damage restricting flow.
I now have a stent in this kidney and find I suffer very badly from urgency and frequency at the same time. Are these smart balls suitable for strengthening my pelvic floor despite all these problems? And roughly how big are they in size?

Pelvic Floor Answers

Thank you for getting in touch with Pelvic Floor Health, it sounds like you are going through a very tough time.
For you we would recommend using the Natratone, not the SmartBalls as the balls may apply extra pressure due to their weight, which may not be helpful.
We always recommend the Natratone as the better option for women who have a prolapse.

Natratone is a series of active exercises, with the Natratone device inserted in the vaginal opening, retraining your brain to recognise where your pelvic floor muscles are and correctly engaging them. It also tones and strengthen your pelvic floor muscles as you do the exercises. Gentle and very effective.
This will help you to regain some control over both urgency and frequency- flow control.

Urgency- or Over Active Bladder- can often be a combination of both physical issues and how the brain has been trained.
For example, if you feel the urge to go to the toilet and go straight away, the body becomes accustomed to this action which reinforces both the urgency and frequency and and the time between needing to go can get closer and closer together.
It is also possible your bladder is not emptying fully and so you feel constantly needed to go.
It is possible over time, provided you have good pelvic floor strength, to retrain your brain to resist the urgency and to go less frequently as a result.

There is no quick fix or easy solution to this, however with persistence you are likely to be able to regain some control and confidence.

I recommend that you read through the information in FAQ's about Over Active Bladder.

You can also seek help for this from a Women's health physio - they usually have one attached to a hospital but can be hard to get appointments with, however as you are already in the medical system and have had significant surgery, you may get in more quickly.

I would recommend getting the Natratone exercises underway and following some of the steps in the Over Active Bladder including increasing your water intake and reducing sugar, coffee and alcohol intake as these aggravate OAB, keeping a diary and and doing the recommended steps to reduce OAB -all included in that article.

I hope you find this information helpful and please feel free to get back in touch if you have any other queries.