New term for vaginismus and Dyspareunia!

[rachel]

Hi Everyone,
I was doing some research on the internet and came accross this piece of news. Apparently, according to the professionals who pioneer work in the field of female sexual disorders-we now have a new label. The two disorders, “vaginismus” and “dyspareunia” have now been collapsed into one disorder. This one disorder is now named in the DSM V )The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as “Genito-Pelvic Pain disorder/Penetration Disorder. You can check out the link at: – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19830537.

I wonder how this name is going to work? Women already seem to be finding it difficult enough to find out what is wrong with them, but now they seem to be making things even more complicated by changing the name and generalizing sexual pain disorders into one pot. I would love to meet the person who decided on this label-what a mouthful!

[Dr. Pacik]

This is a very important post in that anyone applying for insurance coverage should become familiar with this terminology. The DSM V will now be the standard used by insurance companies. I suggest reading the link provided. Dr. Binik is well known in the field of vaginismus and has written many excellent papers about this condition. I enjoyed meeting him when I was invited to teach the students at McGill and give lectures in 2011.
Thanks Rachel for providing this information. For those who would like to see Rachel “up close and personal” link to her song dedicated to vaginismus sufferers http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9fZ0855nzc

[Heather34]

Thank you Rachel for finding this new definition in the DSM 5.

Many years before learning about Dr. Pacik’s procedure, my husband and I learned of a 2-week vaginismus treatment that would cost in excess of $10,000, not including hotel room and other expenses. Still, we tried and tried to save up and make it work. I was in school and he was working 3 jobs at the time but it just wasn’t doable for us. It was not covered by insurance and looking back now, I do not believe it would’ve worked for me. Thereafter, I continued to research and found Dr. Pacik (thank God) and learned the success rate of this procedure and that it was half the cost of the program that we spent so many years looking into. What made this work for me when so many other treatments failed is actually waking up from the procedure with the dilator inside of me and realizing that something was inside of me for the very first time and was pain-free. Thereafter, the counseling on day 2 and extensive follow-up post-procedure really enhanced the success of the treatment when everything else in the past failed. Finally, losing the wall of resistance (or the “great wall” as my husband called it) made dilating and intercourse 100% possible post-procedure when before, I couldn’t even insert a q-tip without the burning pain/fear response.

I’m going on 2 years vaginismus free because of perseverance, not giving up, and finding this awesome treatment that worked so well for me. Just 5 years ago, I was in a much different place, still wondering how I would ever afford any type of treatment and not sure of the future. I believe that this new definition is incredibly important as it may open the door for insurance companies to FINALLY provide full coverage based on the DSM 5.