Recovered from Vulvodynia

Hey everyone,

Im a new member on this forum and wanted to share my story so I can help anyone who is feeling helpless. Maybe what worked for me can work for you. I'll try to make this short so you can go get better!

I had vulvodynia for about 3-4 years. In the beginning, it started with pain that I thought was just a yeast infection and then I thought it was a urinary tract infection or bacterial infection (i got them from time to time). Then I went to the doctor and they did all the swab and pee tests which came back negative. Then they did the scary tests for STDs which also came back negative. After that, they just sent me home and said hey, you're fine. Obviously that wasn't the case. For the next 3 years I lived in constant pain and kept returning to the gyno who had me try lidocaine, amytriptilline, and a fungal Creme which did help the burning pain I had for maybe 15 mins at a time. The amytriprilline was horrible and just made me completely useless and tired. Lidocaine seemed to make my burning pain worse at first and then would do its job, but I wanted a cure, not a 10 min solution. So after trying all of that, I tried changing my diet and eliminating any acidic foods. That probably helped my body but not my vaginal pain. Pretty much tried everything under the sun, including wearing loose clothing and using non fragrant soaps.

After that I pretty much gave up on my gyno and continued my strenuous research. Finally, the topic of physical therapy came up and changed everything. I mentioned it to my gynecologist and she said "great idea!". Yay. Only took 3 years.

When I went to PT for the first time, I was very excited and also a little worried that it wouldn't work and I would be back to square one. The first thing my therapist asked me was "what's the number one thing you want to fix?" And I said "SEX" a little too enthusiastically. She cracked up and then explained the steps we would have to take to get there and also told me that this would take time. That's one of the most important things I want to share- it does take a little while to get better but just truck through it and know you can do it. It took me about 9 months to heal and train my muscles because I was so tense.

It started with her applying pressure to my pelvic area with her two index fingers. When she did that, I immediately cringed and had a jerk reaction to it. It was amazing because I had no idea how much tension I was holding in my gut. She then explained that those pelvic muscles are the muscles that are pulling my muscles in my vagina and making me squeeze every muscle pretty much 24-7. Crazy. Then came the next step which can make some women uncomfortable. She inserted a finger into my vagina and pressed on one wall at a time. That was SO painful. Then she explained that she was going to insert a sensor device into my vagina to see when I'm tensing and when I release my vaginal muscles. It was insane- she said the results we saw on the monitor were equivalent having continuous and constant Charlie horses all day long. So for the next 9 months, I met her once a week and she would do those steps with me and then have me tense and release my muscles - kegels. After a long time, I was able to hold my muscles for 30 seconds when I was barely able to hold them for 1 months ago.

After my 9 months, I hadn't had sex with anyone yet until maybe 6 months later when I met my boyfriend. When we were ready for sex, I told him about my past and we agreed to try to have sex and would take it slow if it hurt. To my insane delight, it wasn't painful at all. Physical therapy worked!! My physical therapist really saved me and I can't thank her enough.

So if you're having burning pain and pain during sex, this solution might be for you. I still have some pain sometimes when I get stressed and tense again but I know exercises and breathing techniques that can control it.

Good luck to anyone who tries this, I highly recommend it!!

thanks for posting !

Hiya.


thanks for posting. is your pain provoked or unprovoked? What type of PT exercises did you do? Thanks