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Last updated: May 3, 2021 5:40 PM

Please read this Terms of Service ("Terms," "Terms of Service") carefully before using the akronurogynecology.com Website (the "Website") operated by Mary South MD, LLC, a(n) Limited Liability Company formed in Ohio, United States ("us," "we," "our") as this Terms of Service contains important information regarding limitations of our liability. Your access to and use of this Website is conditional upon your acceptance of and compliance with these Terms. These Terms apply to everyone, including but not limited to visitors, users and others, who wish to access and use the Website.

By accessing or using the Website, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you disagree with any part of the Terms, then you do not have our permission to access or use the Website.

OUR OFFERS AND PRICING

We offer goods on this Website. The price of these goods can be found listed on the Website. This price includes all applicable taxes and other fees.

PURCHASES

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CANCELLATION POLICY

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We reserve the right to cancel your purchase for any reason, at our sole discretion, including but not limited to fraud, inaccuracies, and unavailability of the items or services purchased. We will not provide you with any notice prior to cancelling your purchase.

We will issue you a refund of the full purchase price that you paid if we cancel your purchase.

REFUND POLICY

We offer refunds on purchases made of the goods offered on our Website. To qualify for a refund, you must submit your request to us within 2 weeks of your purchase date by contacting us.

We offer refunds on any purchases of the goods offered on our Website for the following reason(s) only: the wrong product or service was provided and damaged item. Please note that we do not offer refunds for any other reasons other than those listed above.

You are not required to ship your purchased goods back to us to receive a refund.

SHIPPING POLICY

When you purchase our goods, either we or a third party will ship these goods to you. If a third party is used for shipping, the shipping will be governed by that third party’s Terms of Service and other applicable policies. Please contact us to gain access to the third party’s identity and policies.

We offer free shipping on all goods.

We or a third party will ship the goods to you within a reasonable time from the date that you made your purchase.

ADVANCE PAYMENTS

We may ask you to provide an advance payment on any purchase made of the goods offered on our Website. An advance payment is a partial payment of the total purchase price that will help pay for our actual expenses while providing the goods.

We will issue you a refund of the advance payment that you made if we cancel.

We do not offer you the ability to cancel any purchases that you have made of the goods offered on this Website. As such, we do not refund advance payments.

NO WARRANTY ON PURCHASES

THE ITEMS OR SERVICES DISPLAYED OR SOLD ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED “AS IS,” NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED (INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE) SHALL APPLY TO ANY ITEMS OR SERVICES DISPLAYED OR SOLD ON THIS WEBSITE, WHETHER ARISING BY LAW, COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, USAGE OF TRADE OR OTHERWISE.

REMEDIES

You agree that the remedy for breach of this Terms of Service as it relates to your purchase shall be replacement and shall be subject to the “damages and limitation of liability” and “governing law, severability, dispute resolution, venue and class action waiver” sections below. These remedies are intended to be your sole and exclusive remedies for any breach of this Terms of Service as it relates to your purchase.

PROHIBITED USES

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NO WARRANTY ON WEBSITE

THIS WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS,” NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED (INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE) SHALL APPLY TO THIS WEBSITE, WHETHER ARISING BY LAW, COURSE OF DEALING, COURSE OF PERFORMANCE, USAGE OF TRADE OR OTHERWISE.

AVAILABILITY, ERRORS AND INACCURACIES

We assume no liability for the availability, errors or inaccuracies of the information, products or services provided on this Website. We may experience delays in updating information on this Website and in our advertising on other websites. The information, products and services found on the Website may contain errors or inaccuracies or may not be complete or current. Products or services may be incorrectly priced or unavailable. We expressly reserve the right to correct any pricing errors on our Website. The inclusion or offering of any product or service on this Website does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation of such product or service by us.

