Emsella Chair in Mount Greenwood, Chicago

Emsella uses high-intensity focused electromagnetic energy, usually shortened to HIFEM, to stimulate the pelvic floor. The energy is generated inside the seat of the chair, passes straight through clothing and skin without touching the tissue, and depolarizes the motor neurons that supply the pelvic floor muscles.

The result is a supramaximal contraction, meaning a contraction stronger and more complete than you can produce voluntarily. A voluntary Kegel recruits part of the muscle group. HIFEM recruits the whole sling at once, and repeats it thousands of times in a single sitting. BTL, the company that makes the device, reports that one 28-minute session delivers roughly the equivalent of 11,000 Kegel contractions.

That repetition is what drives the result. Skeletal muscle responds to load, and the pelvic floor is skeletal muscle like any other. Loading it far past what it normally experiences is what prompts it to adapt, rebuild endurance, and hold the bladder neck more reliably.

If you would rather see the device before you read about it, our founder Stefanie Drozd, MSN-APRN, walks through the technology in a short video on what the Emsella chair is and how HIFEM works.

Emsella is FDA cleared for the treatment of urinary incontinence, and pelvic floor weakness is the common thread behind most of the reasons people book it.

Stress incontinence. Leaking when you cough, sneeze, laugh, lift, or run. This is the pattern Emsella is most associated with, and it happens when the pelvic floor cannot resist a sudden rise in abdominal pressure.

Urge incontinence and frequency. The sudden, hard-to-defer need to go, sometimes with leaking on the way. A stronger pelvic floor gives you more capacity to hold while you get there.

Post-partum pelvic floor weakness. Pregnancy and delivery load the pelvic floor heavily, and it does not always recover on its own.

Post-menopausal changes. Falling estrogen thins and weakens the supporting tissue, which is why bladder control often changes in midlife.

Pelvic floor support in men. Men have a pelvic floor too, and it is commonly weakened after prostate surgery. Men come to Emsella mainly for bladder control and general pelvic floor strengthening. Some men ask about intimacy and sexual function; that is a reasonable conversation to have at your consultation, but the clearance this device holds covers urinary incontinence only, so we will not promise you an outcome there.

Nothing about this visit resembles a gynecological exam. You keep all of your clothes on. There is no probe, no catheter, no gown, and no anesthesia.

You will be asked to empty your bladder, then to remove anything metal or electronic from your pockets, including your phone, keys, and cards, because the electromagnetic field will affect them. You then sit down on the chair and your provider positions you so the pelvic floor sits over the centre of the seat. That positioning is the single thing that most affects how well the session works, and it is worth reading our guide to how to sit on the Emsella chair before your first visit, which covers posture, seat position, clothing without zippers or studs, and what the first few minutes feel like.

The session runs 28 minutes. Intensity starts low and is stepped up to your tolerance. You will feel a deep tingling and a rhythmic pulling as the muscles contract and release. It is a strange sensation the first time and an unremarkable one by the third. People read, scroll, or talk through it.

When the timer ends you stand up and leave. There is no downtime whatsoever, so you can drive yourself, return to work, or go to the gym the same day.

A standard course is six sessions, scheduled two per week over about three weeks. Muscle needs recovery between loads, which is why the sessions are spaced rather than stacked.

Most people report a noticeable change somewhere around the second or third session, usually as fewer episodes or a longer warning before urgency. The clearest picture comes several weeks after the sixth session, because muscle adaptation continues after the stimulation stops.

How long it holds depends on what weakened the pelvic floor in the first place. Many people get six to twelve months from a completed series. Ageing, menopause, and further pregnancies all keep working against the pelvic floor, so single maintenance sessions once or twice a year are common and are the usual way of holding a result rather than repeating the whole course.

Results are not guaranteed and vary between people. Severity at the start matters, and so does whether you keep up any pelvic floor exercises you have been given.

Against Kegels. Kegels are effective when done properly, and they cost nothing. The difficulty is technique and consistency: a large share of people who think they are contracting the pelvic floor are actually bracing the abdomen, glutes, or thighs. Emsella removes technique from the equation because the contraction is produced for you.

Against pelvic floor physical therapy. These are not rivals. A pelvic floor physical therapist assesses coordination, breathing, posture, and bladder habits, and addresses causes a chair cannot reach. Emsella builds strength efficiently. Plenty of people do well with both, and if your symptoms point to a coordination problem rather than a strength problem, therapy is the better first step and we will tell you so.

Against medication. Medications for overactive bladder can work well but only while you keep taking them, and they carry their own side effects. Emsella changes the muscle rather than the signal.

Against surgery. A sling procedure is a durable answer for the right patient, and for severe incontinence it may be the appropriate one. It is also surgery, with anesthetic, recovery, and surgical risk. Emsella is non-invasive with no recovery, which makes it a reasonable thing to try first for mild to moderate symptoms, and no barrier to surgery later if you need it.

If cost is the deciding factor, our detailed breakdown of how much Emsella costs per session and per package compares Emsella against pelvic floor physical therapy, medication, and surgical slings, and covers the insurance coverage question in full.

Emsella is available at one Express Med Spa clinic: Mount Greenwood, on the South Side of Chicago. It is not offered at Frankfort, La Grange, or Shorewood, so if you are searching for an Emsella chair near you, Mount Greenwood is where the device is.

Your treatment is delivered under the supervision of our nurse practitioner led team, in a private treatment room rather than an open floor. Because bladder leakage is something most people would rather not discuss in a waiting area, the consultation happens privately too.

Full clinic details, directions, parking, and hours are on the Emsella chair page for our Mount Greenwood clinic, which covers the 111th Street location, what non-surgical pelvic floor treatment involves locally, and how to book an incontinence consultation on the South Side.

Emsella is priced at starting from $199 per session, with a full six-session series at $1,194. The same rate applies to pelvic floor strengthening and bladder leakage, for both women and men.