Sexual intimacy is meant to be an enjoyable experience that draws you and your partner closer together. But when sex becomes painful, you may find yourself doing anything and everything just to avoid it. This fairly common problem — three in four women experience pain during sex at some point in their lives — can usually be resolved with the right approach. Dyspareunia, or frequent pain during intercourse, involves feeling pain at any point just before, during, or following sex.
This pain may affect part of your vagina, or you may feel it in your pelvic region, lower back, uterus, or bladder. Some women feel pain only during sexual penetration, while others feel discomfort even when using tampons. You may experience deep pain with each thrust, or your pain may slowly emerge following normal sex. Some women continue to feel throbbing or burning pain long after intercourse.
Pain during sex happens to women for many different reasons, including physical problems, gynecological conditions, and emotional issues. Emotions that inhibit arousal and interfere with lubrication can make intercourse painful, especially if those emotions make it difficult to relax.
Shyness, embarrassment, sexual anxiety, and a lack of body confidence are just a few causes of emotions that might get in the way of a normal physical response. Some women experience vaginal dryness and painful intercourse following childbirth, as their hormone levels slowly recover; breastfeeding mothers may experience similar symptoms for as long as they continue to nurse.
Receiving treatment for breast or ovarian cancer also can affect estrogen levels and lead to painful sex. Other possible causes of discomfort during intercourse include pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, nerve damage, perineum trauma, and vaginismus — or the involuntary tightening of vaginal muscles during sex. Finding the right solution for sex-related pain depends on its underlying cause.
