Period pain: making everything awful since like forever. It’s a little surprising that solutions are still thin on the ground, but one company is looking to change all that.
It’s called Livia, and it’s a nifty little cube with accompanying flower-shaped patches that you apply to your abdomen when you’re in the midst of The Red Tide. The flower patches emit electric pulses that travel to nerve endings, disrupting the pain receptors that would have you otherwise in bed with a hot water bottle. Instead, the pain is blocked, so all you feel are gentle vibrations soothing your belly and sending you to Reliefville.
WH Tests It
Senior Features Writer Michelle October gave it a go.
When I first got wind of Livia through Insta ads, I was intrigued. Would it really be possible to take away period pains without using hormones, painkillers, or anything else? Furthermore, Livia says it gets to work within 30 to 60 seconds, trumping painkillers and hot water bottle by a heavy K.O.
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First, the gel pads are super sticky, so once they’re on, they stay on without budging. They’re so secure that I definitely forgot I was wearing them. They’re connecting to a square device (it comes in different colours) that clips onto your clothes. You can also adjust the level of vibrations according to your pain level. I turned mine up a bit since I was in serious pain. It worked almost immediately, but not within the one minute, rather around five minutes.
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I have pain in my back and abdomen, so I only wished there were more patches to connect to the device or a chord that was long enough to wrap around both my stomach and my back. You’ll need to use the device as long as you’re in pain, though — it doesn’t get to the cause of the pain, so as soon as you take it off, the pain is likely to return. Other than that, this one gets a gold star in getting right in there and taking away my discomfort.
Livia is available in South Africa via Livia South Africa and retails for around R2 000.
