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"For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
#1
"For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
 
My pillow mask Swift LT or Swift LT "For Her" are the exact same item, with only a navy or light blue color of headgear.

The AirSense 10 "For Her" had been white instead of the AirSense 10 black unit, but was there any other difference?

Now, I just received my new AirSense 11 and the DME clinician set it to "For Her."  What in the heck does that mean?  Did she just think she was being nice to an "old broad?"  LOL
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#2
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
The "For Her" mode uses a different algorithm.  While it was designed with a woman in mind, many men have found it better addresses their apnea too.  

Here is Resmed's explanation:
Resmed Wrote:Although women make up nearly 40 percent of patients newly diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, there has never been a treatment specifically designed to treat female characteristics of sleep-disordered breathing – until now. ResMed’s AirSense™ 10 AutoSet for Her provides effective treatment to women with mild to moderate OSA at lower, more comfortable pressures.

The new “for Her” mode: How it works
Women with OSA have significantly different sleep than men. For example, women tend to take longer to fall asleep than men.
Women also have fewer apneas than men, specifically fewer full obstructive apneas – meaning their upper airways don’t collapse as often.
However, they do have more flow limitation (which means the upper airway narrows and less air enters the lungs).
Women also tend to have clusters of events during REM (dream stage) sleep.
All of these aspects of sleep apnea can cause arousal and disrupted sleep. This can lead to symptoms such as insomnia, fatigue, reduced daytime cognitive function, morning headaches and depression.

The AirSense 10 AutoSet for Her was designed to treat female-specific OSA. For example, The AutoSet for Her contains features to ensure that females are protected against clusters of events occurring during REM sleep. In addition, when the AutoSet for Her identifies flow limitation, it responds quickly but gently to make sure patients’ lungs are getting all the oxygen they need. In a clinical trial, the “for Her” mode “significantly improved treatment of flow limitation in [females with mild or moderate OSA] with lower average pressures over the course of the night.”

The new “for Her” mode: Why it matters
Comfort is key to ensuring that patients stay on their sleep apnea treatment. More than half of former CPAP users say they quit therapy partly because CPAP made breathing uncomfortable or otherwise disturbed their sleep.

The AutoSet for Her contains features which are designed to keep the average CPAP pressure lower and make pressure changes more gentle, and therefore more comfortable, for you.

In addition, women take longer to fall asleep than men, so they may be disturbed by the CPAP pressure increasing before they need it. The AutoSet for Her features AutoRamp™, which automatically detects sleep at the beginning of the night and starts increasing the pressure after sleep is detected. By delivering effective therapy at lower pressures, this “for Her” mode treats female-specific characteristics of sleep apnea while maximizing comfort, helping patients embrace treatment faster.
- Red
Crimson Nape
Apnea Board Moderator
www.ApneaBoard.com
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#3
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
Crimson Nape,

Thank you for including the ResMed "for her" explanation.  

I'm a person who's sleep study showed 96 AHI and has needed a CPAP for 13+ years.  The new DME received my preferences, in print, that my machine's optional Ramp function & EPR should be turned OFF.  

After turning on my new AirSense 11, I switched into the Clinician menu.  It's always good to check on the hours of usage.  The DME had ignored my setting preferences.  Not only was Ramp & EPR switched on, but they'd also turned on the frivolous SmartStart and SmartStop.  Those 2 new settings are not necessary and could possibly be dangerous if I had a central apnea event.

This might have been a patronizing "we know better than a mere patient" or simply an absent-minded clinician who didn't look at my preferences.

Thanks again for your help, it clears up the situation. 
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#4
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
Interesting. I wonder if it's good for severe sleep apnea too
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#5
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
Back in 2014 when I got my first machine, the airsense 10 was brand new, and the air10 for her was on back order. I thought that the for her sounded really cool, but having gone 6 months between diagnosis and getting a machine, I wasn't willing to wait another 10 weeks!

