Pat's Vaginismus 1

Patricia was a 24 year old woman who presented with her husband, Norman,
complaining that attempted sexual intercourse was extremely painful, and in
fact she had never experienced full penetration due to this pain. She
described a normal lubrication but said she began to 'tense-up' when it
looked like penetration was close.She said the pain was located just inside
the entrance to her vagina and that it felt like there was a 'wall' there,
blocking entry of Norman's penis. This sounded very like a condition called
Vaginismus, where the muscles surrounding the vagina go into involuntary
contraction and can powerfully block penetration. It is a
psychophysiological reaction, probably to a fear or anxiety about past
painful events. In Patricia's case this was most likely an extremely painful
first experience with a tampon, and her anxieties and painful experiences
had worsened in the following years. The usual treatment for Vaginismus is
to relearn how the vagina accepts entry of objects, such as a finger at
first, and I will go through techniques for this in a later post.