DAMAGES AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

IN NO EVENT SHALL MARY SOUTH MD, LLC BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, PUNITIVE, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF, RELATING TO OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR ACCESS TO, DISPLAY OF OR USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR WITH THE DELAY OR INABILITY TO ACCESS, DISPLAY OR USE THIS WEBSITE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO YOUR RELIANCE UPON OPINIONS OR INFORMATION APPEARING ON THIS WEBSITE; ANY COMPUTER VIRUSES, INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, LINKED WEBSITES OPERATED BY THIRD PARTIES, PRODUCTS OR SERVICES OBTAINED THROUGH THIS WEBSITE, WHETHER BASED ON A THEORY OF NEGLIGENCE, CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, CONSUMER PROTECTION STATUTES OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF MARY SOUTH MD, LLC HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. IF, NOTWITHSTANDING THE FOREGOING, MARY SOUTH MD, LLC IS FOUND TO BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE OR LOSS UNDER THIS TERMS OF SERVICE, THEN MARY SOUTH MD, LLC'S TOTAL AND MAXIMUM AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO YOU OR ANY OTHER PERSON OR ENTITY FOR ALL DAMAGES SHALL NOT EXCEED ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100.00).

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY REFLECTS THE ALLOCATION OF RISK BETWEEN YOU AND US. THE LIMITATIONS SPECIFIED IN THIS SECTION WILL SURVIVE AND APPLY EVEN IF ANY LIMITED REMEDY SPECIFIED IN THIS TERMS OF SERVICE IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED OF ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. IF YOU ARE IN A STATE THAT DOES NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY, THEN MARY SOUTH MD, LLC'S LIABILITY HEREUNDER SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. THE LIMITATIONS OF LIABILITY PROVIDED IN THIS TERMS OF SERVICE SHALL INURE TO THE BENEFIT OF MARY SOUTH MD, LLC.

LINKS TO THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

This Website may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by third parties and not by us. We provide such hyperlinks for your reference only. We do not control such websites and are not responsible for their contents or the privacy or other practices of such websites. Further, it is your responsibility to take precautions to ensure that whatever links you click on or software that you download, whether from this Website or other websites or applications, is free of such items as viruses, worms, trojan horses, defects and other items of a destructive nature. Our inclusion of hyperlinks to such websites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or any association with their operators.

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DMCA NOTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY INFRINGEMENT CLAIMS

All contents of this Website are ©2016 - 2022 Mary South MD, LLC or third parties. All rights reserved. Unless specified otherwise, this Website and all content and other materials on this Website including but not limited to all logos, designs, text, graphics, pictures, information, data, software, sound files and arrangement thereof (collectively, “Content”) are the proprietary property of Mary South MD, LLC and are either registered trademarks, trademarks or otherwise protected intellectual property of Mary South MD, LLC or third parties in the United States and/or other countries.

If you are aware of a potential infringement of our intellectual property, please contact Rianna Thomas at rthomas@neourogynecology.com.

We respect the intellectual property rights of others. It is our policy to respond to any claim that Content posted on the Website infringes on the copyright, trademark or other intellectual property rights of any person or entity.

If you believe in good faith that the Content infringes on your intellectual property rights, you or your agent may send us a written notice of such infringement titled “Infringement of Intellectual Property Rights - DMCA.” Your notice to us must include the following information:

1. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the intellectual property right’s interest;
2. A description of the work that you claim has been infringed, including the URL (i.e., web page address) of the location where the work exists or a copy of the work;
3. Your name, email, address and telephone number; and
4. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the owner of the work, its agent or the law.

Please note that we will not process your complaint if it is not properly filled out or is incomplete. You may be held accountable for damages, including but not limited to costs and attorneys’ fees for any misrepresentation or bad faith claims regarding the infringement of your intellectual property rights by the Content on this Website.

You may submit your claim to us by contacting us at:

Mary South MD, LLC
Rianna Thomas
rthomas@neourogynecology.com
234-205-2040
809 White Pond Dr Suite B
Akron, OH 44320
UNITED STATES

GOVERNING LAW, SEVERABILITY, DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND VENUE

These Terms shall be governed and construed in accordance with the laws of the state of Ohio, United States, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. THESE TERMS SHALL NOT BE GOVERNED BY THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON CONTRACTS FOR THE SALE OF INTERNATIONAL GOODS, THE UNIFORM COMMERCIAL CODE, NOR INCOTERMS.

