The inventors of Livia call it "the off switch for menstrual pain."
The system consists of a small box that clips onto a belt or fits inside a pocket, as well as gel pads that contain two electrodes. These send electrical pulses into the body that block pain receptors. The Times of Israel explains:
[...] Livia transmits a pulse that keeps the nerves “busy,” so that pain messages that should be accepted by nerve receptors and transmitted to the brain — which concludes that a woman is in pain — aren’t. With those messages lost in transmission, there is no feeling of pain.
Does it work? Last month, Chelsea Frisbie of Mashable tried Livia. She says that it reduced her pain:
I didn't feel that much of a difference when I placed the Livia pads on my lower abdomen, because that's not where I get cramps. Where I do have cramps would turn this device into more of a Brazilian wax machine than a cramp-stopper, due to the gel pads.
I do have some pretty gnarly lower back pain nearly all of the time, but during my period it gets more intense — as in, bring-a-heating-pad-to-work-intense.
While wearing the device, I will say my back felt much better. I found myself wearing it all day, and even after my week was up because of how much better it made my back feel.
-via Debby Witt
Comments (6)
I'm a physical therapist who is trained in the use of these devices, and I overgeneralized a bit so I could get to my main point; it is impossible for the Livia to have any affect on uterine nerves for pain relief. To have enough current to affect visceral tissues, you need to penetrate all the surface tissues. TENS is a waveform/frequency protocol that is designed to work at a higher intensity without eliciting a contraction, but it would still cause painful abdominal muscle contractions if the intensity were high enough to penetrate to uterine sensory nerves.
That said, research I've seen finds that while TENS can relieve pain, it doesn't do so significantly more so than placebo in many cases. There is also an alphabet soup of other variations and medical uses of electrical stimulation that makes it difficult to keep up on.