Treatment update

[Emdeejay]

Hi all
So I posted earlier in the year about receiving treatment for my vaginismus, starting dilating and ongoing physio therapy appointments. It’s been about 6 months now and I’m still having physio. My progress was fast in the beginning, but now It’s slowed. What we’re focusing on at my appointments is speculum inserting, as this is what’s caused most of my pain and anxiety in the past. The physio gave me a speculum to use at home, as what i need to work on is the “stretching” of the muscles. I’ve had the speculum successfully inserted at the appointments but I can’t stand it for too long and opening it is an issue.
My anxiety about being on the exam table and he appointments in general is much much better. I wouldn’t say I’m “cured” by far, but I think I’m on the way. The next step of the treatment is counselling. This wasn’t available in the beginning but now the clinic has had some hours available.
I’m apprehensive about counselling. I think talking about an issue I’ve kept secret for so long will be beneficial, but I don’t know what to expect from it. Has anyone else had counselling for vaginismus treatment?

Em

[Jennifer Dembo, LMSW]

Hi Emdeejay,

While I hope you receive responses from other participants, I’m going to offer an answer from a counselor’s perspective.

First of all, congratulations on all of your progress! You’ve been very brave to move forward with treatment, and I hope you’re giving yourself a lot of credit for taking some really big steps toward healing.

We’ve been treating women with vaginismus here at Maze for well over a decade, and if there is one thing we know for sure, it’s this: sexual pain/dysfunction is never just physiological nor just behavioral (aka psycho-emotional). It’s why we assign a medical clinician/psychotherapist team to every patient we treat. We want to support women holistically, and that’s why we take this integrative approach. Anxiety, anger, frustration, sadness and interpersonal issues are commonly linked to vaginismus, and we want to be able to treat both mind and body comprehensively.

Counseling provides support, validation and encouragement. It also can help you determine how to maximize comfort during treatment and achieve your future goals.

Best of luck as you continue your commitment to good health and healing!

[recessivegenequeen]

Hey Emdeejay – congrats on all the progress you’ve made so far! I think starting counseling will really help you; vaginismus is an emotionally taxing problem to have and there are usually a lot of buried emotions that start to come out as you treat it. Having someone to talk through those things with can make it more manageable to find ways of coping and making sense of the past while still making you feel like you have some control. I would definitely recommend at least giving counseling a shot – I think it could do a lot of good for you no matter what stage of the vaginismus journey you’re at.