Vaginismus Symptoms

Vaginismus Symptoms

Vaginismus can affect women of any age and can be a temporary ailment or stick for a lifetime. However, it can be treated using simple exercises, some counseling and by using vagina dilators. They are used to make the vaginal muscles flexible enough for supporting penetration in the future.

Vaginismus can be caused due to emotional triggers such as troubled childhood, sexual abuse, and fear of sex, or due to other factors like urinary infection, surgery, childbirth, or menopause. Overall, vaginismus is not a life-threatening disease but a condition where women feel pain during vaginal penetration.

Symptoms of Vaginismus

The symptoms of vaginismus are fairly easy to identify and treat. When doctors suspect vaginismus in a patient, they perform a pelvic examination for confirmation and provide treatment accordingly. Following are some commonly identified symptoms of vaginismus:

  • Involuntary spasms: Women experience involuntary tightening of vaginal muscles when their partners try to penetrate during sexual intercourse. This may affect their sexual life as patients are not able to enjoy sex. Sometimes, they may also have dyspareunia if the pain during intercourse is intolerable. Medical assistance is required for such patients.
  • Stinging sensation: Sometimes, women experience burning, tearing or stinging sensation in the vagina either during sexual intercourse or when they attempt to insert objects such as tampons into the vagina.
  • Pain during gynecological exams: Women experiencing extreme pain while taking gynecologicalexamination like per vaginal examination, insertion of speculum.
  • Breathing issues: When a woman is unable to breathe properly during intercourse, or experiences halted breathing, she may be suffering from vaginismus and requires immediate medical care.
  • Spasms in the lower body: When women have muscle spasms in the lower part of the body such as lower back, legs, etc., while having intercourse, the doctors might blame it on vaginismus.  
  • Unconsummated marriage: For the fear of sex and the associated pain during sexual intercourse, women avoid consummating their marriage and do not have sex with their partners.
  • Male partner feels like "hitting a wall": During sexual intercourse, the vaginal spasms are so bad that the male partner is unable to penetrate and feels like "hitting a wall" when attempting to do so. This leaves the male partner sexually dissatisfied.

Vaginal muscles should be as flexible as other muscles of the body. Since many women are brought up in a sex-negative environment, they develop a fear of sexual intercourse. Also, not many women are accustomed to using tampons and menstrual cups during menses. Thus, the muscles around the vagina tighten and pain when suddenly an object tries to enter the vaginal canal.