Newbie from UK / France

Bonjour tout le monde. I'm actually from NW England but am lucky enough to be in France on a career break. I won't give you all of my history, as it would take too long. Anyway, I found this website by chance, during a frantic Google search after a severe flare up of vestibulodynia while here in France. While in panic mode (becaused my French is very limited), I discovered (on my Kindle) Amy Stein's book, "Heal Pelvic Pain", which rang so many bells with me as I discovered that my body was absolutely full of 'trigger points'. I also managed to get a copy of Isa Herrera's book, "Ending Female Pain". Both advocate a combination of gentle stretching, relaxation, massage etc, which made me realise that I had been holding all of my pelvic muscles tight for a long time (probably due to a past combination of heavy periods, mild prolapse and UTIs). I'm now 11 days short of being officially menopausal - yipee! I plucked up the courage to see a French GP, who has prescribed Lysanxia (prazepam), which seems to be helping, (though I have now developed hives). Anyway, I have never previously contributed to forums (or is it fora?), but I am really impressed by this website and I hope that I might be able to offer support, as well as receiving it. I notice on the VPS (UK) website that they are planning a women's workshop in Manchester on 14th May. I do hope this goes ahead, as I've arranged a trip back to the UK to coincide with it. As far as I know, I've never met a fellow sufferer, but then, it's not such an easy topic to bring into conversation, is it? Keep smiling!

hello! welcome to the forum!

the workshops if they are the same, im pretty sure they are, are run by Dr David Nunns. I had an appointment with him on Monday just. Hes a sweet guy (lacking in the sense of humour dept but maybe he was having an off day). I didnt find his advice from the workshop very useful but I dont seem to have the same symptoms as most of the ladies out there. Anyhooz, i bid u good luck!

Welcome to the forum again we are all a bunch of lovely ladies Let us know if you want to join the group on facebook (secret group so no telling the world about ur lady bits We tend to catch up on there (about 20 of us) most days and ive found it a great help when im having a bad day, or even a good day we do have a laugh

right, best crack on with dinner i suppose, talk soon xxx

Ahhhh bugger, shit and damn, I just lost the post I made. I'll see how the memory goes a second time around.

Hello and welcome!

I'm at the bottom of the world and I really envy you being in France. That's my runaway place!

This is a great place for information, support and to have a laugh. The FB group is a lot of fun as well. We've just figured out how to group chat - well group bullshit!

Good luck with finding treatment, a lot of us are doing physio. It seems to be shaking things up for me, I have tension everywhere now. Don't stress out trying to find someone with the same symptoms as you. It's impossible! This thing does whatever it wants.

I'm a believer in mind/body and soul healing. I eat well (so that's limiting sugar ahhhhhh and I'm gluten free because I have CD) I try to get quality sleep, drink loads of water, limit coffee and alcohol, have a great therapist to unclog the over active brain, the aforementioned physio and I really try to remain calm. Which is bloody difficult with a burning pain in the hoooha!!! I think the body needs some special love and attention for a while so I try to only get drunk occasionally

I hope you are having some happy painfree days. Email Sebby about the FB group if you are keen. You can see what we all look like

Cheers Vicki

Phew! When I first started reading your post I thought it was all going to be in French! Welcome to the forum, we're a friendly bunch.

LOL I thought it was all going to be in French too! was just about to copy and paste into google translate!

Hello and welcome to the forum

Do pm me or email me if you wish to join the facebook group

I am doing Biofeedback home training from Dr Glazer so keeping my fingers crossed

I hope I'm doing this right. It can take me a while to get used to technology. Anyway, thanks gals for responding to my 'virgin' posting. Naomi, yes, I would be interested in joining the facebook forum - if I can figure out how it works. It made me laugh that a couple of you thought the posting was going to be all in French - I wish I was in a very stressful job, in the strapped for cash UK public sector and they would not allow me to reduce my hours. What with the vulval pain, arthritis in my neck, migraines, prolonged menopause and general stress, I think they were very lucky I took hardly any sick leave. Anyway, I saved up, paid off the mortgage and told them that I wanted a career break or else I would resign when my partner retired at the end of sept 2010. I could hardly believe it when they said OK. So here we are, 'living the dream', learning French and waiting for the reduction in stress to get rid of all my pain. Well - the migraines and neck pain are a lot better. Not sure why the 'down-below' got worse, but I wonder whether it could be to do with all the hill walking and subsequent increased tightening of the pelvic muscles. You'd think all that extra cardio-vascular stuff would improve things, but what do I know. This French medication has helped enormously, the only problem is that I had not realised that the amitriptyline had been protecting me from hives. I had hives before being diagnosed with vestibulodynia, but never spoke to the doctor about it cos it was so mild. I think it might be caused by long term use of an ACE inhibitor, for chronic kidney disease. On a positive note, this blasted itching is giving me something new to think about Anyway, I'm making myself sound like a right old wreck, but in fact I've always been extremely healthy - up to 2 years ago I had never been on any meds in my life apart from occasional antibiotics. Anyway, good luck to you all. I would be interested to hear how your physio / bio-feedback etc goes. Au revoir