[identity profile] tehfanglyfish.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] vaginapagina
Greetings VPers!!!

I am having some trouble with my lady bits & need some guidance. This could be long, so please follow the cut. 


Way back, a long time ago, around the first couple of weeks of April, I started experiencing some extreme vaginal dryness.  It was majorly uncomfortable just to walk, etc.  It wasn't burning or itching... it was just really, really dry.  I had hoped my period would fix this.  It came and went and things improved slightly.  The dryness only bothered me when I tried to have sex.  At one point my husband and I had sex even though I was too dry and things got painful.  We stopped right then and there, but my vaginal opening had what appeared to be a tiny tear on it.  Sex has been painful ever since.

I went to my gyn (ok, she was the dr. on women's health duty at my university clinic that day) and had my yearly pelvic exam done.  She said that everything looked fine down there except that I was really dry.  She switched my birthcontrol around (from Kariva to Apri) and sent me on my way.  I had to wait about 2.5 weeks to start the Apri.

So, period came and went again.  Nothing really out of the ordinary there - maybe a tiny bit more cramping than normal (but compared to my pre-HBC periods it was pretty mild).  I started Apri.  Things might have gotten slightly more moist, but not by much.  Sex is still painful.  I've tried using lots of lube - it helps sometimes but not always.

Last night I had sex.  My body was responding well and so I didn't use any lube - I thought I was taking care of things on my own.  External stimulation was great, penetration was sort of ok at first but became awful.  The pain was slightly different this time, though.  Normally it is just around the entrance to my vagina.  Last night there was entrance pain, but also a bit of cervical pain and pain in the part of the vagina where the urethra runs (maybe that's the top wall...).  And for a brief, brief second there was pain that seemed to start in my vagina and go up into my abdomen.  Well, abdomen might be the wrong term.  This pain essentially felt like it in my body (but not my vagina) in the part just above the line where my pubic hair begins.  We were in a slightly awkward position (although one we'ved used before that caused no problems before the APril dryness set in).

This morning the opening to my vagina is sort of raw and the vagina itself is closed for business... it doesn't even want a well-lubricated finger inserted (I was trying to feel if it was sore inside).

I don't think this is an STI issue.  My sexual history involves three partners, although I have only had intercourse with one.  With the first partner I performed oral sex and there was mutual touching.  With the second partner there was mutual touching and rubbing of bits.  I had intercourse with the third partner (my husband).  We've been partners for over a decade now.  I am 99.9% sure that he has had no partners other than me.  The first two partners I mentioned were younger (so was I) - 14 to 15ish and most likely had not had sexual contact with anyone else (or extremely limited contact).  Since then I've had normal pap smears.  I went to two clinics where they took blood to screen for STIs and those came back negative.

Should I go back to my campus clinic?  Should I try another doctor?  Should I just buy the economy tub of Liquid Silk?


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for listening to me ramble... this whole thing has me slightly frustrated and slightly freaked out.

Date: 2008-06-10 04:15 pm (UTC)
archangelbeth: An egyptian-inspired eye, centered between feathered wings. (Eye in the Pyrawings)
From: [personal profile] archangelbeth
I'd suggest getting tested for BV and yeast, just to double-check as sometimes those can apparently present themselves without the typical symptoms of discharge. However, I've seen a lot of posts on VP about HBC drying people up so that they need a LOT of lube.

This most recent injury, I'm betting is a friction one. (I sometimes start wet but -- if it's too early in the morning -- just dry up. Blah. Morning is not sexytiems for me.) Let it go a few days before getting worried, is what I'd do.

You may want to investigate different HBC methods to see if there are any that don't tell your body "no ovulation, no need for sex, no lube, hahahah!" Another doctor might be necessary if the current one isn't interested in checking out BV/Yeast/whatever-else-might-cause-dryness. Drinking a lot of water might help! In the meantime... The economy tub and just using it by default?

I wish I had better ideas! Good luck.

Date: 2008-06-10 05:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] pygmybugs.livejournal.com
I'm on a ton of prescription antihistimines and asthma meds and they dry me out like the Sahara! I totally feel your pain.

BC's different for everyone, but I've had really good luck with the Nuva Ring. It increased my natural lubrication a ton (more than ever), to the point I actually asked my gyno if there was anything weird going on (there wasn't, I was just having a normal amount of discharge for the first time ever).

If you're happy with your HBC and are just looking to alleviate the dryness, there are a lot of products to make you more comfortable (I've tried a lot of them!). For the "walking around, OMG my vagina feels like velcro," symptom, they make little ovule-type lube suppositories that kind of melt over the course of a day and keep your bits from getting irritated. A lot of the products are marketed towards menopausal women, but I'm nowhere near that and have gotten a lot of relief from them. Not all of them are condom-safe, but you didn't mention using condoms.

You might try different kinds of lube, too. Some sort of depend on whatever moisture your own body produces to stay...juicy. If you're not producing much, they get sticky and can actually aggravate irritation. A lot of online lady-friendly sex stores like Goodvibes actually sell little sampler packs, so you can try a little of each kind without paying an arm and a leg (the good stuff tends to be spendy).

Also, someone with more knowledge on this might want to chime in, but isn't severe vaginal dryness a symptom of menopause (or peri-menopause or whatever)? I know the process can start fairly early in lots of people, even in one's 20's (My mother started getting symptoms of that in her mid-30's, which I'm paying attention to, since I'm 32). I don't know how HBC affects that, or how you would test for it, but it might be something to look into.

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