Alyson and Liz Frey, Fringe’s Pelvic Health Medical Director, tell the origin story of the pelvic wand — which started with postpartum women asking whether they could sit on a therapeutic pad. That question launched an 18-month development process that produced a first-of-its-kind device: medical-grade silicone, a 2cm tip diameter, gentle curvature for anatomical comfort, LEDs running the full length of the shaft, and three light modes (red, near-infrared, and blue light). The result is an internal photobiomodulation delivery system designed to reach tissue that no external device can.
Liz walks through the three primary populations the wand serves: postpartum women navigating scar tissue, pelvic floor tension, and recovery; those dealing with chronic pelvic pain conditions including vaginismus, vulvodynia, endometriosis, and interstitial cystitis; and menopausal women addressing tissue atrophy, dryness, and incontinence. The mechanism is the same across all three — improved blood flow, reduced inflammation, collagen and elastin support, and cellular energy — but the experience and outcomes vary significantly by presentation.
The episode covers protocol details (10-minute recommended sessions, 50% intensity mode for sensitivity, four vibration levels), contraindications (active pelvic cancer, pregnancy, photosensitivity medications), and the important distinction between LED-based home devices and clinical lasers. For anyone curious about whether light therapy belongs in pelvic health — and the answer, increasingly, is yes — this is the episode to start with.
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Transcript
Alyson: Hi everybody, welcome to the Fringe. Today I'm joined by Liz Frey, our Pelvic Health Medical Director at Fringe. We both have medical backgrounds, very different though — my background is as a chiropractor, and Liz is a pelvic health physical therapist. Today we're going to start with the story of how Fringe even remotely ended up developing a light therapy product for pelvic health — it was nothing I thought we were going to do. That seems to be the story here at Fringe: at the end of the day, we're trying to help people with light therapy, and a lot of the times our customers are the ones who really help us understand the paths we should be taking forward. Liz, before we get into how it all started — what is a pelvic health physical therapist? Because it's still such an underutilized part of the profession, and I really think most women should be visiting one at some point in their journey through womanhood.
Liz: Thanks. So I'm Liz and I'm a pelvic health physio. What it means to be a pelvic health physiotherapist is that I've done specific credentials that allow me to do internal palpation — internal vaginal and rectal work with women. And I think this is super important to note: when we think about our pelvic floor muscles and our deep core muscles, especially as women are transitioning with pregnancies, postpartum, menopause, etc., we really do need to be able to palpate — to touch and feel the muscles we're intending to work on. With the designation of pelvic health physio, you're actually allowed to do internal vaginal and rectal work where we can touch and palpate the muscles we're intending to target and then actually work on them. That's really what it means to be a pelvic health physio.
Alyson: As soon as we started launching red light therapy for Fringe — this was a few years ago now — this was our basic red light therapy therapeutic pad with red and double near-infrared. Very quickly after launching it, we had postpartum women reaching out asking if they could sit on it for their tearing during delivery. The very first outreach was women saying: I tore a lot during childbirth, or I had a lot of pain or hemorrhoids, is this okay for me to sit on? And I was like: yes. It's so gentle, it's a very natural way to promote healing to tissues, promote blood flow, tissue repair and regeneration, and reduce inflammation. And they would report back: I've been sitting on this wrap and it's helping so much — you need to tell more women about this. Which led us to reading a lot about red light therapy being utilized for women's health, which very quickly led me to: look at all these studies using red light therapy transvaginally. That's when I reached out to Liz and said, I think you need to come join the Fringe team. Women are asking if they can use this light internally. And so I reached out to several pelvic health physical therapists and said: I'm thinking about doing this, I don't see a lot of options for consumers, and I want to make sure what we design is designed by women pelvic health physical therapists — the shape, the size, the curvature, the materials. I knew from the research what kind of light we needed. But I wanted the design to come from the people who work in this space every day.
Liz: When Alyson reached out with the idea of the pelvic wand and asked for feedback, I was so excited. I was a hell yes right from the get go. I wanted to be a part of the team and a part of the development of the product so I could help more women. Looking at the design — the wand has a really gentle curvature to it so that when you insert it vaginally, it slides in quite comfortably. And if you look at the actual size — the circumference of the tip is two centimeters in diameter, which is really comparable to the size of a thumb for those watching. It's not meant to be intimidating at all. Women with pelvic pain can use it externally to start, along the vulva area. They can even just use the tip at the entrance of the vagina — so if you've had an episiotomy or granulation tearing, even just the tip can be really helpful. And then of course you can insert it to affect the deeper pelvic floor muscles. One more important thing: there's light through the entire shaft of the wand — it's not just in one small segment. So even when you're using it externally or just at the tip, you're still receiving all the benefits. I was so excited to be a part of helping with the design.
