When Sex Means Pain: The Vaginal Condition That Wreaks Havoc On Mental Health
Huffington Post | Vaginismus is a psychosexual condition in which anxiety and trauma are often both the cause and the effect.
Sometimes when she is sexually aroused, Nidhi thinks about making love with her husband of three years. Yet, she cannot. To this 33-year-old HR executive, sex means pain — so much so that she has never been able to have intercourse with her partner. He is empathetic and had known of her discomfort with any sort of penetration from the time they were dating, but Nidhi feels insecure about her marriage. She is wracked with guilt over ‘depriving’ her husband of penetrative sex, and it has taken a serious toll on her mental health and overall wellbeing. For her, the anxiety is often worse than the physical pain.
When Nidhi consulted a gynaecologist she was diagnosed with vaginismus — a painful condition caused by the involuntary spasming or contraction of the vaginal muscles at the time of penetration. Even gynaecological examinations were physically painful for Nidhi, as is the case with most women suffering from this condition.
According to clinical psychologist Ruchika Kanwal, pain due to vaginismus can range from mild to severe, and is often accompanied by emotional distress. “Vaginismus does not mean that a person cannot experience sexual arousal. But the idea of having penetrative sex often leads to panic attacks and anxiety symptoms leading to an extreme aversion to sex,” she said.
Despite the misery brought on by the condition, many Indian women hesitate to seek treatment for it or even discuss it with their intimate partners due to the social taboo on talking about sex.
We spoke to medical experts and therapists to understand more about vaginismus, how it affects a woman’s physical and mental wellbeing, and what the path to healing looks like.
