Femtech: MaryEllen of Yarlap On How Their Technology Is Revolutionizing Women’s Health
An Interview With Shawna Robins
FemTech can grant the patient-physician’s wish to treat the cause, not the symptom. Stress, Urge and mixed incontinence are not diseases or something “you have to just live with”. They are indications of an underling problem. Pelvic floor muscles hold our organs in their natural position. When the muscles lose their tone, organs shift, putting pressure/ stress on our bladder. The extra stress on our bladder causes some women to leak when we sneeze or cough. When muscles contract abruptly, it can create a sudden urge. Stress and urge together are known as mixed incontinence. Improved muscle tone treats the urge and the stress, causing the leaks.
The Femtech industry is revolutionizing women’s health, offering innovative solutions to a wide range of health issues specific to women. From menstrual health to fertility, pregnancy, menopause, and beyond, Femtech is providing women with new tools and technologies to manage their health better. What are the most exciting innovations in this space, and how are they changing women’s lives? As part of this interview series, we had the pleasure to MaryEllen Reider.
MaryEllen Reider is the co-director of Yarlap®, the wellness device to treat urinary incontinence and improve feminine performance and experience through muscle control. She strives to empower women through their pelvic floor muscles. Yarlap®’s AI technology is improving women’s healthcare in a very personal way by providing women a way to improve their sexual wellness and bladder control at home. MaryEllen and her dad have emerged as a leading voice in the pelvic floor wellness space.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to ‘get to know you’. Can you tell us a bit about your background and your backstory?
As a college student, I worked in Kosovo on an international project to empower women helping them take financial control over their lives. Having that access to a checking account or small business loan can make a lifetime of difference for the woman and her family.
Since then, I’ve continued my work to improve the quality of women’s lives. Pelvic floor muscle toning to improve sexual wellness and urinary control is so easy and it can make a radical difference in the quality of a woman’s life.
Can you share a story with us about what inspired you to create or get involved in the Femtech industry, and what impact you hope to achieve?
To get the benefits of the Kegel exercises, you must perform the exercises correctly. Clinical studies indicate that even with guidance from a healthcare professional majority of women do not perform pelvic floor exercises correctly. In this area, it feels like we are being set up for failure. That is where we wanted to fill in that gap and help.
Yarlap® does it right for you, every single time. Yarlap® with AutoKegel® AI technology sends a precise impulse to work the muscles comfortably, safely, and correctly.
Treating medical conditions without surgery or drugs is an area where AI is making significant, practical and revolutionary innovations. Yarlap® is at the forefront of that advancement.
AutoKegel® technology reinforces the positive patient-doctor relationship. Hospitals, physicians, physical therapists, ATC’s, sex therapists and independent pharmacies can order Yarlap® for their patients.
Can you share with our readers a bit about why you are an authority in the Femtech field? In your opinion, what is your unique contribution to the world of wellness?
Yarlap® with AutoKegel® is the winner for Women’s Health Magazine’s first FemTech Award for sexual wellness and TheSkimm’s Best for Pelvic Floor Support Award.
When women think of bladder leaks, they usually assume the next step is adult diapers or surgery. We’re here to shake that mentality up because it’s not true.
The AI in the Yarlap® is the high point of pelvic floor muscle stimulations therapy research and development. Yes, clinical trials for Yarlap® are underway at a leading research institution in the USA regarding sexual performance and expression. Additional AI patents are underway for amazing outcomes related to muscle control and fine motor skills.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and pointing out obstacles” — Tina Fey.
You read statistics about women’s incontinence and think “why is this NOT talked about everywhere? It’s so common and our pelvic wellness is so much a part of our relationships!” Instead of pointing out all the factors and what women could do, we decided to become part of the solution with Yarlap®.
Can you highlight a particular Femtech innovation that has significantly advanced women’s health and explain its benefits?
Yarlap® treats the cause that plagues 1 in 3 women in the USA — urinary incontinence.
Diapers, surgery and narcotics address the symptom.
The main function of pelvic floor muscles is postural. They work with the muscles in our lower back and thighs to carry our body weight to our heels and the hold our visceral organs in place. If the pelvic floor muscles weaken from strain or non-use, the lower back muscle try to compensate and may result in lower back pain and our organs can shift putting pressure on the bladder.
