By Stephanie Prendergast Last week, Gwyneth Paltrow’s popular newsletter featured an article on pelvic floor muscles, which prompted numerous emails and tweets in my direction. Apparently this is a topic that makes my friends and colleagues think of me. While pondering why everyone, except for me, seems to be reading Goop, I took a look. I am glad to see …
Vagi-what? A rough guide to Vaginismus
If you’ve ever said the following: “It feels like there’s a wall there.” “I can’t insert a tampon.” “I can’t have penetrative sex with my husband.” “I was told I need to drink a glass of wine right before sex, but that still doesn’t help.” You might be experiencing vaginismus symptoms. DEFINITION What exactly is vaginismus? Vaginismus, pronounced vaj-uh-niz-muhs, is …
The Case of Female Pelvic Pain, Painful Sex
This week’s post is a case study of a female pelvic pain patient. Before I get into the specifics of the case, let’s first take a look at female pelvic pain by the numbers: 10% of all visits to gynecologists are due to chronic pelvic pain. 25% of women will experience chronic vulvar pain at some point in their lives. …