Alyson: I sort of looked at the market and thought: we need professionals to be designing this. Our name is Fringe, and we're not uncomfortable talking about things we should be talking about to make people feel better. Women who've had babies should not be standing around in a circle talking about peeing their pants. That is common, but it is not normal. And I'll note: I treat men, I treat women, I treat everybody in my practice. Plenty of men ask about it too. The light in the wand is important to discuss. We have red, near-infrared, and blue light options. Red and near-infrared are really about energizing the cells in the tissues receiving the light. It doesn't matter if it's our brain, organs, muscles, ligaments, or tendons — the tissue receives the light, the cells become energized, they help bring blood flow to the area, deliver nutrients, help with tissue repair and regeneration, and help with pain and inflammation. The near-infrared is probably one of the most important lights to be delivering transvaginally for a lot of the conditions we'll talk about. The wand also has four levels of vibration — a really low gentle mode of vibration and then ramping up to higher vibration frequencies. Liz, let's start with the top three conditions you treat in your clinic and how you utilize the wand settings for those conditions.
Liz: Top three. The first group I see most often are postpartum women. The wand is unbelievably valuable for the postpartum woman. Initially, if there has been trauma — tearing, episiotomy, even C-section scar — the wand actually has a great little curvature to follow the C-section scar. I would recommend women use the wand externally at first. The reason is that I want to increase blood flow to healing tissue, help promote healing and tissue repair and regeneration, increase even the collagen and elastin production — the little structural integrity pieces of our tissues — early on. Then as women progress in their postpartum journey, some will be left with hypertension, a lot of tension in their pelvic floor muscles. That could be from scar tissue that formed during healing, or from where they're holding their tension and stress in their pelvic floor — maybe they're anxious about intimacy. For that, I utilize the lower levels of vibration — the first two of the four vibration levels — in addition to the red light therapy. Low-level vibration helps relax the pelvic floor muscles: soften, soothe, relax. Women just say it feels nice. They actually look forward to doing their pelvic health home stretches because the vibration and the gentle warmth of the near-infrared feel like self-care. On the flip side, some women will have dysfunction where the brain and the pelvic floor muscles aren't connecting well — low tension, inability to contract the muscles the way they once could. A woman might know this if she's having urinary leakage, or feeling a sense of heaviness — what we term prolapse. The muscles just aren't strong and contracting the way they once did. In that case, I use the red and near-infrared light therapy settings and the two higher levels of vibration, so the brain can feel the vibration in the pelvic floor muscles and re-establish that connection — so you can actually do strengthening exercises again. I recommend the red and near-infrared settings unless someone is sensitive to the heat generated by near-infrared, in which case just the red light setting is fine. And I recommend three to five times a week. There are settings on the wand to go to 50% light intensity if someone is sensitive or apprehensive. You don't have to start with 10 minutes either — you could start with five and work your way up. A gentle approach is totally fine. But three to five times a week is what I recommend so women see results within a few weeks.
Alyson: That's condition number one: postpartum. Condition two?
Liz: Condition number two is pelvic pain, which I'll use as an umbrella term. Within this bracket: endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, vulvodynia, vaginismus — where there's sort of a closing down or connective tissue dysfunction that doesn't allow use of tampons or intercourse. A lot of tension is often one of the underlying issues. If we can use the wand externally or internally, depending on comfort, to increase blood flow to these restricted, tight muscles, we can bring oxygen and nutrients to have a healthier situation. Increasing energy production — what the light therapy does — can reduce inflammation and help reduce pain. We're also affecting the neural pathway: if you have really restricted muscles, all the nerves that pass through and around these muscles are often being compressed, and those nerves are what sends the information to the brain saying ouch, this isn't comfortable. If we can have the muscles relax and increase blood flow, oxygen, nutrients, and energy to both the muscles and the nerves, then we're going to have a whole lot less pelvic pain. I also recommend low-level vibration combined with the light therapy for this population — it's unbelievably relaxing, especially combined with breathing through the diaphragm, mindful meditation, all those things stacked together. With this population, I rarely say start with 10 minutes. I might even start with three minutes, something really low so that someone feels relaxed, feels comfortable, has a positive experience, and then feels encouraged to use the wand more frequently. Building from three to five to seven to ten minutes, adding in vibration only after they feel comfortable with the light. It doesn't have to be all or none. I stack the therapies as women become more comfortable.
Alyson: Condition three?