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these Terms will not be considered a waiver of that right or provision. If any provision of these Terms is held to be invalid or unenforceable by a court, the remaining provisions of these Terms will remain in effect. These Terms constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding our Website, and supersede and replace any prior agreements we might have had with you regarding the Website.

Any controversy or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms including but not limited to the interpretation or breach thereof shall be resolved in a court of competent jurisdiction in Summit County, Ohio.

YOU AND MARY SOUTH MD, LLC AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION.

CHANGES TO TERMS OF SERVICE

We reserve the right to make changes to these Terms of Service at any time. We will notify you immediately of making any changes to these Terms of Service via by posting the updated terms of service to this website.

QUESTIONS

If you have any questions about our Terms of Service, please contact us at rthomas@neourogynecology.com.

Meet Our Team

Our goal at Northeast Ohio Urogynecology is to provide a welcoming environment. Often patients come to our office feeling apprehensive, nervous or embarrassed about their pelvic floor conditions. All of our staff are trained to manage your questions and concerns with the utmost sensitivity. We hope to make your experience with us as stress-free and efficient as possible. We are always open to constructive criticism aimed to make the patient experience that much better.

TRISHA RAMSEY
Clinical Team Lead/Medical Assistant

Trisha earned her medical assisting degree in 2005 and after almost 13 years in Internal Medicine found her true calling in women’s health. She has an amazing ability to put patients at ease even during uncomfortable in-office procedures. She has two wonderful boys that show her everyday how special it is to be called “mom”.

SHANNA ELROD
Medical Assistant

Shanna graduated from her medical assistant program in 2016. She is certified through the American Associates of Medical Assistants. She joins us from Northeast Georgia. Her southern accent is soothing to both patients and staff alike.

ASHLEY GILLENWATER
Medical Assistant

Ashley has worked in the area of women’s health for 7 years and has a sweet demeanor that matches her sweet tooth! She is certified in urodynamics and she loves it. She enjoys seeing patients find relief and answers to their issues. In her free time, Ashley likes taking walks with her dogs and kids and country line dancing.

KATIE CAPATOSTO
Reception

Katie has a warm and friendly presence that patients appreciate. She has been with the practice since the fall of 2019.

She is a currently a student at Kent and is working towards a degree in Botany. She loves the outdoors and specifically enjoys rock climbing, hiking, biking and camping.

LISA DEARDEN
Reception

After graduating from Kent State University with a degree in Business Management, Lisa worked for about 15 years in Human Resources. Fortunately for us, she joined our team for a change of pace. She lives with her daughter in Cuyahoga Falls and spends time playing with her pups, Sadie and Murphy.

RIANNA THOMAS
Office Manager

Rianna has been with Dr. South’s practice since the fall of 2019. She enjoys interacting with patients and staff and ensuring the day-to-day operations run smoothly. Outside of work, Rianna loves spending time with her husband, two children, and dog, Rosie, and exploring the park systems in Ohio. Feel free to reach out to Rianna regarding anything practice-related!

ABOUT THE CONDITION

Fecal incontinence often called accidental bowel leakage, is the inability to control bowel movements, resulting in leakage of solid or liquefied stool. Symptoms of this chronic condition – which affects about 6% of women under age 40, and 15% of older women in the United States – ranges from moderate to socially debilitating. While men also suffer from fecal incontinence, it’s more far common among women due to their reproductive anatomy and hormonal changes during menopause.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

• Dietary modification
• Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
• Medications
• Medtronic Interstim Therapy This is a small device that’s implanted under the skin. It stimulates the sacral nerves with a mild electric current to help bowels and rectum function properly.
• Bulking agents. These are gels injected into the anus to bulk up tissue around the anus, thereby narrowing the opening and facilitating better closure of the sphincter muscles.

