sexual health

Is Sex More Pain Than Pleasure?

These spoilers can cause hurtful penetration.

At some point in their lives, up to one fifth of women experience painful sex (a.k.a. dyspareunia). The condition is described as persistent and recurring pain that be felt in the vagina, clitoris or labia at any point before, during and after intercourse.

There are numerous reasons for this complaint, says Mary Jane Minkin,

MD, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and reproductive sciences at Yale

School of Medicine. Painful sex may be linked to women being post- or pre-menopausal, or it may be connected to some other internal problem.

In post-menopausal women, vaginal dryness often causes painful or uncomfortable sexual intercourse. Vaginal lubricants, long-acting vaginal moisturizers or vaginal estrogen can alleviate this problem. Among pre-menopausal women, vaginitis (any infection or inflammation of the vagina) and other vaginal infections, such as bacterial vaginosis, yeast infection, trichomoniasis and chlamydia, can cause painful sex.

But if you feel pain beyond the vagina, other internal reproductive conditions could be the culprit. For example, if you’re pre-menopausal and the pain is higher up in the pelvis—particularly if it occurs with a partner’s deeper thrusting—then pelvic inflammatory disease, endometriosis or fibroids may be the cause.

Women with endometriosis (a painful condition that occurs when uterine tissue grows outside of the uterus on other organs or structures in the body) can have problematic scar tissue removed, or they can use hormonal contraceptive therapy. But those with 15 Number of women who experience genital pain before, during or after sex. Source: Mayo Clinic pelvic inflammatory disease require antibiotic therapy. If you’re experiencing painful sex, consult your gynecologist. After all, for sex to be healthy, it’s about pleasure, not pain. —Willette Francis

Ask the Sexpert

Sexologist Rachael L. Ross, MD, PhD, a.k.a. Dr. Rachael answers your questions.

I am 35, and my partner wants to have sex all the time. For some reason, I never have the same desire. Is this normal, or is something wrong with me?

Some will argue that sex is a basic human need, while others will tell you that they can do without it. An estimated 40 percent of women and 35 percent of men report a loss of sex drive at some moment in their lives.

Whether you are a man or a woman, your desire to have sex varies depending on what is going on in your life. Most people assume that a lost libido is related to hormones or an illness of some sort. However, sexual activity begins in the brain with attraction and arousal, and it is completed through a complex interplay of touch, thoughts, emotions, hormones and timing. If any one of these things is blocked or lacking, it will zap your desire to have sex.

In order to jump-start your libido, make a conscious decision to have sex regardless of what is going on in your life. After that first deep kiss or sensual touch, desire will kick in and sex can be explosive whether you initially wanted it or not.