“There are plenty of people who think their orgasms are perfectly fine,” Dr. Lauren Streicher, associate clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Medical School, says with a sweet smile. “Until they experience one on Intensity.”
Dr. Streicher unsheaths a purplish pink, dildo-esque object in the broad, streaming daylight of the Hearst cafeteria in New York, drawing suspicious glances from passersby. She is undeterred, presenting a phallic device that looks like a cross between a vibrator, complete with the requisite clitoral tickler, and a hair straightener, given the metallic plates mounted on either side of its shaft.
“It’s not a vibrator,” Dr. Streicher says emphatically. Or just a vibrator, anyway. Intensity, she tells me passionately, is an automatic kegel exerciser, a “trip to the gym for your pelvic floor” — and a potential revolution for the female orgasm.
It’s a tall order for a silicon/rubber contraption powered by just four AAA batteries, but Intensity has lofty goals: it wants to strengthen pelvic floors across America, bringing orgasms to the orgasmless, and taking existing climaxes to new levels. Behind closed doors at the Kinsey Institute, Intensity is in the midst of preliminary clinical trials.
“Many women aren’t orgasming at all. Or they’re feeling the flicker of a candle instead of fireworks,” Dr. Streicher says solemnly.
At the root of the problem may be our weak pelvic floors. Though we’ve been ordered to kegel our days away (I should probably be doing some right now), many women don’t. And those who do don’t kegel properly, according to studies, which is part of the reason Intensity claims to be worth its $200 pricetag. As opposed to your free kegeling or affordable pilates classes—Intensity promises to facilitate the perfect kegel. Doing it wrong, or not at all, may be standing between us and our Meg Ryan-in-the-diner orgasms. According to a study in the International Urogynecological Journal, “strengthening of the pelvic floor muscles results in improved sexual desire, performance during coitus, and achievement of orgasm.”
Enter Intensity, which aims to make you an expert kegeler, stimulate your G-spot, give you a clitoral orgasm, and improve your sex life at large, all at the same time. One would hypothetically start by inserting it into her vagina until “comfortably snug,” per its instructions, plumping the inflation pump to custom-fit the accordion-like shaft to her inner walls, and ever-so-slowly, gradually, activating the electrical stimulation transmitted by the aforementioned panels.
“You’ll feel… a tingle,” Dr. Streicher says. As you escalate the ten levels of electricity, “the right stimulation makes you kegel.” For the kegelly-challenged, this is the supposedly integral “physical therapy for your pelvic floor.” Depending on how inept your orgasm muscles are, daily sessions of five to ten minutes over the course of a few weeks can make your pelvic floor positively olympic, paving the way to sexual ecstasy.
If the prospect of electric-shocking your vagina into fighting shape freaks you out, remember that Intensity offers the added option of masturbation, via the G-Spot vibrator bump and (bonus!) clitoral tickler. “The massage of the internal muscle stimulation combined with vibration of the external clitoris… can result in an orgasm,” Dr. Streicher says. Otherwise, the sex toy elements are pretty much for shits and giggles. “Research proves that when a workout is ‘fun’ it is easier to stick to,” Intensity simply states on its Website. If only a spin class carried the promise of simultaneous orgasm…
Intensity isn’t a vibrator, of course not, but “it’s kind of like the Rabbit on steroids,” quips an associate of Dr. Streicher. In the recent months at her Chicago practice, the doctor has been testing Intensity with patients, and receiving glowing reviews.
“There are so many balls and eggs and magic cubes out there for women,” she says. “But there’s nothing like this.”