Genitourinary Fistula

ABOUT THE CONDITION

This is an abnormal connection or passageway between the urinary or gastrointestinal tract and genital structures. They can occur between any of the organs and structures of the pelvic region. A fistula allows urine or stool to continually exit through and out the urogenital tract. The fistula can result most commonly from infection, prolonged labor and delivery during childbirth, hysterectomy, radiation therapy, or inflammation (e.g., diverticulitis).

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Temporary treatments like a urinary catheter or a small stent can help control symptoms. In most cases, surgery is the most effective treatment. Evaluation and discussion with your doctor is the first step in understanding your treatment.

ABOUT THE CONDITION

A woman’s labium becomes enlarged over time for several reasons that may include childbirth, injury, genetics, or for no apparent reason. Young girls and young women can also have enlarged or elongated labia. Women with abnormal labia can suffer pain during intercourse, experience discomfort when performing everyday activities, or they may feel extremely self-conscious.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Labiaplasty involves surgically trimming the labial tissue. Special care is taken to remove only enough excess tissue to retain adequate laxity of stretchable tissue to allow for a smaller, but still natural-appearing labia.

Candidates who choose labiaplasty may do so for functional or aesthetic reasons and the procedure is frequently performed to reduce the size of one or both sets of labia.

Call to schedule a consultation with Dr. South to determine if this is a treatment for you.

MICROSCOPIC HEMATURIA

WHAT IS MICROSCOPIC HEMATURIA?

Microscopic hematuria is the finding of blood on a urine dipstick or by seeing red blood cells in the urine under microscopic magnification. Often, women with microscopic hematuria have no symptoms but their doctor finds blood on a routine urinalysis. A patient with microscopic hematuria can not see the blood in their urine with the naked eye. A patient who sees blood in their urine should contact their doctor as soon as possible.

A patient with microscopic hematuria may have something in their history that helps determine why they have blood in their urine. These include a recent or current urinary tract infection, a recent upper respiratory tract infection, a family history of kidney disease, flank pain (possible kidney stones), menstruation, trauma, recent travel, and certain medications.

Oftentimes, we are unable to determine the exact cause for microscopic hematuria.

EVALUATION

A dipstick urinalysis is very sensitive for detecting blood in the urine so this can result in a high rate of false-positive tests–meaning although the urinalysis shows blood, if we examine the urine under a microscope we may not see any red blood cells. The first step is to send the urine for microscopic urinalysis and confirm there are at least 3 or more red blood cells seen per high power field. If so, then we proceed with a full evaluation. A full evaluation usually includes blood work to evaluate kidney function, a cystoscopy whereby we use a camera to look inside the bladder, and finally a CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis or a renal (kidney) ultrasound.

TREATMENT

Treatment of microscopic hematuria is based on the underlying etiology. If a patient is found to have a urinary tract infection, this can be treated with antibiotics. Kidney stones can be treated or removed if needed. If a tumor or growth is found in the urinary tract, this can be removed. Treatment of any underlying kidney disease can be initiated.

Again, many times a workup does not identify a cause, in which case treatment may not be necessary but the patient may need monitoring or repeat evaluation in the future.

ABOUT THE CONDITION

Many women suffer from pelvic pain and don’t understand why they hurt and how to cure their pain. The most common causes of pelvic pain include endometriosis, vaginal atrophy (lack of estrogen stimulation to the vaginal tissues), scarring related to previous vaginal surgery, bladder pain syndromes (i.e. Interstitial Cystitis), and spasm of the pelvic floor muscles. Spasms of the pelvic floor are often a result of pain in the pelvis for other reasons. For example, a woman may have vaginal atrophy which causes discomfort, and as a result, the muscle tone in her pelvis increases, and this chronic tension results in further pain.

We offer a careful evaluation of possible causes for your pain and offer many different treatment options. Schedule a consultation to begin your healing.

