Painful Intercourse? There’s a Name for That!

There are few things that can put a damper on your happy, healthy, sexual life quite like painful intercourse. For those with vaginas, painful intercourse can also be known by another name, vaginismus. Vaginismus is predominantly a psychological problem, which yields actual, physical symptoms of pain, vaginal tightness, burning, or discomfort.  To add insult to injury, emotional side effects of this pain include fear of intercourse, avoidant tendencies, and self-esteem and confidence issues, which then initiate a kind of reinforcement loop with the physical symptoms. Sounds pretty daunting, no? The good news is that assuming your brain is powerful enough to cause you real pain, then it is also powerful enough to learn new coping skills to enable you to have a happy and fulfilling sex life!

If you’ve ruled out illnesses or biological causes with a medical professional, it may be time to start investigating potential root causes, because as with most everything in sex and sexuality, the treatment often lies in the mental and emotional aspect of the problem. Any kind of trauma, compounded by long term belief systems that encourage a fear of sex, can result in the brain trying to protect you and itself, giving rise to that very real pain. Once you uncover whatever the trauma may be, you’ll be armed with knowledge, and “knowledge about yourself and your sexuality can go a long way and can help to open your eyes to the solution, which may already be very well within your grasp,” says Moushumi Ghose, MFT. From there, there are a variety of steps you can take, both emotional and physical, and resources available to address that fear and pain.

Vaginismus is a complex and multifaceted condition, but it is not without solutions. Click below to read more about the reasons behind it, and therefore the path toward overcoming it.