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Sometimes sex hurts and it really shouldn’t. So there are occasions where sex hurts that you can work your way through, and it just hurts a little bit and you have a work around for that, but if sex hurts and it’s not something that goes away very quickly and very easily, then you absolutely need to see your healthcare provider about that. What are some other reasons that sex would hurt? Well, one of the most important reasons would be something called vaginal atrophy or where there is a lack of estrogen in the vagina, and that’s usually related to perimenopause or menopause and a drop in hormone levels. And it usually comes on sometime around life or a little bit beyond 50. And it usually feels like a burning or a dryness or even a sandpaper feeling in the vagina. And it can also be related to bladder or vulvar concerns.
So dryness in the skin or irritation in the vulvar skin on the outside, or also pain in the bladder, like having to go pee more often or burning when you pee or even recurrent bladder infections. And so vaginal atrophy is now called genital urinary syndrome of menopause, G U S M, which is just a mouthful, but it basically allows us to understand that the changes in the vulva and vaginal area are also rippled into the changes in the bladder, the urethra and the external skin as well. And so genital urinary syndrome of menopause is a wider umbrella term. That is the result of a reduction in estrogen. In those normally estrogen rich tissues of the bladder vulvar area and vaginal area.
