By Lorraine Faehndrich If you’re suffering with pelvic pain it’s very likely that you’ve spent a lot of time worrying and obsessing about your symptoms. Maybe you’ve spent hours online searching for answers, reading stories of others’ experiences with pelvic pain, or participating in “support” groups that leave you even more stressed, worried and fearful than you already …
How Diane beat Vulvodynia
By Diane I suffered with pelvic pain for years. I want to share my story, so others won’t have to suffer needlessly. It started in February 2009 when I tried having sex with my boyfriend. Intercourse was extremely painful, and each time, my perineum tore a bit. I’d be sore for days afterward. Eventually I’d heal, but it …
Solving Female Sexual Dysfunction
By: Dr. Lisa Valle What if the cure for adding more luster to your life is a fulfilling, sex life? But what happens when a woman feels distress about her sex life? Or she experiences sexual pain? Is there anything that she can do about it? The answer is an emphatic yes! There is an …
Tips for Coping With Persistent Pelvic Pain
By Jessica Newman, LMHC Living with persistent pelvic pain is, by definition, painful physically. What can be hard to talk about (especially for folks with pelvic pain) is just how emotionally distressing the pain is. And because the mind and body are a functional whole (think: a Mobius strip) emotional distress can trigger or amplify physical pain and vice …
Posture and the Pelvis: Part Deux
“Share the load” – Samwise Gamgee “It’s all about the base ” – Meghan Trainor “Drop it like it’s hot” – Snoop Dogg Some different quotes from last time, but after reading today’s post you’ll understand how Samwise, Ms. Trainor and Dr. Dogg are all talking about posture and the pelvis, and they didn’t even know it. …
Foul! What the Media Got Wrong about Women’s Health!
Over the last year, the media has come under increasing scrutiny: visit almost any website, and you’ll see that the terms “fake news” and “alternative facts” have taken over the headlines and the comments section. Now, I love the people who produce pieces that aim to educate the community, especially when the subject is women’s health and the author is …
Pelvic Pain and Childbirth. Dr. Mark Conway tells us what we need to know.
By Elizabeth Akincilar-Rummer As we learned in a recent previous post by Stephanie Prendergast, the vast majority of women are not well informed when it comes to their pelvic floor, pregnancy and childbirth. In fact, 93% of women felt like they were insufficiently informed about their pelvic health! Unlike the rest of the population, many of our patients …
Love and Vaginismus: Mary’s story of personal growth
By Melinda Fontaine Mary is an amazing story because in a matter of months, she went from not having any penetrative sex for many years to having unrestricted intercourse with her partner. When Mary was a young woman, she saw a gynecologist for a routine exam. Now, lying on the exam table with your butt almost falling off the …
Pelvic floor physical and occupational therapy for vulvodynia: a clinician’s guide
By Stephanie Prendergast, MPT, Cofounder, PHRC Los Angeles Recently I was asked to write an article about pelvic floor physical and occupational therapy for the treatment of vulvodynia, which will be published later this year as a tool for gynecologists. Since our blog readers are a combination of clinicians and people with pelvic pain I figured I would share …
Jagged Little Pill: Part Two
By Joshua Gonzalez, MD After reading my last post, Jagged Little Pill, many of you who have had similar suspected OCP-related problems may be thinking there’s no hope. Trust me, you are not doomed if you’ve ever taken an oral birth control and you have symptoms of vulvodynia. My goal this week is to reassure you that you’re …
Jagged Little Pill: How Oral Contraceptives Wreak Havoc on the Female Body
By Joshua Gonzalez, MD The advent of oral birth control pills in the 1960s was heralded as a huge victory for women’s rights. Finally, women could take control of their bodies and their fertility. Since then, oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) have become ubiquitous in reproductive aged women with nearly 10 million women today using The Pill as their primary …
New Classification System for Persistent Vulvar Pain
By Stephanie Prendergast In a previous blog post I described my experience while participating in an International Nomenclature Consensus Conference. As you may recall, the motivation for a consensus meeting originated because there was “an unmet medical need for a comprehensive, evidence-based set of vulvovaginal pain diagnoses that can be easily utilized by …
What is Vulvodynia? The International Consensus Conference on Vulvodynia Nomenclature
By Stephanie Prendergast, PHRC Cofounder What is Vulvodynia? Is it a symptom, a disease, or a syndrome? What does the term ‘Vuvlodynia’ mean to people with vulvar pain, pelvic pain specialists, medical professionals, and the community in general? In a previous blog post I wrote about how in the pelvic pain world, diagnosis does not dictate treatment. Many pelvic pain diagnoses simply …
Why Stephanie and Liz are Writing a Book
For the past six months, Stephanie and Liz have been busily working on writing a book titled Pelvic Pain Explained: Everything you Need to know to Help you Navigate the Complex Terrain of Pelvic Pain. The book will be published by Rowman & Littlefield. (We don’t have the publication date yet, so stay tuned for that info!) As we’ve watched …
2014 IPPS Conference Must-Read Nuggets: Part I
Last week our staff attended the 2014 Annual Meeting of the International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS) in Chicago. During its nearly 20-year existence the IPPS has been a major driver of the progress made in the treatment of chronic pelvic pain. And what makes the Annual Meeting of the organization so exciting is that it provides an opportunity for our …
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