From A Tragedy To A Miracle: The Story Behind hi®
Hi Everyone,
For those that don’t know me, I’m Steve McGough, the co-founder of Women and Couples Wellness.
This is a longer email – but I wanted people interested in hi® to know our history, and why we’re doing this.
hi® wasn’t created by a marketing company – like most other massage companies.
It came from a tragedy, and the need to help my wife Wendy. It ended up being a powerful tool that truly helps people. It also resulted in a Miracle that made all the challenges worth it.
From Joy to Tragedy: The Birth That Changed Everything
After getting married, Wendy and I wanted to start a family. But for five years we tried and couldn’t. We finally decided to go to a doctor for fertility treatments. After a roller coaster year of hormone treatments our dream of parenthood finally came true.
But in the last month of pregnancy, something I wouldn’t wish anyone to go through happened.
During a hospital visit to see my mother, Wendy was exposed to an antibiotic-resistant infection. That started a nightmare. Wendy quickly became very sick, and the infection was resistant to every antibiotic the doctor tried.
After a few weeks she had to be hospitalized. The doctors decided we needed an emergency C-section – and our son Luke was born. Wendy was finally able to hold him, but he died the next day.
The tragedy continued as Wendy battled for her life, spending two years in and out of ICU because no antibiotics would clear the infection. Some would slow it down, but it kept coming back. Thankfully the Mayo Clinic finally found an antibiotic from the 1950’s that worked.
But our relief was short-lived. The multiple surgeries left Wendy with painful internal adhesion’s—scar tissue binding her intestines to her uterus. This would cause her intestine to easily twist and become blocked, which at best was painful, but could also become life-threatening if it didn’t release.
I can’t express the frustration and helplessness I felt as Wendy would frequently end up doubled over in pain each time a blockage happened. Thankfully it would release on its own most of the time. But the Dr’s said she’d need ‘adhesion take down’ surgery. But the procedures had an 80% chance of just causing new adhesion’s.
When Traditional Medicine Fails, Innovation Was Needed
I had a rather unusual background. I began studying martial arts and Asian healing modalities when I was 8. From there I also learned many forms of massage. I studied biochemistry, and then went into neuroscience research – but left graduate school to start an internet software company in 1995. Basically I was a multifaceted geek.
I knew how to deal with surface adhesion’s, but this was deep inside Wendy’s belly. After a lot of searching I found the “Wurn Technique” created by Dr. Wurn. It’s a specialized physical therapy for adhesion’s that appeared to be very effective. But when I checked, no local physical therapists would do it.
So I learned to perform, at least my best understanding of the massage myself: gently pressing into Wendy’s lower abdomen and rocking her body back and forth – effectively causing her belly to vigorously shake for 15-20 minutes. It clearly helped, but the relief never lasted.
Supposedly if it was done several times a day, after a few weeks the adhesion’s sometimes resolved naturally. But I had to travel frequently for my company, and Wendy wasn’t able to do the technique on herself.
I began to wonder if there was some kind of device that could mimic the massage. As mentioned, I had been involved in massage for several decades and had many different types of mechanical massagers. I tried many, many different approaches, but none of them worked.
The Garage Breakthrough That Changed Everything
For a year, I built prototype after prototype in our garage. The early versions—noisy contraptions housed in PVC pipes—aimed to replicate the manual technique. After countless iterations, I finally found something that genuinely helped Wendy’s adhesion pain. I modified a percussive massager so the ‘heads’ would travel out farther than the normal massagers. By changing the ‘amplitude’ (how far the heads went out) it changed how deeply the shock wave travels into tissue. Most massagers either are too weak, or they violently pound you. I kept experimenting until I found a distance that would travel through my forearm, down to my pointer finger so it shook. This setup would send shock waves deep into her belly – that gently shook her uterus, but wasn’t painful like the other massagers.
But then something unexpected happened – that would change everything.
While testing the device on different areas of scarred tissue on Wendy’s belly, we discovered a profound “side effect”: the device induced what felt like deep abdominal orgasms—completely through clothing. This shocked both of us, especially since Wendy had experienced significant nerve damage from her surgeries.
To verify this wasn’t a fluke, Wendy asked female friends to try it. I’d done patent work before, so I gave Wendy an NDA for them to sign – which they thought was odd – but – remarkably, the other women experienced the same results—particularly those who had undergone C-sections or abdominal surgeries.
Soon after I got a 3D printer, which is a long story in itself, and created a better designed, but very primitive prototype.
The Science Behind the Miracle
I was perplexed at how this could work because as far as I knew, there weren’t any ‘intimate’ nerves in the abdomen – and I had worked in neuroscience research. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t documented in any medical publications.
