Painful intercourse....answers
 

I've had personal experience with this subject.
Woman with Crohns disease, Fibromyalgia may suffer from numerous bladder infections as well as painful intercourse.
There are new findings regarding this.
Trigger points are bundles of muscles all knotted up.....in order to release them they are injected or manipulated by a skilled therapist.
The vaginal floor is a road map of muscles that all converge in your pelvic.
Get these muscles into the same disfunction such as your back muscles, or tension head ache muscles...all need release. Same goes for the vaginal muscles. A few sessions with a Physical Therapist who's studied these muscle groups and has experience with this will be able to stop this pain completly.
Also stops the bladder infections as well!
Do a Google search on the web for painful intercourse and physical therapy to read up on this.
Blessings,cheryl

Thank you for posting the info! It's bound to help someone - even if you don't see many replies. But... I betcha, there are people whom can relate, though it might be that what they are most familiar with (terms touted) or feelings may be known by various clinical names.

A lady friend of mine has had this problem for years. She contributes it to a prolapsed uterus. I've read where this can be correct by surgery or possibly improved with Kegels especially if a spring loaded workout thing a ma bob is used. It has really been a psychological nightmare for her over the years being married and wanting to participate but dreading the pain.

Clicked on the subject out of curiosity...put in my two cents.

different pain....
 

Thanks for your inputzz.
The type of pain can differ depending on the problem(s).
The pain I am referring to is the feeling of intense pain, feels as if anything larger than a tampon is way too large....all the wine, dance and song...along with a Industrial sized dose of lubrication in the world does nothing to help as its not a matter of insertion. Its a muscular tightening that is happening. Muscles that are knotted and tense.
The only releif is sessions with a physical therapist who does vaginal trigger point therapy.
I am finding that this is more common than anyone could imagine.
But thankfully my husband is a wonderful and supportive person. I just wish I didn't have to bother with all these therapy treatments for my body falling apart piece by piece.
I will do some more research on this subject and post the websights that explains this issue.....I had all this on the old BT.
Blessings, cheryl

ouch
 

cheryl, sorry to read of this problem.

Many GYN's don't know to look for a vaginal septum or a double cervex, which will cause the symptoms you describe. In addition to these, other abnormalaties can include septate uterus and bi-cornate uterus, but these shouldn't make sex painful - they may complicate childbirth though.

I had all of the above... combined. Wierd, huh?

You might ask your Dr. about these.

good luck,
Anne

Bladder infections, etc.
 

Crytearszzzz,

You mention bladder infections. My urologist put me on a vaginal cream with estrace (estrogen) in addition to the estrace pill I take each morning. According to him, lack of estrogen is a major cause of painful sex. Just FYI.

nancy-h

wow
 

grrrrrr!!!!!! my pain is caused by drs either joke or stupidity not sure which. Have tried to talk to ppl about it and they just laugh and joke. My doctor I had last exam with said that dr who did surgery (hystorectomy and was not vaginal surgery either), tried to make me smaller vaginally. People laugh when I say that but it is not funny It is very painful and what the hell is someone messing around with size down there when they have my gut split wide open? ok enough srry
guess just triggered crap up here.

Pelvic Pain
 

Good Post.
Pelvic pain can come from Myofascial trigger points as you mentioned. Not only from the vaginal muscles but may also result from abdominal, leg adductor, glutes and paraspinal muscles.

Men can also have pelvic and Rock pain secondary to the same muscles "less the vaginal muscles".

Most PTs are not trained extensivly in in myofascial realease techniques. This training is usually post graduate CEU's in the form of workshops.

There is a group that trains 500 plus hours in this type of release called Myofascial trigger point therapist. Myofascial Trigger points are not usually PTs but can be. You can locate a Myofascial Trigger Point Therapist at the National association of Myofascial Trigger Point therapist.

I have been dealing with this issue for quite some time. I am now getting triggerpoint injections in the pelvic area to help calm it down. It helps for awhile but we are doing a series of them in hopes that it will calm it down completely.

I have also had therapy but a therapist that knew how to deal with this kind of problem. She is so far away from me though I had to quit going after my caregiver quit taking me.

I haven't been diagnosed yet. I have been to my Gyno, Urologist and my PCP and none of them know what is going on with me. I do have IC but I have it under some control. I use zylocaine for the bladder pain.

