Understanding Vulvodynia

If you have vaginal pain with intercourse, you may have been diagnosed with vulvodynia. And you may feel terribly confused by all the information you are getting from your doctor or from looking up the condition on line. And that’s totally understandable because the truth is that there can be some disagreement by doctors themselves …

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Is it Vulvodynia or Vaginismus?

When a woman goes to her doctor for sexual pain or the inability to have any form of penetration, they are often diagnosed with vulvodynia and not vaginismus. This is such an important subject that I would like to share with you some of the posts, as well as my responses, from our Vaginismus Forum on this topic. …

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Birth Control Pills and Vulvodynia

A recent study published in The British Medical Journal found that low-dose estrogen plus levonorgestrel birth control pills seem to be the safest in terms of cardiovascular risk.  It is important to note that all hormonal birth control pills have the potential to cause vulvodynia. The tissue in the vulvar vestibule has androgen receptors so …

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MYTH: Wine helps painful intercourse.

I am always surprised at how many patients I see who tell me that their gynecologist recommends they have a glass of wine before intercourse. They say it’s to help them relax and that it would help with the pain they experience during intercourse. Not only does this not work, but the patient is left …

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Vulvodynia.

Vulvodynia refers to pain that occurs in vulvar region. Vulvar pain can either be provoked, unprovoked or both. The most common type is provoked vestibulodynia or (PVD). “It has been estimated (that vestibulodynia) effects 12% of premenopausal women in the general population. It is characterized by severe burning/sharp pain that occurs in response to pressure …

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Pain in the “V”.

Pain inside or around the vagina is a common complaint from our patients. Many of our patients have visited several medical providers with no answers. Vaginal pain can be an extremely disruptive and debilitating condition. If you google vaginal pain you’ll often come across different conditions that start with the letter “V”. Vaginismus, Vulvodynia, Vestibulodynia …

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Birth control: what doctors never tell you.

If a patient comes to us with low desire or low arousal, one of the first questions we ask is, “Are you on birth control pills?” The reason we ask this is because oral contraceptives can wreak havoc on your system and can be particularly detrimental to your sexual desire. Yaz tends be the worst …

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Lichen planus and vulvodynia.

I just read a moving and sad article in Self Magazine about lichen planus and vulvodynia. A young women talks about her vaginal pain and how it has shamed her and ruined her sex life. Vaginal intercourse became excruciatingly painful and none of her gynecologists could see any problem and so everyone thought it was …

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