ABOUT THE CONDITION

A urethral diverticulum is a pocket or sac that forms along the urethra. Although the exact cause of urethral diverticula is not known, they are likely due to repeated infections in a periurethral gland that ultimately results in blockage. The blocked gland then likely bursts into the urethra creating the communication between the sac and the urethra. This condition is felt to be acquired rather than congenital (these are rarely if ever seen in babies).

SYMPTOMS

Women with urethral diverticulum may experience postvoid dribbling (drips after urinating), dysuria (burning with urination), and dyspareunia (pain with intercourse). In addition, women may experience, chronic or recurrent urinary tract infections, urinary frequency and/or urgency, hematuria, bloody urethral discharge, urinary incontinence, urinary retention, pelvic or urethral pain, or a vaginal bulge or mass.

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Not all urethral diverticula need to be treated. However, if a woman is symptomatic, surgical excision is the treatment of choice. Often the surgeon will order an MRI of the pelvis to identify the complete extent of the diverticulum and to ensure there are no solid components. The surgery itself usually takes less than an hour and is performed on an outpatient basis. Usually, the patient will need to have a foley catheter in place to drain the urine for about 7-10 days after the procedure. This ensures proper healing and prevents breakdown of the sutures. Risks of the procedure include bleeding, infection, recurrent diverticulum formation, urethro-vaginal fistula, and urethral stricture. However, complications from this procedure are usually very low.

MIDURETHRAL SLING

Implantation of a mid-urethral sling is the standard surgical treatment for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in women. The urethra is the tube through which urine is transported from the bladder to the outside. The sling is placed under the mid-urethra to support it. This helps the bladder neck and urethra better resist pressure.

Dr. South primary uses the Caldera Desara® Blue transvaginal (bottom-up) sling. She has based this choice on her experience with multiple different brands of sling. She has no financial conflicts of interest to disclose related to this product or company. Dr. South wrote the article below for the June/July 2019 issue of the Medina Women’s Journal. In this article, she explains her feeling about the controversy surrounding transvaginal mesh for the treatment of stress incontinence.

Biofeedback for pelvic floor muscle retraining is a treatment to help patients learn to strengthen or relax their pelvic floor muscles in order to improve bowel or bladder function and decrease some types of pelvic floor pain. It is a painless process that uses special sensors and a computer monitor to display information about muscle activity. This information or “feedback” is used to gain sensitivity, and with practice, control over pelvic floor muscle function. An important part of pelvic floor biofeedback therapy is consistent practice of the pelvic floor muscle exercises at home. With biofeedback, an individual can learn to stop using the incorrect muscles and start using the correct ones.

Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimuation (PTNS) is a low-risk, non-surgical treatment. PTNS works by indirectly providing electrical stimulation to the nerves responsible for bladder and pelvic floor function. During PTNS treatment, the patient’s foot is comfortably elevated and supported. Also during treatment, a slim needle electrode is placed near the nerve at the ankle known as the tibial nerve. A device known as the Urgent PC Stimulator is connected to the electrode and sends mild electrical pulses to the tibial nerve. These impulses travel to the sacral nerve plexus, the group of nerves at the base of the spine responsible for bladder function.

By stimulating these nerves through gentle electrical impulses (called neuromodulation), bladder activity can be changed. Because this change happens gradually, patients receive a series of 12-weekly, 30-minute treatments. After the 12 treatments, when the patient’s response to therapy is assessed, occasional treatments may be needed to sustain symptom improvement.

PTNS is a form of electroacupuncture.

This therapeutic treatment is for patients experiencing overactive bladder (OAB) symptoms of urinary urgency, urinary frequency and/or urge incontinence. PTNS has been approved by regulatory agencies outside the United States to treat fecal incontinence, but has not been approved for this usage in the US at this time. PTNS is generally used after behavior modifications, Kegel exercises and failure of medications.

There are patients who should not be treated with PTNS. These patients are those with pacemakers or implantable defibrillators; patients prone to excessive bleeding; patients with nerve damage that could impact either tibial nerve or pelvic floor function; and patients who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant during the duration of the treatment.