Ada

Me too
 

I've suffered for years with vaginal pain and interstitial cystitis (constantly feeling like I have to go to the bathroom [pressure], even when I don't, and going constangly, but no infection). I never realized that they were connected. So is my irritable bowel. I'm finding that Elmiron is helping my bladder issues. But mostly, diet helps me. Some foods cause the vaginal pain to flare up (like carrots, brown rice, nuts). Also, Lidocaine (weird as that sounds) - I put a small amount in vaginally daily (well, I try to do that). I have had times where I just cried from the pain when we tried to have sex. Now, I have times where it's far less painful and I can kind of enjoy it. :) It's a really difficult issue, but I have learned that there's more than one thing going on to cause it. I wish I could find a therapist to do pelvic floor on my health plan, but none so far in Florida. Thanks, Susan

I agree! Good post! Crytears and Painfree you KNOW what you are talking about! :) I have had this problem for a long time now. It is a very, very long story but in addition to the pelvic floor dysfunction, I have lumbar issues, cystocele and rectocele and just found out I had fractured my tailbone...sometime...years and years ago! (Stupid go cart accident when I was 12 :eek: ). ALL of this factors in. I saw a Urogynecologist about a year ago; had ALL the testing and could never seem to get the PT done as I was dealing with my neck (fusions). So...I FINALLY get to start pelvic floor PT in another week. My Urogyn did say though that if the pain was severe during PT, to stop and he would do the repairs. As of right now I have been Graded out as a 1....so he is hoping PT is all I need. And that may even include some blocks of some kind. I just recently had my coccyx injected (right where the old fracture is) and that was a godssend! And that was per the Uro in order to calm down any nerves before going into PT. And I also wanted to mention that for those of us that have had hysterectomies, low estrogen can also cause a lot of this. So, another thing I have to do is to use Premarin cream. Anyway, I will post back after PT and let you know how it went. But, yep, there are very, very few specialists that do this.

Hi,
 

I can't do the lidocaine gel but I now put it inside of me with a cathater. They give me the liquid and the things I needed to put it in my bladder and vaginal area. It has calmed it down a lot.

What I found also, I can't do premarin or premarin cream. They make my pain much worse.

Ada

Thanks for all of your input!
 

Really...we each can contribute to help our fellow sufferers!'
My sister has a bicuspide uterous...almost like is two uterouses.'
She had no complications with childbirth other than producing very spoiled girls!:D
I've had a complete historectomy back in 85...and am considered surgically menopaused. I've been on HRT ever since.
The premerian cream or other creams does little to help with muscle disfunction in your pelvic floor.
I do have testostorene cream....
Is supposed to help rev up my engines! adds zoom zoom! to my womb tomb! LoL!
But since having these type Physical therapy...I've had only 1 bladder infection! This was after having one every time I had sex! So was very bad all the time and the pain was awrful ALL the time!
I will be going in again next Wednesday...will find out more info and web sites to share with you.
Its considered womens health PT...so if you're needing to google search for one, this should help.
My gyny didn't know about this 3 years ago..he does now!
Blessings, cheryl

Shoot I should have posted awhile back. I finished with the Pelvic Floor PT and it was the best thing I have ever done! The pressure I was feeling from the cystocele and rectocele is gone, the sciatic type of pain is gone and the best by far is the sit pain...totally gone! :) Please, if anyone thinks they might need this or it might help, give it a try. It really, really worked well for me.

Sexual Dysfunction -
 

:hug: My Gyno described the painful intercorse as there is a rubberband type muscle in the vag area deep inside. When it gets tight from either not enough hormones or stress or lack of bodily fluids (in my case)--during intercourse it causes the painful feeling. He prescribed a hormonal cream Prem Vag Cream until the muscle stretched again and intercourse was not painful. It worked! I still have to use it once in a while but things are much better. I had tried all kinds of creams and ointments and nothing was helping. My husband thought I just didn't want to have intercourse with him, even when I tried to explain how painful it was for me. I went to numerous doctors until finally found one who knew what he was talking about. I have Sjogren's Syndrome which is an automimmune disease and causes the mucus membranes to dry up which I take medication for now and Fibromyalgia and both were interfering with my love life...now it's just my bad days. I hope this helps those who are having this type of problem.

i know this post is fairly old, but i have a question and wanted to know if this is the same thing. i have herniation in L5/S1 and bone spurs with spinal stenosis. i had to stop using tampons a few years ago because of the pain, and my sex life is non existent due to fear that if a tampon hurts, my DH is much larger so far more pain. only reason it hasn't hurt our marriage is he has issues too so it is seldom that he "can" due to pain, and pain meds.

Hi Lostone.

It is possible to have pain in the area that you describe from herniated lumbar/sacral nerves.

L5/S1 supply the bowel and bladder, while S3/S4 are more related to sexual function.

Here's a chart that explains the nerve distribution in a bit better detail:
http://www.disabled-world.com/artman..._picture.shtml

From what you say, it sounds like fear is a big part of the problem that you have. Anticipation that intercourse will hurt is often enough to cause the vagina to tighten, even spasm, which in turn causes more pain.

May I suggest that you discuss your fears with your GP or OB/GYN. Although it may not be a total 'cure', relaxation exercises, or a muscle relaxant, may be all that you need to overcome this in the initial stages.