Getting an accurate diagnosis of vulvodynia is usually a long and difficult process. You have had burning and stinging pain with sex, you have seen doctor after doctor, and they have put it down to chronic thrush and given you creams and tablets galore, all to no avail. Then you finally see a clinician [...]
Chronic pain is not easy to live with. And it’s no more easy for researchers to fully understand. It’s also not easy for clinicians working with people living with chronic pain. A clinician who thinks there’s a simple solution is not likely to be the best one to help you! That aside, let’s not [...]
It’s a situation I see regularly in my clinic: new mums with vaginal amnesia. Let me explain vaginal amnesia. Vaginas are sensitive creatures. It’s an obvious statement, but it’s worth stating the obvious. They are easily overwhelmed by stress, tension and pain. New mums usually have a fair bit of all three going on. [...]
The One Absolute “Must-Have” For Pain With Sex in Vulvodynia and Vaginismus I see dozens of women in my clinic every month who have pain with sex. Some of them have been diagnosed with vaginismus. Some have been diagnosed with vulvodynia, but have vaginismus as well. Some have been diagnosed with vaginismus, but their [...]
Getting From the Plastic Thing to the Real Thing – Part 1 Pain with sex can be a bit of a project to resolve. I’ve written a lot about painful sex due to muscular causes. (The old term is vaginismus. I still use this term because usually that’s what the doctor has called it to [...]
Don't Feel Weird About Using a Sex Toy to Help Your Tampon Problem Firstly, this is an 18+ post. If you do not fall into this category, please go get your at-least-eighteen-year-old-mother and respectfully ask her permission for you to read this together. However, my target group for this post is the woman over [...]
Staying Low Impact in the Impact Zone I'm very excited to bring you my second interview in my blog series about the least boring pelvic floor-friendly exercise options. Madeleine Newton is an ex-pro surfer who happens to also be a women's health physiotherapist working on Queensland's Gold Coast. I don't know much about surfing, except [...]
Pick the Best Time of Month to Practise Last post I mentioned that using lots of lubricant on the tampon helps when it feels like the tampon just won't go in. This may seem obvious, but most women I speak to haven't tried it. So here is a second tip that may seem obvious, [...]
“You Want Me To Put What Where?” In my experience, vaginal dilators can really freak people out. The idea of an inanimate object designed to be inserted into the vagina to help with difficulty with sex (e.g. vaginismus) can be very confronting. This is understandable! I’d like to go through some of the reasons [...]
Don't Be Too Squeamish You have been trying hard to use all the right tricks to insert a tampon. You have become famiilar with your anatomy. You are using the best position. You are becoming aware of what your muscles are doing to "close up" your vagina and to "allow it to open". But [...]
