An inspiring story of overcoming vaginismus
The following testimonial is an inspiring story about a young woman overcoming vaginismus. We have received many testimonials describing the joy of overcoming vaginismus and feeling whole again. It is always a joy to read about a patient’s progress, to know that their lives have been changed. This patient posted her elated one year follow up on the VaginismusMD Forum and gave permission to write this as her story to help empower other women in overcoming vaginismus.
Brief history:
Dyspareunia (painful intercourse) progressing to vaginismus
A 20 year old student from England was able to have intercourse, however it was always painful, a condition known as dyspareunia. This progressed to vaginismus with inability to tolerate tampons, finger penetration, gynecology exams and dilators. Intercourse became impossible due to extreme pain with attempts. Her parents were supportive of treatment for vaginismus.
By history she had a strict religious upbringing and was encouraged to delay intercourse until after marriage. She also had a fear of first time sex as so many of my patients do. Gynecology exams were very painful. Just prior to a GYN exam she would “feel terrible, sweating” and knew she would “not be able to cooperate with an exam”.
She describes intercourse as “hitting a wall”. This is one of the important vaginismus symptoms, an indication of vaginal muscle spasm, and why the Botox program is used for vaginismus treatment.(Botox helps calm muscles in many different parts of the body.)
Numerous treatments for vaginismus failed including one year of Kegel exercises, dilators (she was never able to progress beyond the small dilators) and physical therapy. Lubricants, topical anesthetics (2 years), muscle relaxants and anti-depressants did nothing to help her. Her partner left her.
Vaginismus treatment consisted of Botox injections into the spastic entry muscle and progressive dilation under anesthesia, followed by post treatment counseling and follow up with daily logs. During treatment a tight constricting hymenal band was surgically released. The severe spasm of the entry muscle prevented me from examining the deeper parts of the vagina while the patient was awake, even with sedation.
She met someone and was able to achieve pain free intercourse at four months. In honor of her one year anniversary she posted the following vaginismus cure testimonial on the VaginismusMD Forum.
“Thought I would post a small thank you to Dr Pacik here and some encouragement to all the women with future procedures. One year ago today I had my procedure done, and since then, my life has done nothing but go up and up!
I’m on my last year of university with great grades, I got a great internship, and I’ve met a wonderful man with whom I can share so much with about this process and what I went through.
I’ve been able to have regular intercourse now for about 7 months and I can wear tampons every period without any discomfort! I just wear the biggest glass dilator every other day for a few hours or before I have sex for about an hour / hour and a half. No more need to wear it over night… small dilation before sex is all it takes to have very comfortable sex. I have no more fear or worries – I actually ENJOY sex and look forward to it! Anniversaries and birthdays no longer scare me!! :)
Thank you Dr Pacik for all your amazing work!! I could not have reached this point without you and your staff. I no longer wake up with this horrible burden on my heart, but instead I wake up with just an amazing feeling because I don’t feel like the “odd one out” anymore!
To the ladies getting the surgery – IT’S WORTH IT and IT WORKS!!!”
More can be read about overcoming vaginismus which explains why the vaginismus treatment program has a high level of success.