Ease Painful Intercourse After Menopause

Doctor Tanveer June 19, 2023

0 1 4 minutes read

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After you’ve formally made the transition into menopause, you might assume that your signs are behind you. And positive, scorching flashes and night time sweats can subside, however there’s one change which may linger for good: painful intercourse.

Throughout menopause, your physique loses estrogen, a hormone that helps maintain the vaginal tissues wholesome, says Mary Jane Minkin, MD, a medical professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences on the Yale College College of Medication, in New Haven, Connecticut. When your estrogen ranges decline, it’s also possible to expertise vaginal dryness, which may result in painful intercourse.

Vaginal dryness and soreness or burning throughout penetration “usually happen additional out from menopause,” says Dr. Minkin. “Whereas a girl might expertise scorching flashes that get higher, vaginal dryness tends to worsen over time.”

Left untreated, the issue can turn out to be so extreme that some girls quit intercourse solely as a result of it’s too dry and uncomfortable to be pleasurable. Compounding the confusion, “because it happens later, many ladies don’t affiliate this with menopause in any respect, they usually suppose dryness is inevitable with getting old,” says Minkin.

The excellent news is that there are lots of issues you are able to do to enhance vaginal lubrication, cut back ache, and make intercourse really feel good once more. Listed below are 5 choices to strive.

Table of Contents

1. Get a Vaginal Moisturizer

Polycarbophil gel, which is on the market over-the-counter, is an efficient first treatment, says Minkin. The product works primarily by including water to the tissues, she says, and since it’s utilized two or thrice per week, you don’t have to recollect to make use of it each time you’re intimate. The gel might be utilized with an applicator into the vagina.

You can even apply some vaginal moisturizers externally. The labia can turn out to be dry, too, explains Minkin, which may make intercourse uncomfortable.

2. Attempt a Lubricant Throughout Intercourse

Intimacy might be even higher should you mix polycarbophil gel with a lubricant throughout intercourse, says Minkin. There are many lubricants accessible in the marketplace, and discovering the best one can take some trial and error.

“I inform sufferers to not exit and purchase the large, financial system measurement bottle till you realize it’ll agree with you,” says Minkin. Many include fragrances, which may irritate particularly delicate vaginal and vulval tissues. Additionally, should you’re utilizing condoms to guard in opposition to sexually transmitted infections, bear in mind that an oil-based lubricant can degrade the latex; in that case, select a water-based or silicone lubricant.

3. Get Into Foreplay

A quickie may not be just right for you anymore. “The extra foreplay the higher, whether or not you’re pre- or postmenopausal,” says Minkin. “It will get the [vaginal] tissue revved up.”

Equally, it could additionally assist revamp your definition of intercourse. If intercourse is painful due to dryness, you may discover that oral intercourse (which, sure, continues to be intercourse) is extra pleasurable and means that you can be intimate along with your accomplice.

4. Attempt a Toy

One phrase: vibrator. “I’m a giant fan of recommending vibrators to my sufferers,” says Minkin. “Something that may enhance pelvic blood circulation will enhance moisture to the vagina.”

There are various kinds and features of vibrators in the marketplace, starting from base fashions with a couple of completely different intensities to these with a number of speeds, patterns, and additional options. Don’t know the place to start out? Attempt female-friendly on-line retailers like Babeland, Lelo, or Bellesa Boutique.

5. Ask About an Rx

For some girls, all it takes to alleviate dryness is an efficient vaginal moisturizer and a few life-style adjustments. Others may want a prescription. If that’s the case for you, speak to your physician about vaginal estrogen.

“Virtually everybody can use vaginal estrogen,” says Minkin. “It’s actually fairly protected.” Vaginal estrogens work by rising moisture to the tissue through vaginal suppositories, rings, or lotions, based mostly on private desire, she says.

A vaginal suppository with the hormone DHEA, which is transformed into estrogen and testosterone, could also be one other Rx possibility for you, she says. One research discovered that ladies utilizing DHEA suppositories reported an enchancment in vaginal dryness and ache throughout intercourse in contrast with those that used a placebo.

Lastly, ospemifene tablets are a once-daily nonhormonal prescription medicine that treats each vaginal dryness and painful intercourse on account of menopause by rising sure cells (and lowering others) within the vaginal tissue.

Understand that ache throughout intercourse can produce other causes past vaginal dryness, comparable to a vaginal an infection. It will also be a symptom of ovarian most cancers — as can bloating, pelvic or belly ache, and feeling the urge to urinate extra usually, notes the American Most cancers Society — or vulvodynia, a continual ache situation.

The underside line: Be up entrance along with your physician about your discomfort. A good intercourse life is one a part of being in good well being.

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