The O-Shot® and PRP (Platelet-Rich Plasma)
What is PRP?
Platelet-Rich Plasma (PRP) is a specific “fraction” of human blood with special growth factors and healing-inducing properties. This portion of blood is devoid of red blood cells but contains blood serum. It is what’s responsible for blood clotting and tissue healing. In addition to speeding healing, platelet rich plasma also contains a significant array of growth factors that make it an enhancer of function of the tissue areas that it comes into contact with.
PRP can be isolated from one’s own blood and re-injected into an area of the body where it may induce healing or growth-enhancing properties including cell growth, new tissue generation and repair, as well as formation of new blood vessels and collagen production. These effects are similar in many aspects to those seen from human stem cells.
PRP is created in the office. We use your own blood via a process that involves having small amount of your blood drawn, similar to that performed in the lab during a routine venipuncture. After being drawn, the growth factors are isolated from the blood plasma via centrifugation in a special tube. Then it is mixed with calcium chloride or calcium gluconate to initiate the activation process.
PRP is all about the isolation of growth factors. PRP induces new collagen, fibroblastic activity, and healthy blood vessels. It can be used to increase sensation and diminish scar formation.
Development of the “Orgasm Shot” or O-Shot® and uses of PRP in Gynecology and Urogynecology
PRP was first medically used by orthopedic surgeons beginning about 10 years ago. They injected it into the post-surgical area to enhance the healing process after orthopedic joint surgery. Their efforts resulted in elite athletes healing from joint surgery in 6-8 weeks rather than 6-8 months.
It was only a matter of time before isolation and use of growth factors and other specialties began research into uses for their areas.
Several years ago, a gynecologist from Fairhope, Alabama, Charles Runels MD, also became interested in gynecologic and sexual uses for PRP and perform first injection in vaginal G spot and clitoral areas. This is how “Orgasm shot” or O-Shot® was born.
The results were reproducible: orgasms — both clitoral and vaginally activated — were both easier to accomplish and enhanced in quality, amplitude, and frequency. Unexpectedly , a secondary benefit was noticed. Many of the women who received the O-Shot® had also suffered from occasional bothersome urinary incontinence before the shot. Their symptoms were diminished or cured by the O-Shot®.
So, why O-Shot® helps with incontinence?! It may be that PRP leads to new cellular and vascular growth of tissues in the area. There is also the possibility that because the tissue planes under the upper vaginal wall allow for free flow of the PRP around the urethra and around the base of the bladder and the tissues of the bladder base and the urethral sphincter muscles are strengthened.
The O-Shot® has found other gynecologic uses. Lichen sclerosis is an debilitating and progressive skin disorder of the vulva that can cause significant itching and eventually severe atrophy. In some cases it can lead to deformities of the vulvar clitoral and labial structures. Some experts in vulvar disorders started using PRP by placing it under the skin in areas of lichenoid changes and are having success with previously recalcitrant cases.
Additionally, some genital plastic surgeons are using PRP by injecting it into areas of dissection in difficult clitoral hood and labial reductions to aid in healing.
The sexual improvements noted with the O-Shot® and improvements in stress urinary incontinence are documented and the information is currently being collected by O-Shot® researchers to produce evidence-based data.
Is the O-Shot® with PRP Safe?
Risks of injecting one’s own PRP into the body have been discussed, but no actual issues or significant complications been reported. The O-Shot® involves re-injecting a fraction of one’s own blood back into the body, albeit a highly processed and select portion of the blood. The only complication reported from utilizing PRP has been when sterility was broken and the sterile nature of the entire blood withdrawal, processing, and re-injection had been compromised.
How is the O-Shot® Given?
After numbing the area with the numbing cream, a small amount of your blood is withdrawn via a venipuncture. The blood is then processed (“spun down”) utilizing special tubes and a centrifuge used specifically for this procedure. When the PRP has been enhanced and withdrawn into a syringe, ice is applied to your clitoris for additional numbing. Then a small amount (1cc) of your own processed PRP is injected directly into your clitoral glans, and the remainder (about 4-5 cc’s) is injected under the skin, vaginally, in the area of your G-spot. The entire process lasts about 1 minute and has been described as either painless or, in the words of one patient, “…I felt a small sensation, perhaps very slight pain, for an instant…”
A majority of women feel significantly improved in sexual arousal and orgasmic intensity within several days to up to 3 weeks after injection. Full effect should be noticeable by 3 months. If no improvement is noted, the injection may be repeated later. Sexual function improvements from the O-Shot® have been reported in an estimated 75-95% of women. Effects appear to last between 1 to 4 years, with 2 to 3 years to be the median, but these reports are anecdotal rather than research based. When improvements wane, the shot can be repeated.
What About Combining the O-Shot® with Other Techniques Such as ThermiVa™?
While no extensive evidence-based data is presently available, both anecdotal evidence and intuitive medicine supports the concept of adding an O-Shot® to ThermiVa™ to further enhance orgasmic function and, it appears, aid in diminishing mild-to-modest genuine urinary stress incontinence.
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