Botox success but tearing and pain at entrance of vagina

Hi there,

At the end of last year I had the Botox treatment for vaginismus in London. I believe I suffered from primary vaginismus for many years but for a long time buried my head in the sand and tried not to think about it. I started a relationship last year and that was what prompted me to really try and find answers. I came across the very helpful Maze website and reading all the stories of vaginismus, I was sure this was what I had too. It was like a lightbulb moment…

Anyway, I had the diagnosis and the Botox procedure ( + hymenectomy) in London and that was a success. I have been very diligent with my dilating and attempted intercourse for the first time at the end of January. It worked… but was a little ‘clunky’ shall we say. I then attempted it again about two weeks later, this time was much more successful and I really felt so very happy to have reached this point. BUT… it seemed that I got a tear during intercourse and the opening of my vagina just feels… sore. I did not feel this tear happen I just felt sore the next morning. It’s has been almost four weeks now since this happened and I am so frustrated it has not yet healed. I went back to my doctor who advised that unfortunately this does happen from time to time and stressed the importance of lube. He also prescribed me a steroid cream to use on the area to accelerate healing.

I feel so disheartened this has happened after all the years and money and mental strength it took to overcome vaginismus. I was so happy with how the Botox worked and I had been dilating every day (thanks to Recessive Gene Queen who advised this was the way forward!)

I have three questions really…
Is it normal it takes approx 4 weeks for a tear in the fourchette to heal?
How can I speed up the healing time?
And… most importantly, what can I do to try and reduce the chances of this happening in the future?

I am early 30s, I am not on the contraceptive pill and haven’t been for about 6 years. I used a lot of lube during intercourse and the act was reasonably slow, with me lying down and my partner on top. I am worried that even with all this, a tear still occurred. Am I missing something perhaps?!

Any help, advice or guidance on this would be very much appreciated. I want to try do to whatever I can to ensure there is no repeat injuries to the fourchette.

Thank you,
Laura