Yarlap® has clinically set programs that tone the pelvic floor muscles for you.
The benefits of include ending the urge to go to the bathroom, end stress, and better muscle control improves sexual performance. We disrupt the flow because we offer women a choice of a more natural treatment in ending leaks or continue having leaks. For example, we have women in their 80s reporting better sex using the Yarlap®.
What challenges have you faced in developing or promoting Femtech solutions, and how have you overcome them?
We have also been told “Kegels” is an inappropriate and sexualized term to use — even though it is the #1 treatment recommended by healthcare professionals for weakened pelvic floor muscles. We have been restricted from advertising. You might be familiar with the Dame suing the MTA about their female sexual wellness ad being marked as “inappropriate” but an erectile dysfunction ad was immediately approved.
The pelvic floor intertwines all aspects of women’s health, such as posture, badder control and sex. Keeping those muscles toned and healthy are key to maintaining bladder control and intimacy wellness. It effects depression, sexual dysfunction, and anxiety. There is a lot of misinformation around the inability to differentiate pelvic care and sex. Our technology has lead to our president being published in The Journal of Women’s Health, Issues and Care, and crosses boundaries between sex and medicine that are rarely acknowledged, let alone traversed.
This kind of censorship makes it incredibly hard for women to get the accurate information and resources they need to better their wellness.
With help of media outlets like ThisNow Her and other podcasts reporting this issue, we have been able to overcome it. It brings eyeballs onto this issue and then people make noise. That is how our change has come about when it comes to these censorship issues!
How do you see the future of Femtech evolving in the next five to ten years?
It will explode into a huge industry. Some women right now are misdiagnosed or self-diagnosed, both are never good. It is always a great idea to get second (or multiple opinions), but some do not have the insurance or luxury for that. Furthermore, some women will not have the time to do what is recommended (or they will not know how to do the instructions): that is where FemTech will come into play and help assist.
As more healthcare professionals understand that patient’s need help to do the directions, the more FemTech will be accepted here in the upcoming future. It is already amazing to see what is happening now, especially with Yarlap, now that we work regularly with physical therapists and clinics.
What role do you believe Femtech plays in addressing health disparities and improving access to healthcare for women globally?
It plays an incredibly important role. People are looking for resources and tools to help improve their quality of life. Access to good healthcare is an important factor in that! For example, with us, my co-founder and I wanted to take the stress, guessing, and stigma out of the equation. Exercise is only as safe and effective if the right procedures are followed. Yarlap®’s AutoKegel technology sends precise instructions to the muscles using a mild impulse to work-rest the pelvic floor muscles correctly, comfortably, safely, easily, and conveniently.
It’s much like in nature but there is no minimum muscle control necessary to start, there is no need to concentrate on the routine, and there is no guessing as to what are the proper muscles to contract and for how long.
This type of technology is called “Biomimicry” because it follows nature. Since the work-out instructions to the muscles are precise, Yarlap supports muscle control and re-education — neuroplasicity. The work-out programs for strength or massage are clinically preset. All the woman has to do is set it to her comfort level. No guesswork and the Yarlap® is appropriate for women of virtually any age or size. AutoKegel allows the woman to follow the physician’s non-surgical, non-narcotic recommendations precisely. The Yarlap® was designed to help promote the patient–healthcare professional relationship.
Approximately 40 million American women want bladder control, and an even larger number who want to improve their sexual wellness. Something had to be done when it came to women’s pelvic floor care. It’s a personal subject, its intimate topic that helps their partners and families too.
Here’s why: Healthcare professionals will usually recommend Kegel exercises to tone the muscles of our pelvic floor. These are simple work-rest exercises for posture and respiration of the pelvic floor muscles. That is where FemTech like Yarlap® with AutoKegel® comes in to assist.
Unfortunately, a large number of women find it difficult to perform Kegels correctly — even with professional guidance. Isolating those muscles and working them for the right amount of time at the right level is really hard! It’s a deeply personal issue. This makes it difficult for the woman to openly talk about what’s going on and Kegels on your own require concentration.
Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share “5 Things You Need to Create a Highly Successful Career in Femtech”? If you can, kindly share a story or example for each.