So when I got my air 11 the first thing that I did was try out the for her algorithm for 10 days.

It was a complete train wreck.

I will have really long apneas (longest was 63 seconds!) I've found that even one apnea over about 40-45 seconds will cause me to wake up with vertigo, that then turns into a splitting headache for the rest of the day.

We know that the various ResMed machine versions -- airsense, aircurve, vauto, asv, etc. -- are a single hardware platform, with different software. The more expensive machines have more parameters that you can set. It seems obvious to me that the three permutations of airsense 11 -- auto-with-regular-response, auto-with-soft-response, auto-for-her -- are three particular groups of vauto settings.

My experience is with three ResMed machines -- a 2014 air10, a 2018 vauto10, a 2022 air11. The vauto has a setting, trigger sensitivity, which has 5 values {very low, low, medium, high, very high} with the factory default of medium. I believe that the 2014 air10 is hardwired to a trigger sensitivity of "very high" while the air11 is hardwired to a trigger sensitivity of "medium" which is the vauto default.

It really pisses me off that ResMed is not more transparent about this. But this is the whole of sleep medicine -- the underlying theory of how a CPAP works is that it is a magical religious icon, where the obedience of the patient to the "medical" priesthood's instructions is the only thing that matters. Every setting that the machine has is a "comfort setting" because the only problem to be solved is that the stupid disobedient patient refuses to use the machine because we are stupid and disobedient. It's never possible that the problem is that we have a medical condition where our airways collapse during sleep, and the causes of that collapse can be subtly different from patient to patient, and some machine settings are more effective at preventing that collapse than other settings, and that the most effective settings vary from patient to patient.
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#6
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
(07-02-2022, 11:49 AM)FirstNoele Wrote: but they'd also turned on the frivolous SmartStart and SmartStop.  Those 2 new settings are not necessary and could possibly be dangerous if I had a central apnea event.

I don't know how SmartStart and SmartStop could possibly be dangerous by having a Central Apnea. 

SmartStop does not turn the the device off by failing to sense the patient taking a breath. It turns the machine off by sensing nobody is attached, and this is determined by excessive flow. I guess, there is the potential for excessive leaks to turn trigger SmartStop.

On an Air 11, with SmartStart being decoupled from SmartStop there there is no reason to turn it off. In fact if one believes that an inadvertent turning off of the device is dangerous, not having SmartStart turned on is more dangerous having it turned off.
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#7
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
Very much this
"underlying theory of how a CPAP works is that it is a magical religious icon, where the obedience of the patient to the "medical" priesthood's instructions is the only thing that matters. "

Never mind the machine causing headaches, ear infections, airway irritation, insomnia, anxiety...

Day 2 I realized the noise, spitting water in one's face, claustrophobia was a FEATURE not a bug when I asked questions and was told "You need time"

I have a resmed ibreeze- should I return it?
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#8
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
>>>I have a resmed ibreeze- should I return it?

You have a Resvent iBreeze. I believe it is made in China.

If you can get a ResMed AirSense AutoSet (either 10 or 11 series) you will find that improving your therapy is much easier because OSCAR supports ResMed machines, but not Resvent machines. That is unlikely to change in the near future.

I think there is manufacturer's software for the iBreeze, but I can't recall where to find it. So monitoring is possible, but the iBreeze capabilities are less well known.
Apnea Board Monitors are members who help oversee the smooth functioning of the Board. They are also members of the Advisory Committee which helps shape Apnea Board's rules & policies. Membership in the Advisory Members group does not imply medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.
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#9
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
It all runs together when you've had an avg of 1hr sleep per day per week
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#10
RE: "For Her" setting in AirSense 11 Autoset
Dog Slobber,

The new Medicare required sleep study showed central apneas, which concerns my ENT, my GP & me.  The brain forgetting to breathe is nothing to play around with.  I can start & stop the machine with a button, instead of a silly SmartStart or SmartStop.
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