Pain during penetration, burning, itching: these are just some of the symptoms of dyspareunia . Behind this word so difficult to pronounce lies a disorder that unites many women: pain during sexual intercourse .
According to a study conducted in Great Britain and published last January in the journal of gynecology and obstetrics Bjog, a woman in 10 suffers suffers . But it is likely that dyspareunia is an underestimated phenomenon: we women are the first to struggle to admit that making love hurts us.
Dyspareunia is a pain that can be felt both externally, at the level of the vulva, and internally, at the level of the vagina and pelvis. It can accompany us from the first sexual relationship or arise only later, it can happen independently of the partner or be tied to a certain type of position or of people with whom we share intimacy.
The causes of dyspareunia
The types of dyspareunia are many, as many can be the causes. Pain during sexual intercourse can depend on psychological or physical factors .
Psychological causes can be linked either to a bad relationship with one's own intimacy and to sexuality, or to problems linked to a specific situation or person: tensions with the partner, insufficient preliminaries, sexual dissatisfaction .
Physical causes may depend on "tangible" factors such as vulvitis, vaginitis and cystitis, endometriosis, outcome of birth (episiotomy or laceration), but also pelvic hypertonus .
Yes, because the health of the pelvic floor plays a fundamental role in disorders of the sexual sphere such as dyspareunia: weak and neglected pelvic muscles can remain in a state of perennial (and involuntary) contraction, giving rise to pelvic tension and therefore, during sex, to dispareunia.
Pelvic gymnastics against dyspareunia
This is why it is so important to keep the pelvic floor in operation, but above all to do it correctly . If you often experience pain during sexual intercourse, first try to become familiar with your pelvic muscles, learning to recognize and control them.
When you pee, block the jet from time to time and get it back . Lie on your back with your legs bent, contract your perineal muscles imagining you have to "chew" a bite (continue for 30 seconds, and repeat).
Always in the same position, once you have become familiar with these simpler exercises, try to imagine having a sphere at the mouth of the vaginal canal and having to raise it upwards, maintaining the contraction for 10-15 seconds at the "floor" more high.
Vaginal balls, dilators, lubricants against dyspareunia
A valid ally to perform pelvic training are the vaginal balls, which bring the pelvic muscles to contract spontaneously in order not to let them slip away. But even in this case it is important to choose the balls suitable for your body .
The best choice can be the sets of vaginal balls: geisha balls of different weights and sizes that can accompany you from the beginning to the end of your training, starting with the lightest to progressively switch to higher weights.
To gradually accustom the vagina to penetration, then, vaginal dilators can be very useful: little by little they bring the vaginal muscles to become familiar with a "foreign body" within them, gradually overcoming physical and psychological resistance to penetration.