1. Know what you are talking about and your technology. When we exercise, our mind sends a mild electrical impulse to our muscles through our nervous system telling muscles when to contract and when to relax (work/rest). The AI in Yarlap® with AutoKegel® sends precise instructions to the muscles using a mild impulse to work-rest the pelvic floor muscles correctly, comfortably, safely and conveniently. It’s much like in nature but there is no minimum muscle control necessary to start, there is no need to concentrate on the routine, and there is no guessing as to what are the proper muscles to contract or for how long; with AI it is preset.
2. FemTech should help with your quality of life. Patient report they can learn to Kegel on their own, because with AutoKegel® they understand how the exercise feels as the Yarlap® builds tone. With feeling and tone, patients report they can establish control. The results not only treat incontinence but improved muscle control often heightens a woman’s ability for sexual satisfaction in a way that the most dedicated Kegel practitioner could only dream about. Yarlap® is a super-duper Kegel machine because it not only treats the cause, it teaches the solution and can help us improve our quality of life!
3. Open a conversation between your technology, the patient, and the healthcare professional. Yarlap® can maximize use of patients’ and physicians’ time. Again, it is so hard to do a Kegel exercise on your own. If you are not doing them properly, you do not get the benefit. If you do not get the benefit, you get mad at your doctor or yourself. Yarlap® makes it possible for the correct muscle re-education protocol directed by the healthcare professional to fit the patient’s lifestyle schedule. Physicians seek effective solutions for their patients that consider patient lifestyle (e.g., what really works for the patient to get results). Yarlap’s technology can be used to fit a solution with the patient’s schedule and lifestyle and therein AI broadens the usability of medical technology significantly.
4. Learn to speak clearly and to the point.
5. FemTech can grant the patient-physician’s wish to treat the cause, not the symptom. Stress, Urge and mixed incontinence are not diseases or something “you have to just live with”. They are indications of an underling problem. Pelvic floor muscles hold our organs in their natural position. When the muscles lose their tone, organs shift, putting pressure/ stress on our bladder. The extra stress on our bladder causes some women to leak when we sneeze or cough. When muscles contract abruptly, it can create a sudden urge. Stress and urge together are known as mixed incontinence. Improved muscle tone treats the urge and the stress, causing the leaks. Yarlap’s FemTech helps treat the cause, not just the symptom.
You are people of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Jennifer Garner is a tech-savvy businesswomen, especially when it comes to providing a quality product with Once Upon a Farm. Her mission is clear and concordant with ours “safe and effective consumer products that are beautifully designed, accessibly priced, and easy to acquire.”
Importantly, Yarlap® is an important asset for young mothers — healthy mom healthy world theme of Jennifer Garner. Pelvic muscle control is an issue for women of all ages and Yarlap® is FDA cleared to treat the issues without surgery or drugs.
Wonderful. We are nearly done. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager on NBC’s TODAY with Hoda & Jenna (@hodaandjenna). They’re a team, so I put them together as my answer because they can bring humor and empathy to whatever they talk about (with a glass of wine).
They’re so into what they do, it’s contagious — I hope I come off that way about women’s pelvic floor health. I think if I had lunch with them, we could have a great talk about incontinence and women’s pelvic floor health.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
We are always interacting on social media! You can always find what Yarlap® is up to by following our social media accounts or on our blog.
We are always excited when people interact with us and have suggestions on Yarlap’s blog posts — so feel free to browse around the blog and reach out to us!
TikTok: @Yarlap_OTC
Instagram: @Yarlap_OTC
Facebook: @Yarlapwautokegel
Twitter: @YarlapOTC
Pinterest: @YarlapOTC
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
About the Interviewer: Shawna Robins is an international best-selling author of two books — Powerful Sleep — Rest Deeply, Repair Your Brain and Restore Your Life, and Irresistibly Healthy — Simple Strategies to Feel Vibrant, Alive, Healthy and Full of Energy Again. Shawna is the founder and CEO of Third Spark, an online wellness hub for women over 40 who want to reignite their sleep, reset healthier habits and respark their lives. Shawna is a sleep expert, hormone health expert, and a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBHWC). She has been featured on many podcasts including Dr. Mindy Pelz’s “The Resetter Podcast” and in Authority Magazine, Thrive Global, and The Huffington Post. A free download of her latest book can be found at www.thirdsparkhealth.com/powerful-sleep/ You can follow her on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
