Senior Comfort: Israeli start-up pioneers pelvic organ prolapse technology

An Israeli treatment that could alleviate discomfort for a quarter of women over 60 years old is currently undergoing clinical trials. Pelvic organ prolapse is a weakening of the hammock of muscles in the pelvic floor, caused by childbirth or simply due to aging. Endogun, a young high-tech start-up in Israel has identified the need, pinpointed the problem, and is providing a solution.

[additional-authors]

Hannah Meyers

August 3, 2007

An Israeli treatment that could alleviate discomfort for a quarter of women over 60 years old is currently undergoing clinical trials. Pelvic organ prolapse is a weakening of the hammock of muscles in the pelvic floor, caused by childbirth or simply due to aging. The deteriorated pelvic floor can collapse, causing the organs above to fall through. Prolapse can be quite painful, and result in varying degrees of debilitation.

In the United States and Western Europe alone, 360 million women suffer from some degree of pelvic organ prolapse. Of this number, about a one-fifth, or 70 million women, require some surgical intervention. However, despite this great need for treatment, only around 600,000 surgical procedures are annually done in America and Europe — ministering to a small fraction of the women who would benefit from such intervention.