Mona Lisa Touch: Restore Your Vaginal Health

The Mona Lisa Touch is a ground-breaking treatment used to treat gynaecological health problems that come with menopause, postpartum (after vaginal childbirth), after breast cancer treatment, and more. It’s been medically proven to work not only in expert peer-reviewed published clinical trials but also by detailed microscopic analysis and histological studies of the vagina.

The procedure itself is a simple, non-surgical, minimally invasive, and hormone-free treatment that utilises a gentle laser within your vaginal walls, targeting the layer of collagen. This will stimulate the production of collagen within your body rehydrating and regenerating the lining of your vagina as well as treating the sensation of laxity. In addition to this, appointments are available to book at a time to suit you, which is a major advantage of going private. The treatment only takes around 5 minutes to complete, and you’ll be able to go back to your normal routine within a day or so.

“Since having the Mona Lisa Touch Therapy, I haven’t needed any other kind of treatments since. I would definitely recommend it, it’s not just the pain that’s improved; it’s my overall sense of wellbeing. The whole process from initial consultation to treatment was really good too. Mr Taylor has the ability to put you at ease and gave me lots of information including videos so I knew what to expect. I would recommend everything, his pace, the environment, the follow up, the aftercare he’s just an expert. ”

– Carol C

Read Carol’s full story. 

“Third session of MLT complete Dr Alex is nothing short of a miracle worker. After 2 yrs of pain l now feel like a woman again. Thank you so much you are all amazing ”

– Jan Skeemer

Meet Your Consultant Gynaecologist, Mr A Alexander Taylor

Your Consultant Gynaecologist for this procedure will be Mr Alexander Taylor MBBS MD FRCOG PGCMED. Alex is a highly experienced and compassionate consultant obstetrician, gynaecologist, and is also the Training Programme Director for Wessex Health Education England. Mr Taylor has specialised in women’s health since 1996 and has previously worked as a Senior House Officer at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle and Guy’s Hospital in London. Both of which are renowned internationally for their clinical excellence. To date, he has over 40 publications and television appearances pertaining to obstetrics and gynaecology.

Comparing the Mona Lisa Touch to Other Vaginal Atrophy Treatments

There are several different laser treatment options available for conditions such as vaginal atrophy and other health issues that may develop as a result of the menopause or postpartum. We examine the differences here.

What is the Mona Lisa Touch?

The Mona Lisa Touch is a non-hormonal treatment that uses a SmartXide DOT fractional CO2 laser. It is the ONLY CO2 laser that works through pulsed emission, utilising two innovative technologies: SmartPulse and SmartStack. This is a major breakthrough compared to other fractional systems that utilise a continuous source of traditional pulsed emission.

The power, distance between DOTs, dwell time, Smartstack level, scanning methods, shape and size of the treatment can all be individually adjusted to precisely tailor each treatment to the patient’s needs. The small pulses of energy delivered to the vaginal tissue stimulates new collagen, new elastin and new blood vessel formation. There are over 60 published medical research papers evidencing the benefits of the Mona Lisa Touch (the only CO2 laser to have such a body of medical evidence).

The Mona Lisa Touch is used in the treatment of Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM), vaginal atrophy, women who have contraindications to oestrogen therapy or who decline treatment involving oestrogen, vulvodynia, dyspareunia (painful sex), lichen sclerosis, bacterial vaginosis and mild to moderate stress urinary incontinence. The procedure can be done in a clinic, taking less than 5 minutes and the individual can return to normal daily life almost immediately.  The Mona Lisa Touch has been reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Learn more about the medical evidence here.

A comparison between the following products was made on Thursday 17^th March 2022.

Femilift vs Mona Lisa Touch

Femilift is a traditional fractional CO2 laser it does not have the SmartPulse and SmartStack technology that the Mona Lisa Touch benefits from.  Both Co2 lasers treat various vaginal health conditions. Femilift can treat a range of symptoms including vaginal dryness, soreness and urinary incontinence. The cost is fairly similar, however, the treatment time for one session of Femilift is 15 minutes, much longer than treatment times with the Mona Lisa Touch. The innovative technologies of the Mona Lisa Touch mean that the treatment parameters can be precisely tailored to the individual needs of each patient, minimising the damage to the epidermis and therefore dramatically reducing recovery time.  In addition, the published medical evidence supporting the use of Femilift is much weaker than the breadth and depth of medical evidence supporting the use of the Mona Lisa Touch.

Mona Lisa Touch vs Thermiva

Unlike the Mona Lisa Touch or Femilift, which uses CO2 lasers to produce the required energy, Thermiva uses radio-frequency energy to target the vaginal wall and tissue. The energy produces heat that stimulates collagen production and blood flow to the area.  One round of treatment for Thermiva takes 30 minutes. While you can resume normal daily life after treatment, sex and the use of tampons should be avoided for three days. Evidence in the Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express 1 reports that “the device parameters commonly used in the literature are likely to heat past the depth of the vaginal wall and affect adjacent tissue. We found that the device parameters merit further investigation.”

1 Depth of thermal dispersion of monopolar radio-frequency heating in the vaginal wall. Carr I et al. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express Vol1 Number6