Liz: Near and dear to us both — I'm perimenopausal too. The third population is menopausal women who come in with the full host of genitourinary symptoms of menopause. Some women will have tissue dryness and tissue fragility — the tissue thins, it's fragile, sometimes there are even little fissures, like paper cuts within the vaginal tissues. Using light therapy for vaginal dryness is a game changer. The way we increase lubrication to our tissues is by increasing blood flow. Using the wand even externally is going to be so powerful — it brings oxygen, nutrients, and helps with secretions and hydration of the tissues. I do recommend for my menopausal women to use the wand as a warm up pre-intimacy, because if you're going to use it that day anyway, let's use it when we really want to have that increased blood flow. Beyond tissue frailty and dryness, a lot of menopausal women will say they've never had urinary leakage before — they used to be runners, they could cough and sneeze without issue — and now as estrogen decreases, everything is atrophying. They're finding that when they have the urge to go to the bathroom, they just can't stop it. For this population, I always recommend the red and near-infrared light therapy. Red light penetrates at a specific depth, but near-infrared actually penetrates deeper — and that's what we're trying to target with our deep muscular system: bring blood flow, oxygen and nutrients, collagen and elastin production, strength and I'll say plumpness to these muscles. I combine that with the higher levels of vibration to help women connect the brain with the muscles, and then do strengthening exercises. I use a more frequent approach for this population — five times a week. With anything, if you want to develop strong biceps, you can't do one bicep curl and hope for the best. You have to use the device consistently. Usually it's 10 minutes, five times a week. Then when we see results we step back to a maintenance mode of two times a week or whatever works. For menopausal women who have pain with intercourse — from dryness, atrophy, or other reasons — I'll shift to the lower vibration levels instead to help reduce tone. So those are my three populations: postpartum, pelvic pain, and menopausal women — and in all three cases, the wand is used at home as an adjunct to the therapy I'm providing in clinic. That's the intended use: here's the tool, use it at home, and this is how you'll see greater results more quickly.
Alyson: Red light therapy for pelvic health isn't new. There's been published research for 10 or more years. A lot of it uses laser, but red light therapy research using laser is still red and near-infrared light — laser is just the delivery mechanism. Laser is high intensity, done in a clinical setting under professional guidance. This wand is LED light, which means it's not as intense as laser, doesn't generate as much heat, and doesn't have to be used under clinical guidance. The safety profile is incredible. You have to use it more regularly and for longer periods of time to deliver similar results to a laser — that's just how you tweak the dosage of light. When I started learning about this, I looked into what parameters the laser treatments were using — what power, what wavelength — and I wanted to bring as close to that as possible in our device, adjusted for LED. So: you can get laser pelvic light in a medical clinic and you'd get incredible benefits. But if you want to use it at home more regularly, LED is definitely the way to go. Liz, should we talk contraindications?
Liz: Absolutely. There are very few contraindications to using LED light therapy for all the reasons already mentioned — it's super safe, low intensity. The only people who can't use it are those with active pelvic cancer. And I want to note: if you had cancer somewhere else in your body and wanted to use the wand, that's fine. You can't use it over where there's active cancer. But that's the active cancer site caveat. Similarly, we don't recommend using it over the abdomen or internally during pregnancy. Not enough research has been done, so we exercise caution there. The other consideration is photosensitivity — if you're on a medication that makes you more sensitive to light, or you have an autoimmune condition that makes you more sensitive to light, it's not contraindicated but it is a major caution. That's also a good reason why we have the 50% light mode, so you can start more gradually. Those are our contraindications and major cautions — but otherwise it's really safe and really effective.
Alyson: To summarize: light that we receive from the sun has always powered our bodies. It energizes the cells in our tissues and allows them to work better for the area we shine light on. The outcome is pretty universal: cellular energy, blood flow, reduced inflammation, tissue repair and regeneration. It doesn't matter if I just injured my shoulder or I'm going through perimenopause and menopause asking why my tissue is losing elasticity — the changes in estrogen reduce collagen production and reduce blood flow into our tissue. I could be talking about my face, my shoulder, or my pelvic tissues. The physiological effect is similar. So it makes so much sense. We just went there — we made this, and we want to talk about it. I know more terms about pelvic health than I ever thought imaginable at this stage. And I'm so grateful to you, Liz, for teaching our whole team about all of this. People ask us every day: could this help me? I can't find a solution. I'm on hormone replacement therapy, I've tried other therapies, could this help me? And our response is always: it's very safe, it's very comfortable, it's easy to use — why not give it a try? Thank you, Liz. We'll talk to you guys soon.
Liz: Thanks, Allie. Bye.
