vaginismus and vulvodynia

[chipie.livejournal.com]

Hi VP!

I have volvodynia/vestibulodynia as well as vaginismus.  In my case, I mainly have pain with intercourse.  Other things (like using a menstrual cup) are kind of painful, if I think about it, but I don't notice.  I susepct that when inserting a menstrual cup or something small, it's the vulvodynia that I'm noticing and can ignore.  With intercourse, vaginismus kicks in, which is more painful.

I got diagnosed with vulvodynia first.  Then I was part of this treatment program, and one component was physiotherapy (using biofeedback).  Using biofeedback, I found out that my muscles are really really tense (10 times tenser than normal, according to the scale we were using).

Once I started paying attention to my pelvic floor muscles, I noticed that they are constantly tensing and releasing.  It's really frustrating.  It will happen several time every minute.  Based on that information, I concluded that I also have vaginismus, although no doctor ever formally diagnosed me.

The physiotherapy seemed to help a bit.  I thought I was improving a lot, but everytime I'd go, my muscles would be just as tense as they used to be.  That was quite disappointing.  I've moved now and I don't have access to a physiotherapist, so I'd like to look at some other options.

It doesn't seem like there are many treatment options for vulvodynia, so I've decided to focus my energies on dealing with vaginismus.  (I am vaguely trying to use lydocaine several times a day for the vulvodynia though.)

Has anyone here successfully treated vaginismus?  How? 

Has any one gone through the vaginismus.com treatment program?  Was that successful?  Are there other options I should look into? 

Thank you so much!  I've been working on dealing with these issues for a few years now, but not very seriously.  I kept getting discouraged and distracted.  I finally feel that the time is right for me to focus on this. 

Comments

[sophy.livejournal.com]

I have vaginismus, too, and also have trouble really settling down to work on the exercises, etc for it. I do have the dilators and a book with great info and exercises (A Woman's Guide to Overcoming Sexual Fear and Pain by Aurelie Jones Goodwin and Marc E. Agronin) but am slow to get started. For me, the vaginismus is also related to PTSD, so the anxiety stops and slows me a lot. I also do visualization/desensitization techniques, and that helped me recently get much farther through a gyn exam than I'd previously been able to do.

[chipie.livejournal.com]

Interesting about the visualization and desensitization techniques! DId you get them out of that book? I'll look it up. Is there anything else you would recommend?

Thanks a lot!

[sophy.livejournal.com]

The visualization and desensitization weren't from the book, but from a therapist I saw for awhile.

She taught me how to slowly work up to visualizing stressful situations by starting with the least stressful first part of it. So, I start with getting ready to leave the house for the gyn appt. Once I can get through that without any anxiety, I go on to the next step and the next until finally I can picture the whole thing. (for the record, I still can only get up to the breast exam before the anxiety gets pretty high, but I was still able to get further in the exam than usual last time because I could at least visualize everything the doctor would do due to my prep work - still didn't complete the exam, but got pretty far.)

Hope that helps some!