SarMichelle
Hello! My name is Sarah and I am a 22 year old college student who is suffering from provoked vestibulodynia. Around the age 20 (4 years after I had became sexually active), intercourse all of the sudden became very painful for no apparent reason. I thought maybe that I moved wrong or that it had been a couple weeks so I fought through the pain and never mentioned anything. That was until the next time, and the next time, and the pain just increasingly got worse. It finally became a pain that I could no longer handle and finally had to give up having intercourse all together. Now when you are in an intimate relationship with a person for four year and then all of the sudden things change, your whole relationship changes. I was still dating the guy, but so physically disconnected that I didn't know what to do. I couldn't seem to understand what was going on because the only time I felt pain was during intercourse, until a few months later when I went in for my annual check up at the doctors office (I needed to in order to fill my birth control pills). While getting my exam, I was again feeling that extreme pain that I felt during intercourse. After the exam was over I proceeded to ask my doctor and fill her in on what was going on in my personal life, she proceeded to tell me that everything looked fine and that I just needed to relax and calm my nerves during intercourse, it was ALL IN MY HEAD! Frustrated, I left and did just what she said, put on some music and tried to again have intercourse. Almost impossible to stay calm, I mean who could with that type of pain, I'm sorry but when your in that much pain, your not calm!!!! I again felt so much pain. Fed up with the answers I was not getting, I decided it was time to see a different doctor, this was hard because I had been seeing my doctor for 5 years and I was very comfortable with her. I was stuck, I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to another doctor and experience the pain again and get no answer, ultimately I was embarrassed. Knowing that my relationship was dwindling away, I decided it was time to get help. About 9 months ago, I found the most amazing gynecologist that really helped me find my problem. In about 2 minutes she was able to tell me exactly what I had and where to go from there. She recommended me to a pelvic pain specialist and I was on my way. After undergoing a Q-tip test at the pelvic pain specialist, I was told that I had vestibulodynia and pelvic floor dysfunction (tightening of my pelvic muscles). Not knowing what that meant, I started to ask questions! What is it caused from, is it the pill again? (I previously had been diagnosed with a pituitary tumor a few months prior cause from an abundance of prolactin, from the birth control pill). THe doctor reassured me that they really did not know what was the cause of it but they did have some treatments that they could start to help it. They were kind of guessing with me because I had pelvic floor and vestibulodynia. Was it the nerves that cause the muscles to tighten or vis versa? She prescribed me lidocaine cream and sent me on my way. When I went back for a follow up visit, she found my testosterone levels were low (I don't know why she didn't check this in the first place) and then prescribed me a testosterone/estrodial compound cream to apply daily and I was also recommended to physical therapy for my pelvic floor. Faithfully going to physical therapy for weeks, I saw much improvement with the flexibility of my muscles so I decided to try intercourse again, only to be disappointed. It still was extremely painful. After researching the internet and other people with the same condition, I grew so frustrated until I came across a comment on someone else's story on this website itself. Pick up the book "When Sex Hurts" So I did, and my life was changed! I found that my pain was caused from the birth control pill, which I have been on since I was 16 because of bad cramps. I also found that being on a pill such as seasonique, which I was, where you have 4 periods a year, incased your chances of getting PVD. Frustrated with what I was reading, I immediately stopped taking the pill. COme to find out the cream I was using to put testosterone back in my body was doing nothing because I was still on the pill! I definitely was scared to get off the pill because of the bad cramping that I had before being on the pill but I decided it was worth it. I had a follow up appointment at my pelvic floor doctor about a week ago and left there feeling so small and so alone. I talked and talked about how I wanted no more pills because I wanted to get off of Birth control and use the cream and see where that took me. After being pushed into a volume to relax my muscles, I knew that I was not being heard. Frustrated I went home to my book and reread everything that was in there. I WAS NOT CRAZY! My pain started while on the pill, and I have never had it before the pill. I do not have pain unless I am having intercourse or inserting a tampon. After diagnosing myself, I have decided to do what the book says, get off the pill, use the cream, and give it 4-6 months to take full affect. If this does not work, I will go from there. As for the cramping during my mental cycle, I will seek Acupuncture for that, which again helps with the nerves in my vestibule. I am so anxious to see the results and recommend this book to ANYONE experiencing pain during intercourse. It has literally everything for any condition that causes pain, treatments, and symptoms. It is literally a god send. I am so happy to have found my way after 2 years of fighting with doctors. Bottom line, you must be heard! If you are not, you will not get treated for what you have. And do your research, because if I would not have, I would be being treated for something I don't have. My doctor told me I needed to do injections, and get on an anit-depressent and then the last stage was surgery, which is the right thing to do if you have something totally different than what I do. So know that doctors are not always right, and this problem is so under researched that most doctors don't know a lot, so you have to get out there yourself and FIND YOUR CURE! I am so happy to have found this site where I can help others out there! If you have any questions please comment, I would love to help in any way that I can!!!