Years later I was able to talk with Dr. Barry Komisaruk at Rutgers University. Barry pioneered neuroscience discoveries in women’s pelvic health (frankly I think he should have gotten a Nobel prize for his discoveries). It seemed the deep percussion from hi® was stimulating the vagus nerve through the abdomen – a first-of-its-kind breakthrough.
After the pushback I’ll mention in a moment, I refined hi® so it targets multiple nerve pathways simultaneously through specialized frequencies, creating benefits that extend far beyond my original goal:
Deep relaxation of the pelvic region
Relief from various pelvic conditions
Support for urinary health issues
Benefits for intimacy and arousal
Potential support for fertility challenges
Support for Men’s Pelvic health and ED issues
All this happens while fully clothed, making it accessible and comfortable for daily use.
When Helping Women Becomes Taboo
Despite these remarkable benefits, we faced major unexpected resistance. I soon learned the hard way that in North Carolina, openly discussing women’s intimate wellness was deeply taboo.
Medical researchers I’d worked with were fascinated, because it literally seemed to be an undefined nerve pathway. But they wouldn’t study it because they were afraid they’d lose their funding. This annoyed me so much I decided to go back and optimize it for every intimate aspect I could think of. Looking at it from a neuroscience standpoint it shocked me that so little innovation had been done here. I ended up characterizing new responses by stimulating both sacral plexus, and other areas, but that’s a long story.
Manufacturing was very expensive so I knew I’d need to get investors. After presenting it for funding, my business associates warned me it would destroy my reputation. One old friend even begged me to “put it on the shelf and never speak of it again.” He suggested I blame the ‘crazy idea” on grief from losing my son – and if I did that, everything would be OK and I’d still be accepted in the business groups.
But that night after telling Wendy, she asked me a question that changed our path forever: “If our son Luke had lived – after we’re gone – what would have made him prouder— my government software company or helping millions of women resolve debilitating health issues, while improving their relationships? So the next morning I began getting set up so I could ‘retire’ from the company.
hi® Helps Men As Well
The Difficult Journey to Bring hi® to Life
I left my 15-year career in the tech industry behind. But the next 12 years weren’t easy, to say the least. I literally spent hundreds of sleepless nights wondering if I’d made the right decision. Frankly it’s been the hardest thing we’ve ever done.
Wendy and I ended up pursuing doctorates in Human Sexuality to try to better understand what was going on. From there I taught sexology in San Francisco for many years. We traveled across America, the Caribbean, and Asia, trying to promote the technology.
Eventually we met our first investor, who owned a manufacturing company. Our first crowdfunding failed, but 2 years later we ran a new one that succeeded. Then later we secured another wonderful investor who helped us with additional manufacturing.
So, after years of development, six patents, and testing on thousands of people, hi® finally emerged as a revolutionary wellness device that helps both women and men reconnect with their bodies.
This experience has given us a unique perspective on both women’s health, and relationships.
An Unexpected Miracle
Doctors told us Wendy would never be able to conceive again due to her extensive surgical damage. Basically, if we still wanted children, we should look at adopting. Then, 5 years after losing our son Luke, something amazing happened.
Wendy started getting very weird symptoms none of her doctors could figure out. The symptoms continued to get worse and 24 weeks later (after 7 doctor’s visits) a volunteer assistant commented, “hmm that sounds like you might be pregnant.”
The MD gave the assistant a harsh look because he didn’t want Wendy’s feeling hurt, as that wasn’t possible. Driving home we stopped & picked up a pregnancy kit and… AND WE WERE PREGNANT! 16 weeks later we had an amazing little girl!
Our daughter Daniela is the most wonderful blessing of this whole experience. We now work with Fertility specialists as part of our ‘First Step for Fertility’ program to help couples become pregnant. This isn’t a replacement for their doctor, just a first step to try.
Today, hi® helps thousands of couples experience new levels of relaxation, connection, and intimacy.
For people who value your partner’s wellbeing and seek deeper connection, hi® offers a scientifically-designed solution that works with your body’s natural systems.
What began from me trying to find a solution for Wendy’s suffering has become a breakthrough that’s helped thousands of women, and couples, all over the world.
So that’s how hi® came to be.
If you have any questions, you’re always welcome to respond. I read every message people send and reply as soon as I can.
Thanks again for your interest in hi®, and if there’s anything we can do to help your situation let me know.
Sincerely,
Steve, Wendy & the hi® Team
Ready to experience what hi® can do for you and your partner? We have a special discount for people who want to live their lives to the fullest. Learn more or get yours today.
If you’d like more details about our very unusual story,check out this interview we had at the Women’s Biohacking Conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfBKmPdUzo