it did take some time, it was about 4 weeks on consistent exercising that I really started to notice a difference and i found that the proper exercises felt totally different to anything else I had ever done. i have stopped leaking and i dont have to get up in the middle of the night any more which was really affecting my sleep. i chose these because I wanted to exercise myself not use a passive form such as the machines. I also looked at aquaflex, but i read reviews that the cords broke and one woman ended up in accident and emergency after she was unable to get them out. these are easy to insert and remove and I sterilise them too.