Pain Provoked by Anxieties - Finally Getting Somewhere!

So after about 2 years of ups and downs in pain, my pain finally overwhelmed me and every time I had sex without fail it burned like crazy. It also seemed to burn sporadically when I was anxious about it, whether at work or a stressful situation like a weekend trip to an unfamiliar city. I finally had enough and went to the GYN who prescribed yeast meds (OUCH!) after I had said I had burning after a UTI. It scorched my skin something terrible. We went through Lidocaine which was a fine temporary fix but never enough for me and Cymbalta which didn't help the burning but does wonders for my anxiety and depression so I'm still on it, stopped taking my hormonal birth control and then finally after weeks of waiting it out I went back to start the Gabpeptin (sp?) but she gave me another idea, physical therapy.

I was admittedly skeptical that physical therapy could help what seemed to be such a skin condition, but I was up for it since I had had enough of the problem I was going to try anything.

Now I'm not sure if it's the stopping birth control or the physical therapy that has been most helpful in my treatment, but I'd say it's a combination of the two with a bigger emphasis on the PT, but my god it's like night and day. With the discontinuation of my hormonal BC my libido is back in SPADES and so is my lubrication which was completely absent for the last couple of years on the oral BC. The physio was so wonderfully helpful and even found a big knot on my right side of my vaginal wall musculature and tried to knead it out and it's just incredible the difference its made! It makes so much sense that since the pain seemed tied to anxiety that a muscle could be the main culprit, it must tighten up so much when I get all nervous! Plus it used to hurt a lot after I stood around for a long time (like at a concert etc) which points to muscle as well.

I'm not counting too many chickens before they hatch but I'm so optimistic now in a way I never was before, I had so many doom and gloom days and now I don't have those near as much which I'm sure is partly because of wonderful anti-depressants. I even had a weekend last weekend where I initiated sex for 3 days in a row! I've got a bit of a twinge for the moment but I'm convinced it's because my PT has lapsed some because of some technicalities for 2 weeks, but I'm so looking forward to going back next week!

I would recommend SO MUCH the physical therapy for the pelvic floor and I thought in a mid-size city like Indianapolis there wouldn't be any specialists, but there are! There are a few actually! I'm so very lucky to have found the potential cause to my problems and so excited to bring my sex life back with my wonderful (and incredibly patient!) boyfriend.

ANYWAY: COMBINATION THERAPY YOU GUYS! I've read it a thousand times just like you all have, but it's totally worth it since the pain probably isn't just one cause but a bad combination of a few different things, if you haven't done the PT yet give it a shot and if you're still on hormonal BC, try getting off it for a little bit and see if your symptoms change, it can really make your vaginal area wacky, at least it did mine! I plan on going on the nexplanon implant soon to avoid the estrogen and to get a lesser dose of the hormones than the oral and am hoping for good results!

Keep going ladies, I vowed that if I found a result I'd post on these types of forums since I'm sure there are lots of women who stop after they're cured, but I remember my anxieties and hopefully my story can alleviate some of yours.

Not out of the woods yet, but I think I see some light!

Awesome to read about your success! I have a very similar problem with anxiety provoking my pain. I first started the symptoms during a particularly stressful session working abroad, and then was finishing up my last semester of university, which caused me a lot of anxiety. I noticed the pain completely went away when I went on vacation, had a few drinks, or (thankfully for our sex life) visited my boyfriend.

I've since graduated and am looking for work, and the pain seems to be much better just with that level of anxiety out of my life. I'm still waiting to see a gynaecologist though (impossible to get an appointment here, finally have one scheduled in a few months). I also wondered about taking something like Cymbalta, but have yet to find the right mix (and I don't have a family Dr yet in my new city). I was prescribed Ativan in the past but it didn't have an effect on me (the pain nor the anxiety).

I would highly recommend Cymbalta for the anxiety, it's taken a SIGNIFICANT edge off of mine, but didn't do much for the pain. I'd tried celexa before for the anxiety as well and no dice so I've been on more than one of them. If you believe your pain is exacerbated by stress, PLEASE do not hesitate to see a physical therapist experienced in this arena, it's so worth it! They can find out pretty quickly if your muscles are the cause. And if you haven't already, get some vaginismus dilators and try them out! They're about 50$ for the hard plastic ones without prescription. Visualizing your vaginal muscles relaxing helps me use them!