Pain

Pain can sometimes be an unfortunate part of having reproductive organs, like a uterus, vulva or testes, part of sex, part of sexual development, a by-product of trauma, or part of our bodies as a whole. Here’s a range of information and help for when you or someone else is hurting.

Articles and Advice in this area:

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

I want to first make some short, essential statements. What I’d like you to do is read each of them, maybe more than once, and just sit with them. Try and really absorb them. Understand that when it comes to what those of us who work in these fields know about healthy relationships and healthy…

Advice
  • Stephanie

One of the first things you generally want to think about in terms of any problems during or after sex such as you’re having with irritation, is when was the last time you were in to see your gynecologist? I can see from your question that you’ve been to a doctor about the UTIs, and that’s good. But…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

If what you are having is, in fact, an allergic reaction, then you can treat it like any other allergy. You can take a general allergy medication, like a Benadryl tablet. In terms of your genital symptoms and soothing them fast, I’d suggest a cool, bubble-less bath. You might try adding oatmeal to…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Delilah: what you’re describing is most likely a completely normal physiological response to being sexually aroused. Part of female sexual arousal, much like erection for men, is swelling of the genital tissues due to blood pooling in the pelvis: the clitoris (both externally as well as internally)…

Advice
  • Stephanie

One of the biggest problems with all of the information out there about sex is that there are quite a lot of myths surrounding the subject, and it’s very difficult to know what’s safe to believe and what isn’t. First, it is not bad for someone to abstain from having sex of any type for a while or…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

While it’s common for women – especially young women – to feel pain or discomfort with sex, it’s not “normal” in that it has to happen or there isn’t an alternative. Sex is not supposed to hurt: it’s supposed to feel very good. If you’re bleeding after sex every time, and it’s also not feeling…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

The most common reasons for what you are experiencing would be: • Beginning vaginal entry before you are really, truly, fully aroused. As in, aroused to the point where you are very nearly begging your partner to begin intercourse because you just can’t wait another minute for it. THAT is the point…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

Take a big breath. It’s all going to be okay, and there’s just no reason for you to be so scared. For starters, it’s totally normal for ejaculate to run out like that after intercourse where the partner with the penis ejaculates without a condom. That’s plain old gravity: when you’re laying down or…

Advice
  • Heather Corinna

So long as you know – not just by guessing, but via regular, complete reproductive health exams – that you’re in sound reproductive health, and so long as that abdominal pain is really only showing up after intercourse, the most likely culprit for that symptom would simply be that you’re not…

Advice
  • Sarah Riley

Have you seen your health care provider about this problem yet? If not, then that’s the very first place to go. You need to get checked out and make sure that everything physically is alright with you right now. You should also make sure that you tell your health care provider specifically that you…